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《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

原文链接:https://forum.iask.ca/threads/104426/

angelonduty : 2007-04-06#1
第一部分:文本与导读

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angelonduty : 2007-04-06#2
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

文本

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angelonduty : 2007-04-06#3
VOA第4季度上-a001

Africa's Counterfeit Goods Face Lax Legislation
By Nico Colombant
Dakar
12 November 2006

Officials at the seminar said governments in developing countries used to think counterfeit goods were a problem for rich countries.
But now they say they realize with dangerous drugs being sold in street markets, the problems actually affect poor people even more. The problem can kill them.
Africans are also realizing counterfeiting can sap economic development.
Struggling musicians who depend on local markets are popular, but can barely scrape by a living when most of their music is sold outside legal channels.
These were some of the examples highlighted at a conference this week in Dakar.
Christophe Zimmerman who is in charge of the fight against counterfeiting and piracy at the Brussels-based World Customs Organization says African governments need to understand the severity of the problem.

"If we come to Africa and Africa is one of our main control priorities, but it is just for political awareness, first of all," said Zimmerman. "Second of all, [it is] to try to analyze, to understand what is happening there."
"When you go to the market, the open market, a lot of things are fake," continued Zimmerman. "We know that. Africa needs to have a regulation, a specific legislation about that and it is not the case."
The head of customs in Senegal Armand Naga says training of anti-counterfeit experts is also crucial.
He says experts need to differentiate between a real product and a fake one. He says they look very much alike and that often the fake one looks nicer than the real one. And he says stamping out the trade in counterfeit goods is probably easier at borders than anywhere else in Africa.
But Zimmerman says counterfeit businessmen are often way ahead of the law, whether at borders or inside countries, and that their regard for public safety is alarmingly non-existent.
"I saw a very strange thing [once]. I saw brakes made out of grass. And I promise you, you were not able to see that it was fake," he added. "But it was just grass. Can you imagine when you put brakes made in grass in your car?"
During the seminar, officials from Senegal's government announced that they would soon submit a law to establish an anti-counterfeiting brigade and increase regional cooperation.
Outspoken Senegalese rap artist Didier Awadi says he has heard it all before.
He says authorities are making no real effort. He says laws are too lenient if anyone is caught, and that the way they are written, only the petty criminals are caught, while the real bosses of the counterfeit underworld, he says, pay off bribes to continue in their ways.
What am I to do, he asks, if I see a young man selling a pirated tape of my music at a red light in traffic? Should I stop my car and beat him up? He says, if he takes the law into his own hands, he will be the one facing government persecution. If he tries to use the existing laws, he says, he will get only frustration.


¤注解¤:

1.counterfeit adj. 伪造的, 假冒的
2.differentiate v. 区别, 区分
3.alarmingly adj. 使人惊动的, 令人担忧的
4.lenient adj. 宽大的, 仁慈的, 慈悲为怀的
5.frustration n. 挫败, 挫折, 受挫

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angelonduty : 2007-04-06#4
VOA第4季度上-a002

Americans Commemorate Victims of 9/11 Attacks
By Barbara Schoetzau
New York
11 September 2006

Five years after the attacks, much of the focus of the commemorations was on New York where more than 2,700 people died when two hijacked airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center towers, shaking the United States' confidence and changing the New York skyline forever.

As at the previous commemorations at Ground Zero, family members read the names of the dead in a solemn ceremony against a sound track of somber and patriotic music.
Dozens of religious services and commemorative events took place around the city. At one, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that as New York rebuilds, children must be taught more about the attack than the devastation it wrought.

"We must also share with them the beautiful memories of the loved ones we lost and of the incredible examples of courage we witnessed on that day. And most of all we must share with them our hope for the future, their future. That is how we will truly honor the memory of each of the 2,749 people we lost."
President and Mrs. Bush paid their respects on Sunday, placing a simple wreath on one of the reflecting pools at Ground Zero. They spent part of Monday morning at a firehouse near the site before traveling to the field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where 40 people died after wresting control of hijacked plane. The Bushes then returned to Washington and placed a wreath at the Pentagon site where a fourth hijacked plane killed 184 people upon crashing.
Earlier in the day, Vice President Dick Cheney spoke during a memorial ceremony at the Pentagon.
"We have learned that oceans do not protect us, and threats that gather thousands of miles away can now find us here at home."
The events of 9/11 were commemorated from coast to coast, from religions services in metropolitan cathedrals to makeshift memorials in small towns.
In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called for a return to the unity Americans experienced after the attacks.
"Let us remember the tragedy but also let us remember the triumph of the American spirit. And let us return to the solidarity all Americans felt following those terrorist attacks."
The New York commemoration may have been the last one that will take place in the pit of Ground Zero as rebuilding for a new World Trade Center complex and a memorial is already under way. It is a sad prospect for Tania Garcia who lost her sister on 9/11.
"I know that the city needs to rebuild. I know that the city needs to keep up its status. I understand that people need to move on. But for me, I will never move on when it comes to this. This is somewhere where I will be for the rest of my life. This is a pain I will carry with me the rest of my life."
New York's international community also marked the day. At the United Nations, delegates observed a moment of silence. Secretary General Kofi Annan said "the attacks cut us to the core for they were an attack on humanity itself."
Britain remembered 67 of its own sons and daughters who died in the New York attack at a memorial garden in London. Americans and Russians joined together at a memorial service in Moscow.
In Helsinki, Finland, leaders attending the 38-nation Asia-Europe summit observed two minutes of silence, and a solemn military ceremony took place outside of NATO's headquarters. Bells tolled in Rome and in Germany, Pope Benedict celebrated a mass that included a prayer for world peace.
But the leaders of a number of nations, including US allies Germany and New Zealand, used the occasion to criticize the Bush Administration's war on terror as did newspaper editorials in Israel and Pakistan.
Barbara Schoetzau, VOA news, New York.


¤注解¤:

1.commemoration n. 纪念, 纪念会
2.solemn adj. 庄严的, 隆重的
3.devastation n. 毁坏
4.wreath n. 花圈
5.makeshift adj. 凑合的

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angelonduty : 2007-04-06#5
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

Britain's Tony Blair Opposes Saddam Death Penalty
By Sonja Pace
London
06 November 2006

Mr. Blair told reporters in London the verdict handed down against Saddam Hussein is a reminder of the "sheer terror" of that regime.
"The trial of Saddam gives us a chance to see again what the past in Iraq was - the brutality, the tyranny, the hundreds-of-thousands of people that he killed, the wars in which there were a million casualties."
Mr. Blair said he viewed it as a sign of optimism that Saddam was tried by an Iraqi court for crimes he committed against his own people.
But, in a very testy exchange with one reporter, Mr. Blair refused to support the Iraqi court's sentence. Questions on the issue persisted, and the prime minister later was more direct.
"We are against the death penalty - we're against the death penalty, whether it's Saddam or anybody else."
The verdict against Saddam has received mixed reactions. U.S. President Bush praised the trial as an important achievement for Iraq's young democracy.
The European Union, which opposes the death penalty, said the former Iraqi leader should not be executed. The human rights group, Amnesty International also opposes the death penalty and criticized the trial itself as not having been fair or impartial.
The death sentence for Saddam and two codefendants was handed down Sunday. Their sentences are subject to an automatic appeal.
Sonja Pace, VOA news, London.


¤注解¤:

1.verdict n. (陪审团的)裁决, 判决
2.tyranny n. 暴政, 苛政, 专治
3.penalty n. 处罚, 罚款
4.impartial adj. 公平的, 不偏不倚的
5.codefendant n. 共同被告

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angelonduty : 2007-04-06#6
VOA第4季度上-a004

Bush to Focus on Trade, Terrorism on Asia Trip
By Paula Wolfson
White House
13 November 2006


This will be the president's second trip to Singapore and Indonesia and his first visit to Vietnam.
White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley says Mr. Bush will have a full agenda.
"The trip to Asia will allow the president to advance the interests of the American people by both partnering with Asian nations to tackle challenges that face us, like terrorism and disease, and by ensuring that American workers and businesses are able to reap the benefits of one of the world's most economically vibrant regions."
Following a long flight and a refueling stop in Moscow, where he will meet briefly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Bush will arrive Thursday in Singapore. Hadley says while in Singapore, the president will deliver a speech designed to set the tone for his entire trip - highlighting the ways in which the United States and Asian countries can work together to face tough challenges.
"This is a story both of the United States working with Asia in addressing these issues regionally in Asia, but increasingly it is a story of the United States and Asian partners working together to address these issues on a global basis. He will lay out his vision for building a hopeful, peaceful set of societies in Asia that can meet these various challenges."
The White House national security adviser says in Vietnam, both at the APEC summit and in his official meetings with Vietnamese officials, Mr. Bush will talk about economic challenges and the dynamics of change. This visit comes just days after Vietnam learned it would be admitted to the World Trade Organization, and the president is expected to emphasize the need for greater economic reforms and trade liberalization.
Hadley says APEC leaders meeting on the sidelines of the summit are also likely to discuss regional security issues - most notably, North Korea's nuclear ambitions. And he leaves no doubt the president will bring up the terrorist threat.
"The president will seek to reaffirm the centrality of the freedom agenda in Asia, continue to encourage efforts in the war on terror, and communicate his vision for smart development based on the Millennium Challenge principles of good governance, investment in people, and economic freedom."
Security is expected to be tight during the president's trip, particularly in Indonesia. On Saturday, a bomb exploded at an American fast food restaurant in Jakarta, injuring one person. When asked about the incident, White House officials said only that the president was invited by the government of Indonesia and the visit would not be canceled.
Paula Wolfson, VOA news, the White House.


¤注解¤:

1.vibrant adj. 振动的,充满活力的,活跃的
2.liberalization n. 自由主义化, 使宽大
3.ambition n. 野心, 雄心
4.reaffirm t. 重申, 再肯定
5.centrality n. 中心, 中央

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angelonduty : 2007-04-06#7
VOA第4季度上-a005

Cluster Bomb Treaty Comes Into Force
By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
12 November 2006

Cluster bombs, landmines and other unexploded weapons remain in the ground decades after a conflict has ended. They continue to kill and maim civilians, indiscriminately, long after a conflict ends. They are also a continuing threat to farmers in former war zones, preventing many from cultivating their fields.
The treaty coming into force requires countries to clean up the unexploded bombs and landmines left over from previous wars. Most of these weapons are found in poor countries, such as Vietnam, Laos and Afghanistan, countries that can least afford the clean up.
Handicap International Victim Assistance Coordinator Katleen Maes says these weapons have been around for too long.
"The first cluster munitions were used in the Second World War. The first widespread use was in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in the '60s and '70s," she said. "These cluster munitions still cause damage. Nevertheless, in 2006, cluster munitions have been used in Israel, Lebanon and in Iraq."
A recent study by Handicap International, finds civilians account for 98 percent of those killed and maimed by cluster bombs. It reports there are about 100,000 victims of these weapons worldwide, a third of them children.
Interest in these weapons was renewed during the one-month war in Lebanon this summer. The United Nations estimates Israel dropped about four million sub-munitions on Lebanon. In turn, Hezbollah shot thousands of rockets containing cluster bombs into Israel.
The U.N. Children's Fund says cluster bombs continue to take a heavy toll on children in Lebanon. Spokesman, Michael Bociurkiw, says five of the 16 people killed by unexploded weapons since the August 14 truce were children.
"We have become very concerned about children's safety, especially now because it is the harvest season," said Bociurkiw. "Families are going to the fields to harvest their olives and their agricultural produce. So, it is a very real physical threat to children in Lebanon and also it is a huge threat to the economic well being of families."
The issue of cluster bombs is on the agenda of an international arms control review conference in Geneva. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has called for a freeze on the use of these weapons near populated areas.
In its study, Handicap International argues cluster bombs have no military value. The International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations are calling for a ban on their use. But, countries, such as the United States, Russia and China are opposed.
Handicap International says about four-billion cluster bombs are stockpiled in 33 producer countries. They include Russia, China, and the United States, which has a billion in stock.
Lisa Schlein, for VOA news, Geneva.


¤注解¤:

1.maim vt. 使残废, 使不能工作
2.indiscriminately adv. 不分皂白地, 不加选择地
3.munition n. 军需品
4.humanitarian n. 人道主义者

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angelonduty : 2007-04-06#8
VOA第4季度上-a006

College Freshmen Volunteer in their Communities
By Barry Unger
Washington, DC
13 September 2006


Things are not getting off to a good start for Virginia, a first-year student at American University, on this hot summer day.
She is one of 10 college students volunteering at Bancroft Elementary School in Washington. After the hose situation is resolved, the volunteers receive some instructions, and are ready to begin working.
They are volunteering here for three days as part of the Freshman Service Experience. More than 520 incoming freshmen at American University volunteered for the program. They perform community service throughout the Washington area, before they even begin taking classes.

Carolyn Phenicie is a sophomore at American University. She participated in the program last year and is a group leader at Bancroft Elementary this year.
"They have a lot of trouble with storm water runoff when it rains. So, we are trying to help them do [fix] that by digging, and putting gravel in some of their tree beds, and then we are going to help with one of the beds by the playground."

Community volunteer Iris Rothman helped set up the event at Bancroft. The students quickly won her over. "I think they are terrific. Just the fact that, when they found out they would be digging holes in the heat, they did not say, 'Oh my God, no.' I was impressed."
Bancroft Elementary is one of 44 sites participating in the program this year. Students also worked at multi-cultural centers, food banks and a variety of other places.
American University has been running the program for 15 years. Organizers say it provides students with a different type of education. Marcy Fink Campos is the director of A.U.'s Community Service Center.

"Incoming freshmen are going to be spending the next four years of their lives here. And, while their studies are a really important part of that, we want them to know they live in the capital city. They live in a place that has many different concerns, issues and needs like any other urban area. And the best way to learn about that is not in their books, but to go out in the community, and learn what the non-profit sector is doing, what the churches are doing, what is going on in the schools."
Back at Bancroft Elementary, the students are immersed in their work.

Freshman Caitlin Green says the value of community service is something she learned at home.
"I come from an upper-middle class family. But, they have always wanted to make sure I understood how lucky I was to be where I am. They always made a point of getting me involved [in the community], because they were themselves and still are."
But not all student volunteers have a choice. The eastern U.S. state of Maryland requires all high school students to engage in community service to graduate. School districts across the country have implemented similar requirements.
The American University students had a mixed reaction to the idea of mandatory community service.
"I know it is mandatory in a lot of schools and people like it. I do not think it is a bad idea. I think schools could do a lot more to promote volunteerism."

"I think a lot of people see it as an obligation, something they have to do, and not something they enjoy."
Julie Howard is the volunteer coordinator for Greater DC Cares, a volunteer center in the Washington area. She says the mandatory requirements have led to a rise in youth volunteerism.
"We have this whole group of people, who are emerging from high school, who really love volunteering, and have been doing it their entire lives. So, they continue through college. They continue after college. And it is just a great way for them to give back to the community."
After spending a day helping teachers organize their classrooms, the students at Bancroft are back outside working. Group leader Carolyn Phenicie is impressed with the freshman students.
"I am really, really proud of the kids. You have these girls that are not that big. They are hoisting around 80 pound bags of concrete, digging holes in trenches, and just getting dirty. I am proud of them."
Phenicie and several other students have professed an interest in continuing their community service at Bancroft Elementary during the school year.


¤注解¤:

1.instruction n. 指导
2.gravel n. 砂砾, 砂砾层
3.terrific adj. 令人恐怖的
4.volunteer n. 志愿者

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yangyang2005 : 2007-04-07#9
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

angel 速度真快 :wdb17:

yangyang2005 : 2007-04-08#10
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

美女斑竹,继续啊
我等着呢

yangyang2005 : 2007-04-08#11
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

先置顶再说
给angel点压力,哈哈

angelonduty : 2007-04-09#12
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

谢谢谢谢!
俺没急着上传是想留给大家一点时间消化吸收。

angelonduty : 2007-04-09#13
VOA第4季度上-a007

Congressional Sex Scandal Reverberates in Washington, Across US
By Dan Robinson
Washington
03 October 2006

The controversy over a former Republican congressman who resigned amid revelations he sent sexually suggestive messages to male pages continues to reverberate in Washington and across the United States. President Bush called for a full investigation, as Republicans in the House of Representatives try to limit political damage from the scandal.
With Republican leaders trying to conduct damage control, a new blow was delivered in the form of a call by a key conservative newspaper for House Speaker Dennis Hastert to resign.
A Washington Times editorial said Hastert was "either grossly negligent or deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away."

Hastert has denied knowing that messages from former Florida Congressman Mark Foley, who resigned last week, were sexually suggestive or explicit and his spokesman rejected calls that he step down.

Speaking in California, President Bush said he was dismayed, shocked and disgusted by Foley's "unacceptable behavior" and urged a thorough and aggressive investigation. "I fully support [House] Speaker Hastert's call for an investigation by law enforcement into this matter. This investigation should be thorough and any violations should be prosecuted."
The president went on to give a statement of support to House Speaker Hastert, saying he is sure the Republican lawmaker wants all the facts to come out.
The House Republican Majority Leader, Ohio Congressman John Boehner, reiterated the leadership's position that it had no knowledge of the sexually explicit nature of the Internet messages sent by Foley.

Had Speaker Hastert or anyone else known, Boehner said, they would have moved to expel Foley immediately and turn him over to authorities.
A Lousiana lawmaker, Representative Rodney Alexander, has said he first contacted House Republican leaders last year about Foley's activities.
And the head of the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, Congressman Tom Reynolds, said he alerted Speaker Hastert in 2005 that Foley's messages had caused "some discomfort" to a congressional page.
In a radio interview Tuesday, Hastert said he and others "confronted" Foley about his Internet e-mail contacts after receiving a complaint from the parents of a congressional page, and ordered him to stop.
As House Republicans attempt to limit further political damage five weeks before the November 7th congressional election, they face mounting calls for Speaker Hastert to step down.
Democrats cranked up the pressure, with House Democratic Leader, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, alleging that Republicans tried to cover up the Foley matter. "This is about everybody who had any knowledge of this member of Congress, doing something that is against the law and a Republican leadership, not just him [Speaker Hastert], protecting the political future of Foley at the expense of protecting children."
Additional twists emerged late Tuesday, in a Florida news conference by the former lawmaker's attorney, David Roth, who confirmed Foley is homosexual and suffered from sexual abuse as a teenager.
Noting that the former lawmaker entered a substance abuse and mental health facility, he said Foley accepts responsibility, but unequivocally states that he never had or attempted to have sexual contact with a minor.
Foley, the attorney added, does not blame what he called his totally inappropriate Internet messages on the fact that he was molested between the ages of 13 and 15 by a clergyman, but declined to identify the person or offer other details.
Asked why this information was being released now, Roth said it was part of Foley's efforts to recover from alcoholism and mental issues.
Former Congressman Foley's actions are the subject of an FBI. Investigation of his electronic communications with congressional pages, teenagers who perform routine jobs for members of Congress.
Dan Robinson, VOA news, Capital Hill.


¤注解¤:

1.reverberate [ v. 反响
2.conservative adj. 保守的, 守旧的
3.scandal n. 丑行, 丑闻
4.explicit adj. 外在的, 清楚的, 直率的
5.reiterate vt. 反复地说, 重申
6.page n. 男侍
7.homosexual adj. 同性恋的
8.inappropriate adj. 不适当的

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angelonduty : 2007-04-09#14
VOA第4季度上-a008

Finding Unity in Conflict
By Wajid Ali Syed
Washington, DC
26 September 2006

The images of conflict in the Middle East are almost a daily staple on newscasts around the world. For many who watch, it seems peace between the Israelis and Palestinians is unattainable, with every step forward followed by two steps back.
For the past 12 years, two professors -- an Israeli and a Palestinian -- have taught students at the University of Maryland about this conflict and the challenges in resolving it.

Israeli Edy Kaufman and Palestinian Manuel Hassassian were both born in Jerusalem. When they started teaching conflict resolution together in 1993, they agreed on little, from the syllabus to the words used in describing the conflict.
Hassassian says they both believed dialogue was the only way to find peace. "And from day one we tell them we are not here to score points as much as to convey to you -- first, the methodology, the knowledge, give you the facts, give you the different historic narratives, and then we let you draw your own conclusions in a way, one way or the other, you have to think in a joint manner where you think in terms of searching for common ground."
Still, there were tense moments that first year. And life for Hassassian outside the classroom was also difficult. He spent the first month living in a small dorm room with no entertainment and, as he describes it, lousy food. And then Edy Kaufman stepped in. "So he invited me to stay in their house with his wife Lisa where I stayed the last two weeks. And since then they took the decision that since I'm coming alone, and not all the time with my family, it would be a good idea, I mean, to share with them the same accommodation. And that is how we came to live with each other."
"We would love to have him with his entire family. And one summer we were so lucky to get also his wife Samira, and his two children. So our relationship now is a family-to-family relationship."
Kaufman says the two share many interests, including a love of classical music and soccer. Through the years, as their friendship has grown, so has the respect for each man's position on Middle East peace.
Kaufman believes this approach to teaching conflict resolution would be effective in areas where other ethnic-political conflicts rage. "Many other conflicts could benefit from what we have learned from all these years of teaching together about how to understand better, respect better, and look for common solutions towards the future."
Both teachers believe they are proof that people with different points of view can coexist. Hassassian and Kaufman say finding common ground like they have is the only hope for finding peace in the Middle East.

For producer Wajid Ali Syed, Jim Bertel VOA news.


¤注解¤:

1.staple n. 主要成分, 来源
2.syllabus n. 课程提纲
3.methodology n. 方法学, 方法论
4.narrative n. 叙述
5.lousy adj. 恶心的
6.accommodation n. 住处, 膳宿

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angelonduty : 2007-04-09#15
VOA第4季度上-a009

Gaming Industry Discounts Effect of Law Against On-Line Gambling

By Steve Mort
Las Vegas, Nevada
16 November 2006

In 2005, the Americans bet $8 million at Websites like this. But legislation passed by the U.S. Congress has made it harder to gamble online -- at least for now.

Industry leaders, like Frank Fahrenkopf from the American Gaming Association, doubt it will be enough to stop U.S. gamblers. "I think what's going to happen is, number one, they will continue to bet. They'll find other means to get their money to these offshore sites".
In Las Vegas, the home of American gambling, there's a different view of the 'Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act' from the one in Washington.
While lawmakers aim to curb online gaming, Vegas is skeptical. Casino operators believe demand will force Congress to permit online gambling -- under strict government supervision.

Rob Stillwell, from Boyd Gaming, predicts American companies will eventually be allowed to enter the market. "I think what it comes down to is a matter of licensing and a matter of regulation. So to the extent that we can create the mechanism by which to fairly regulate this business then I could see the more traditional, commercial gaming companies getting involved".
As U.S. officials work toward a June 2007 deadline to find ways to enforce the new rules - other countries are easing restrictions. The U.K. is looking to regulate rather than restrict online gaming, bolstering the hopes of Internet gambling businesses. Britain has warned that the U.S. legislation could drive the industry underground.


"Money always has a way of finding its way to where it wants to go, so that's why I'm hopeful that the legislators, even those legislators who are opposed to all forms of gambling, will realize, number one, they're not going to stop it. Prohibition has never worked in this country. It's better to regulate it. It's better to control it, it's better to tax it".
The casino industry, fearing competition, has not always supported online gambling but now it sees the Internet as a way to attract new gamblers.
Rob Stillwell hopes lawmakers reverse course and permit U.S. companies to get a slice of the action. "I think what the government may come to realize is that people are gambling on the Internet anyway. And just because there's this legislation that maybe prevents U.S.-born companies from profiting from that type of activity, it's already happening".
For now the U.S. government is pressing ahead -- first it must find out how to distinguish Internet gambling payments from other transactions in order to block them. But the American Gaming Association estimates $5 billion is still being bet online by U.S. residents -- a number it believes is unlikely to go down, whatever action Congress decides to take next.
Steve Mort, for VOA news, Las Vegas.


¤注解¤:

1.enforcement n. 执行, 强制
2.curb v. 抑制
3.supervision n. 监督, 管理
4.regulate vt. 管制, 控制
5.distinguish v. 区别, 辨别

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angelonduty : 2007-04-09#16
VOA第4季度上-a010

Health Authorities Warn Americans Not to Eat Contaminated Spinach
By Carol Pearson
Washington, DC
20 September 2006


U.S. health officials normally tell Americans to eat more leafy green vegetables. Now, they are being warned to stay away from fresh spinach. The reason: at least some spinach grown in California and shipped around the country has been tainted with a particularly virulent strain of E.coli bacteria.


Gwyn Wellborn spent 13 days in the hospital after eating a spinach salad. "I was scared. They weren't sure if I'd make it another couple hours or another day."
Wellborn is 27 years old, but an elderly woman in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin died from E.coli. Wisconsin Health Commissioner Bevan Baker said, "The elderly and the very young are those we are concerned about."

That's because this particular strain, E.coli O157:H7, is particularly virulent. It can cause bloody diarrhea, severe abdominal cramps and hemolytic uremic syndrome. That's a disease that causes kidney failure. In young children, most cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome are caused by this particular strain of E. coli. And those infected can pass it on to others.
Dr. Roger Clemens from the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy says, "Most organisms such as E.coli you have to consume large quantities to make you sick, what sets this apart is you only have to consume small quantities to make you sick."

E.coli is found in the intestines of healthy animals. Caroline Smith DeWaal with the Center for Science in the Public Interest explains. "The bacteria lives in the guts of cows and other bovine and it would get on to the fresh spinach through manure, through contaminated irrigation water."
And it could have contaminated the spinach through other means. Dr. Robert Brackett and others at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are trying to pinpoint where the contamination started.

"It could be contaminated water, it could be wildlife, it could be the workers. When you get to the plant it could again be workers in the plant."
The spinach is chopped and washed and mixed together, then shipped throughout the United States. Health officials are telling Americans, for the time being, not to eat raw spinach and to practice good hygiene with plenty of handwashing.
Carol Pearson, VOA news.


¤注解¤:

1.spinach n. 菠菜
2.virulent adj. 剧毒的, 致命的
3.abdominal adj. 腹部的
4.intestine adj. 内部的, 国内的
5.contaminated adj. 污染的

附件


yangyang2005 : 2007-04-09#17
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

下载至LESSON10,做个记号

yangyang2005 : 2007-04-09#18
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

angel,你听这些VOA材料需不需要看文本啊

angelonduty : 2007-04-09#19
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

不看! 我一直在线收听美国之音,一点问题都没有.最多个别的词组听清楚了,但意思掌握不十分透彻,那样我会立即把听到的记下来,回头查词典. BBC广播速度略快,我现在在听BBC. 上传的这些东西是我买回来拷贝到工作电脑中的,因为上班不能在线收听.
昨天查看一个美国医疗网站,里面提供医疗服务热线电话的SKYPE链接,我试着拨了号码,通了.我在那上面查询了多医疗方面的信息,没一个词听不明白的.

angelonduty : 2007-04-09#20
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

我对自己的听力真的很有信心

yangyang2005 : 2007-04-09#21
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

不看! 我一直在线收听美国之音,一点问题都没有.最多个别的词组听清楚了,但意思掌握不十分透彻,那样我会立即把听到的记下来,回头查词典. BBC广播速度略快,我现在在听BBC. 上传的这些东西是我买回来拷贝到工作电脑中的,因为上班不能在线收听.
昨天查看一个美国医疗网站,里面提供医疗服务热线电话的SKYPE链接,我试着拨了号码,通了.我在那上面查询了多医疗方面的信息,没一个词听不明白的.

我对自己的听力真的很有信心

:wdb17: :wdb17: :wdb17:
我是一边看文本一边听的 :wdb4:

angelonduty : 2007-04-09#22
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

老大!俺可是自己把中级听力和高级听力硬攻下来的,正确率85%以上.现在听鸭思听力就跟小孩过家家一样,好玩.

yangyang2005 : 2007-04-09#23
佩服佩服

老大!俺可是自己把中级听力和高级听力硬攻下来的,正确率85%以上.现在听鸭思听力就跟小孩过家家一样,好玩.

:wdb26: 真的对你佩服得五体投地啊

angelonduty : 2007-04-09#24
回复: 佩服佩服

:wdb26: 真的对你佩服得五体投地啊
俺听力确实比灌水能力强多了,不是吹的.但阅读不知道怎么搞的,脑子就是不够用.

yangyang2005 : 2007-04-10#25
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

哈哈

yazuilong : 2007-04-10#26
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

全部下载了,谢谢版主。以前用迅雷,很快就下载完毕,现在不知为什么用迅雷不能下了,下得好慢!

山羊鹤 : 2007-04-10#27
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

谢谢!都下载了

angelonduty : 2007-04-10#28
VOA第4季度上-a011

Janet Jackson Celebrates 20 Years
By Sophie Kanter and Larry London
Washington, DC
15 September 2006


Janet Jackson is celebrating a music career that spans more than 20 years, from her album "Control" in 1986 to her upcoming release, "20 Years Old."
It's music that inspired me 20, 25 years ago. And there are some sounds that we've taken, and even the same actual keyboards that we used on the "Control" album, and put those sounds into certain songs on this project. It's not like an 80s album, but it has its moments of taking you back.

She is very grateful to her international fans. "The acceptance has been wonderful. And I love to travel, I love visiting different countries and learning about other cultures and people. That's fun for me."
Jackson thinks there is something especially moving about doing concerts in other countries.
"I can't express honestly how it makes me feel. There are moments when it's made me want to cry, because they don't speak the language, and yet they know every word to the songs. And that just shows you the love, it shows me the love that they have for the artist, for the music, for me."

Jackson says she will keep making music as long as her fans keep supporting her.
"I've been in this for more than 20 years, and to still be able to create music and for people to still anticipate your work, I think there's a lot to be said about that. For them to still want to hear what you're up to, what you're about to give to the world, that means a lot to me.”
Jackson says the happiness of her fans is very important. "I wanted to bring them joy, the way I've always wanted my music to bring them joy. That's what's important to me, that's what's been given to me by other artists, and listening to their music. To put a smile on their face."
"It really means a lot to me, and it's important to me because this is what I always sought for in my life and finally reached it, and that's happiness. I want to be remembered for making people smile, for bringing happiness into their homes."


¤注解¤:

1.span .v. 横越
2.upcoming . adj. 即将来临的
3.acceptance .n. 接受, 赞同
4.anticipate . vt. 预期, 期望

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-10#29
VOA第4季度上-a012

Madonna Trip to Malawi Highlights Cross-Cultural Adoptions Debate
By Scott Bobb
Johannesburg
13 October 2006

Child welfare advocates say the visit to Africa by singer-actress Madonna has helped focus attention on the millions of children in the developing world who have been orphaned by poverty, conflict and AIDS.
But they are concerned that adoptions by famous couples may draw attention away from what many feel are better solutions to the problem.
The Malawian government gave tentative approval for Madonna to adopt a one-year-old Malawian child, whose mother died after childbirth.
A childrens' rights specialist with the Plan Malawi group, Martin Nkuna, expresses a feeling common among child advocates that a child grows best within the environment of his or her own family.
"Look at the psychological effect of taking a child out of his or her cultural environment. Just taking the child to another culture would raise a number of issues in the development of the child."
Jackie Schoeman is executive director of Cotlands, a South African group that works with orphans whose parents have died of AIDS. She says there has been little long-term research on international or cross-cultural adoption.
"Coming with adoption there are a lot of emotional issues as the children grow older. And we are not really sure yet would they have preferred to have remained within their own culture with the possibility of locating with extended family members."
Statistics on international adoption are not complete but U.S. State Department figures show that international adoptions by Americans tripled during the 1990s, reaching nearly 20,000 in 2001. Most of the adopted children then came from Eastern Europe and Asia, but they are coming increasingly from African countries.
An international convention on international adoption came into force 13 years ago aimed at protecting the rights of adopted children and preventing child trafficking. More than 60 countries have signed it.
The convention sets standards and procedures for international adoptions, but critics say it also creates expensive and time consuming bureaucratic hurdles.
Schoeman notes that most would-be parents want to adopt a small baby and as a result, it is difficult to place children older than one year.
"If a child can't find a family and either are [is] going to remain in a child-headed household or in some kind of institution, then I think the possible problems of cross-cultural adoption can be more easily overcome than the problems of long-term institutionalization."

War and the AIDS virus have multiplied the millions of orphans in Africa and some parts of the developing world.
The communities and extended families that traditionally took care of their orphans have been overwhelmed by the numbers or they have been unwilling to care for them because of the stigma attached to AIDS.
However, the representative of the Hope for African Children Initiative, Bill Philbrick of CARE-USA, says the root cause of the crisis is poverty and declining social services.
"What I think the debate should be about is looking at what can we do to strengthen the capacity of communities to keep the children in the communities, to enable the communities and the families themselves to take care of the children."
Advocates acknowledge that children adopted by a wealthy families will have many advantages, including the resources to return to their origins and know their surviving family members if they want to.
Nevertheless, Philbrick urges celebrities seeking to adopt internationally to avoid drawing attention away from what he says is the best solution.
"I would encourage any celebrities to be responsible that when they do go over there that they take great pains to look at the underlining reasons and draw attention on [to] the reasons why children are in a situation in which they are vulnerable. And then let’s look at addressing those causes."
Madonna has reportedly pledged $3 million to help children, many of whom are infected with HIV/AIDS, through her Raising Malawi charity. Other celebrities have founded schools and orphanages.
Nevertheless, child activists say the amount of aid is far outpaced by the growing number of children without parents and by communities that are unable to care for them.
Scott Bobb, VOA news, Johannesburg.


¤注解¤:

1.advocate n. 提倡者, 鼓吹者
2.tentative adj. 试验性的, 暂定的
3.procedure n. 程序, 手续
4.bureaucratic adj. 官僚政治的
5.celebrity n. 名声, 名人
6.vulnerable adj. 易受攻击的, 易受...的攻击
7.orphanage n. 孤儿院

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-10#30
VOA第4季度上-a013

President Bush Promotes Global Literacy Program
By Michael Bowman
Washington
18 September 2006


President Bush’s schedule over the next two days includes an address before the United Nation's General Assembly as well as meetings with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and several other heads of government.
But Mr. Bush kicked off his trip to New York by accompanying First Lady Laura Bush to the White House Conference on Global Literacy. The president said no nation that has high illiteracy rates can attain prosperity. "In order to be an informed consumer, you have to read. In order to be able to take advantage of jobs that may come to your country as a result of expanding economic opportunity, you have got to read. In order to be a productive worker, you need to be able to read the manual. And so part of the practical application of this initiative is to encourage prosperity by enhancing people's capacity to read."
Also at the conference were officials from the U.S. Departments of State and Education, as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The agencies will be joining forces with their counterparts from nations around the world, as well as the United Nation's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), to hold a series of regional conferences to discuss effective means of promoting literacy.
Introducing the president, Mrs. Bush urged all governments to boost literacy rates. Mr. Bush said the ability to read is a prerequisite for establishing and sustaining free nations. "It is very hard to have free societies if the citizens cannot read. Think about that. You cannot realize the blessings of liberty if you cannot read a ballot. Or if you cannot read what others are saying about the future of your country."
White House officials say promoting liberty will be a central theme of Mr. Bush's trip to New York. President Bush said the United States will continue to advocate freedom for the people of the world, but will not impose its version of freedom on any nation.
Michael Bowman, VOA news, Washington.


¤注解¤:

1.literacy n. 有文化,有教养,有读写能力
2.prosperity n. 繁荣
3.productive adj. 生产性的, 多产的
4.prerequisite n. 先决条件
5.liberty n. 自由
6.advocate vt. 提倡, 鼓吹

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-10#31
VOA第4季度上-a014

Rice Backs EU Nuclear Talks With Iran
By David Gollust
Washington
27 September 2006


European diplomats have framed the Solana-Larijani dialogue as a final opportunity for Iran to return to negotiations over its nuclear program and stave off sanctions.
Secretary Rice is making clear U.S. support for the initiative, while signaling also that the Bush administration's patience with the negotiating process has limits.
Rice told reporters at the start of a meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis that she had talked to Solana earlier in the day before his talks with Larijani.
With cameras snapping at the photo opportunity, Rice said she wished Solana well but also suggested the nuclear talks with Iran are at a decision point and cannot go on very much longer: "Obviously if we can come out of this with an Iranian decision to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities completely and verifiably, then we would be on a course of negotiations and that's the course that we would all like to pursue. But of course the logic of Resolution 1696 is that the Security Council has also set up a route, a pathway toward action under Article 41, Chapter Seven (of the U.N. Charter)."
The resolution cited by Rice, approved in late July, gave Iran until August 31st to suspend uranium enrichment and return to negotiations over its nuclear program or face U.N. sanctions.
Rice and her counterparts from the other permanent U.N. Security Council member countries agreed in New York last week to push back the effective deadline until the first week in October to give the negotiating process more time.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has continued to insist that Tehran will not give up what he says is its right to enrich uranium. But a senior U.S. official told reporters here the Iranian leadership is not monolithic and that Larijani appeared to be sincere in the talks with Solana.
Earlier, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said there could be an opening for a positive answer from the Iranians if they are given, in his words "a little time and space."
Iran has been offered incentives by the major powers to halt uranium enrichment and other sensitive nuclear activities believed weapons-related, and return to negotiations.
U.S. officials envisage increasingly severe sanctions against Tehran beginning with curbs on technology imports, if it continues to defy the U.N. resolution.
However, some Security Council members, notably Russia and China, have resisted an early move to sanctions.
Wednesday's Solana-Larijani meeting lasted five hours and was described by an E.U. spokeswoman as very intense. They are to continue the discussion in the German capital Thursday morning.
David Gollust, VOA news, the states department.


¤注解¤:

1.stave vt. 避开
2.suspend v. 延缓
3.monolithic adj. 完整的,统一的
4.envisage v. 正视

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-10#32
VOA第4季度上-a015

Stock Market Climbs to New High
By Mil Arcega
Washington, DC
05 October 2006
Tuesday's record setting pace came on the second straight day of sharply lower oil prices.

Alec Young is an Equity Market Strategist at the investment-rating firm Standard & Poor's. "After peaking in July at $70 a barrel, West Texas intermediate crude oil is currently trading at $59 a barrel -- down about 25 percent. And we think one of the big drivers of that is an anticipation of slower growth, not only in the U.S., but globally."
And that's helping to ease inflation concerns among investors. It's also putting more cash back into consumer's pockets.
"It's actually going to help with my holiday spending and I'm starting to think about the holiday spending."

Overall, Young says the economic picture looks favorable. "We have a more benign inflation outlook, the Federal Reserve is widely expected to be done raising rates now and people are looking ahead to possible easing of interest rates, so that tends to be better for the economy, help the economy continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace."
It has taken more than six years for the Dow Industrial index to make it back into record territory.

Hugh Johnson, the chief investment officer at Johnson Illington Advisors says that's how long it's taken to absorb the shocks of September 11th, the war in Iraq, the collapse of the dotcom bubble and a string of corporate scandals that drove many investors away. "Once you kill of confidence, it takes a long time to rebuild confidence."
Johnson says earlier fears that high energy prices and rising interest rates might push the economy into recession have given way to optimism that the current economic slowdown will be mild. "No hard landing or recession. That's what the Federal Reserve wants, that's what investors want. And I think that's as much reason as any that the market is going higher and we're setting this new high."
Although the gains provide a psychological boost, analysts say the index of major stocks is a narrow gauge of the stock market. Some investors warn that it is still unclear which direction the U.S. economy is headed.
Mil Arcega, VOA news.


¤注解¤:

1.intermediate adj. 中间的
2.anticipation n. 预期, 预料
3.albeit conj. 虽然
4.territory n. 领土, 版图, 地域
5.gauge n. 标准尺, 规格

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-10#33
VOA第4季度上-a016

UN Official Praises Asia's Bird Flu Efforts
By Ron Corben
Bangkok
20 October 2006

United Nations officials say Asia needs to increasingly focus on medium- to longer-term efforts to control the spread of avian flu virus now embedded in the region's poultry.
David Nabarro, the senior U.N. coordinator for avian and human influenza, says, overall, Asia has registered significant progress in the past year in preparing to stem the spread of avian flu.
Nabarro, and other U.N. officials, say Indonesia remains the key country of concern, and is in need of greater international assistance.
"Indonesia, there's a lot more to do. The challenge of improving animal health services, and also scaling up human health capacity, continues to be substantial in that country."

Indonesia has recorded the highest number of human fatalities from bird flu - at least 55 deaths. Worldwide, the H5N1 virus has killed more than 150 people in nine countries since 2003.
Hiroyuki Konuma, deputy regional director for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), says the disease is firmly established in Indonesia.
"The virus is widely spreading at the moment, and, according to the source of information from the FAO, out of 33 provinces, the majority of provinces have avian influenza problems."
Indonesia has been criticized for resisting mass culling of infected poultry. On Friday, officials there announced plans to ban city residents from keeping free-roaming backyard poultry, in a bid to prevent the virus spreading to people. But they did not say when the measure would come into effect.
Indonesia also says it has been improving bird flu education and awareness programs.
The U.N.'s Nabarro warned Friday that a bird flu epidemic among humans could begin anywhere, not just in countries like Indonesia that showed higher concentrations of the virus.
Nabarro is on his fourth visit to the region to review bird flu preparedness. He praised Vietnam and Cambodia for their avian flu preparations, and singled out Burma, also known as Myanmar, for its open and cooperative approach on avian flu issues.
"There has been total openness in communicating with the officials of the U.N. system on issues to do with avian influenza, and we are very satisfied with the way in which the Myanmar authorities responded."
A key concern now for countries in the region is the approaching winter. The number of flu cases typically increases during the cold season, from November to February.
So far, most bird flu cases in people have been caused through contact with infected poultry, but scientists are concerned the virus could mutate into a form more easily spread among humans, possibly causing a pandemic.
Ron Corben, for VOA news, Bangkok.

¤注解¤:

1.avian adj. 鸟类的
2.assistance n. 协助, 援助
3.substantial adj. 坚固的, 实质的, 真实的
4.fatality n. 不幸, 灾祸
5.influenza n. 流行性感冒
6.pandemic adj. 全国流行的

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-10#34
VOA第4季度上-a017

UN Reports Highest Ever Levels of Opium Production in Afghanistan
By Benjamin Sand
Islamabad
02 September 2006

The report, released Saturday by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, says poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has increased nearly 60 percent in the past year.
Saturday, the U.N. drug agency chief, Antonio Maria Costa, told reporters in Kabul that the explosive growth in opium production is a major challenge to Afghanistan's long-term stability.

"This news is very bad. We face a state of emergency. Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has increased by almost 60 percent in 2006 to an all time high of 165 hectares. That is a crop of staggering amounts, 6,100 metric tons."
He says the sharpest rise has occurred in Afghanistan's southern provinces, where the Taleban-led insurgency has destabilized the entire region.
In Helmand Province, part of the Taleban's traditional stronghold, the cultivation of opium poppies has risen more than 160 percent since 2005.
The U.N. report says Afghanistan now produces more than 90 percent of the world's illegal opium supply.
The U.N. says the illicit drug trade nets roughly $2.7 billion a year, about one-third of Afghanistan's gross domestic product.
The U.N.'s Antonio Costa says much of the profits are helping fund insurgent activity in the south, and fueling widespread political corruption throughout the country.
He urged the government to crack down on corruption, and go after the leading drug lords as soon as possible.
"We insist on arresting and bringing to justice the 100 most serious drug traffickers and opium farmers. We propose to seize their assets and redistribute them to the people."
The U.N. report marks a significant setback for international efforts to combat Afghanistan's drug trade.
Western countries, including the United States, have contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to help train Afghan police and provide alternative resources for local farmers growing poppies.
Doug Wankel, director of the U.S. drugs control office in Afghanistan warned the country is slowly but surely spinning out of control.
Wankel told reports in the capital Saturday that, unless Afghanistan curbs the drug trade, the country risks slipping from, in his words, a narco-economy to narco-state. And in that case, he said, the country's young democracy could collapse.
Benjamin Sand, VOA news, Islamabad.

¤注解¤:

1.poppy n. [植]罂粟
2.explosive adj. 爆炸(性)的, 爆发(性)的
3.staggering adj. 另人惊愕的
4.insurgency n. 叛乱, 叛乱状态
5.illicit adj. 违法的
6.redistribute vt. 重新分配
7.curb vt. 抑制

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-10#35
VOA第4季度上-a018

US Urges Security Council to Sanction Iran
By Meredith Buel
Washington
02 November 2006


Consultations are under way at the U.N. Security Council on a draft sanctions resolution proposed by Britain, France and Germany.
The United States and the European powers favor action to punish Tehran for failing to comply with the Council's demand to halt uranium enrichment.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is urging Council members to impose sanctions immediately.

"The United Nations Security Council is now working on an Iran sanctions resolution. For the international community to be credible, it must pass a resolution now that holds Iran accountable for its defiance."
Some Middle East analysts say Iran is not likely to halt its nuclear program, even if sanctions are imposed.
Kenneth Pollack, a specialist on Iran with the Washington-based Brookings Institution, spoke recently at an event sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations.
"Even the word suspension is an anathema in Tehran and it does seem very unlikely that we are going to get an Iranian agreement to suspend. I think that is very unlikely at any point in the near future for the Iranians."
Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, has just published a book called Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic.
Takeyh says the Iranian government, which has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is using a civilian construction program to develop nuclear weapons.
"I think there are certain determinations that have been made by the regime. Namely that the country will proceed with its nuclear program up to the uppermost limits of what the NPT can allow, which is essentially creating a very elaborate nuclear infrastructure that can give them a weapons capability when and if they should want to move to that capability."
Reports from Iran say the country has recently doubled its capacity to enrich uranium.

That prompted President Bush to call for increased international pressure on Tehran.
"Whether they've doubled it or not, the idea of Iran having a nuclear weapon is unacceptable. It is unacceptable to the United States and it is unacceptable to the nations we are working with at the United Nations to send a common message."
Iran says its uranium enrichment is for peaceful purposes, to provide fuel for nuclear power. The United States alleges Iran is using the technology to create a weapons program.
Middle East analyst Kenneth Pollack says some officials within the Bush administration are pushing for the use of military force against Iran if it does not comply with U.N. demands to stop enriching uranium.
Pollack says, however, key U.S. leaders believe diplomacy is the best alternative.
"There certainly are people who are pushing for a more aggressive policy, for a policy of regime change, for a policy of military strikes. But they do not seem to be gaining a whole lot of traction because the principals do seem to understand that as difficult as the diplomatic track is to pull off, it actually is the least bad option."
Pollack says the diplomatic option offers some positives for the United States, even if it does not convince the Iranians to give up their nuclear program.
He says using diplomacy does preserve some American influence and enjoys the support of many U.S. allies.
It is not yet clear when or if the permanent members of the Security Council will agree on a resolution imposing sanctions on Iran, although U.S. diplomats have expressed optimism such a document will be approved.
Meredith Buel, VOA news, Washington.

¤注解¤:

1.comply vi. 顺从, 答应, 遵守
2.credible adj. 可信的, 可靠的
3.accountable adj. 应负责的, 有责任的
4.sponsor vt. 发起, 主办
5.anathema n. 诅咒
6.Non-Proliferation n. 防扩散, 防止(核)扩散
7.unacceptable adj. 无法接受的, 不受欢迎的
8.convince vt. 使确信, 使信服

附件


yangyang2005 : 2007-04-10#36
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

又有材料听了,开心

yangyang2005 : 2007-04-10#37
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

美女斑竹,辛苦了

angelonduty : 2007-04-10#38
VOA第4季度上-a019

US, Russia Sign Historic Trade Deal
By Paula Wolfson
Hanoi
19 November 2006

Word of the agreement came as President Bush sat down for talks in Hanoi with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Bush hailed the deal.
"This is a good agreement for the United States and equally important, it is a good agreement for Russia and it is a good agreement for the international trading community."
The bilateral agreement followed years of tough negotiations, and touches on virtually all aspects of the trade relationship between the United States and Russia. The 800-page document was signed in Hanoi by trade ministers for the two countries who called it the last stage in a long journey.
President Putin agreed. He spoke through a translator, "On my part, I would like to add that we have been in the process of difficult and elective work, five years of intense effort, which has culminated today with the signing of the protocol on Moscow's accession to the World Trade Organization which has been a successful outcome of this effort."
The deal is seen as a U.S. vote of confidence in Russia's economy. It covers everything from tariff reductions on cars, to protections for intellectual property rights.
Russia is the largest economy still outside the 149-member World Trade Organization. And the deal was necessary to get the final approval from the United States needed to bring Russia into the WTO system.
Russia must now sign a multi-lateral trade agreement with the entire World Trade Organization, a process that Moscow says may take until the middle of 2007.
While trade was a top issue on the agenda for the Bush-Putin meeting in Hanoi, it was by no means the only one. President Bush is also seeking greater cooperation in dealing with the challenges posed by North Korea and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
While in Hanoi, Mr. Bush met on the sidelines of the APEC summit with leaders of the other four countries involved in the six-party talks with North Korea - Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.
The meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao occurred shortly before the final APEC session. White House officials said there was a very specific and very positive discussion on North Korea.
China is North Korea's biggest patron, and has served as the host for the multilateral disarmament talks. China's Foreign Ministry said Presidents Bush and Hu agree that Pyongyang must realize the extent of international opposition to its nuclear program.
After completing his bilateral meetings in Hanoi, President Bush left the Vietnamese capital for Ho Chi Minh City. He will meet with business leaders here on Monday and visit a medical research center before traveling on to Jakarta for talks with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Paula Wolfson, VOA news, with the president in Ho Chi Minh City.

¤注解¤:

1.elective adj. 有选举权的, 随意选择的
2.culminate v. 达到顶点
3.tariff n. 关税
4.pose v. 引起, 造成
5.disarmament n. 裁军

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-10#39
VOA第4季度上-a020

World Bank-IMF Meetings End in Singapore
By Daniel Schearf
Singapore
20 September 2006
The heads of the World Bank and the IMF ended two days of annual meetings Wednesday promising to push for free trade and a resumption of stalled world trade talks.


In his closing remarks, the head of the IMF, Rodrigo de Rato, said a rising tide of protectionism needed to be stopped before it devastated people the world over. He encouraged the big emerging economies, such as China and India, to support free trade, and promised IMF support for the Doha round of world trade talks.
"The special responsibilities of the G-7 countries and big emerging economies have also been very clear in this meeting. And, we will support the movement to get the Doha negotiations right on track, and certainly not to give up any of the things that have been obtained up to now."
The two organizations said more aid was needed for the poorest countries, especially in Africa, if those countries are to reach the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015.
Robert Watson is a senior advisor for the bank on sustainable development. He says more political will and more cooperation is needed among the bank, governments and activist organizations before such countries can reach the goals.
"I think some countries will meet it. Other countries I think, won't meet it. So, I mean, there's a spectrum of where we are in the development process."
The Bank says partly developed, or "middle-income" countries are home to two-thirds of the world's poor, and should not be forgotten in the fight against poverty.
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz said lending to such countries also contributes to the Bank's income.
"Middle income countries are and must remain a core client group for us to fulfill our mandate."
Bank and IMF leaders also voiced concerns that corruption was impeding development, and urged wealthy nations to prevent corrupt practices in developing countries, and help return stolen assets that are sitting in developed countries' banks.
Daniel Schearf, for VOA news, Singapore.


¤注解¤:

1.resumption n. 取回, 恢复, 再开始
2.protectionism n. 保护主义
3.negotiation n. 商议, 谈判
4.sustainable adj. 足可支撑的, 养得起的
5.spectrum n. 系列,范围,幅度

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-10#40
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

这部分内容挺精彩的,纪念911,中东冲突,国际领养,禽流感,鸦片生产,赌博等等. 慢慢欣赏吧,在愉快中提高您的英语听力与语感.

angelonduty : 2007-04-10#41
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

美女斑竹,辛苦了
俺刚吃完饭,上来溜溜食,顺便把今天的功课做了.

yangyang2005 : 2007-04-10#42
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

这部分内容挺精彩的,纪念911,中东冲突,国际领养,禽流感,鸦片生产,赌博等等. 慢慢欣赏吧,在愉快中提高您的英语听力与语感.

:wdb11: :wdb6:

yangyang2005 : 2007-04-10#43
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

报告angel老师:学习完毕!

angelonduty : 2007-04-10#44
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

报告angel老师:学习完毕!
Good girl hahah!

angelonduty : 2007-04-12#45
VOA第4季度上-b001

'Aftermath': Book Profiles NYPD Detective's 9/11 Photos

By Kane Farabaugh
New York City, NY
08 September 2006



His hair is graying...
His lungs are permanently damaged and he routinely runs a fever...
He says he is severely in debt...
His 12-year marriage is over...
He was forced into early retirement as a New York City police detective...
Now he's facing a potential lawsuit from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office...
All because John Botte found himself in the right place at the right time to capture some of the most haunting images taken in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"[It] Just shows the emotion. The emotion of the police officers. Of the rescue workers. Of human beings.Of people that would do it again a thousand times over. Every single person would give their life again including me."


Botte was born in the United States. But he grew up in Italy and spoke no English when his family came back to the U.S. when he was a young child. His love affair with photography began when he was eight years old, at a soccer game at Giants Stadium he attended with his father.
"Actually, I had asked to get money to go get something at the concessions, and he hands me the camera and says, 'Here, play with this,’ and I fumbled with it, and I started getting into it and I became pretty good."
But John Botte did not grow up wanting to be a photographer. He chose to be a police officer.
From patrolman to undercover detective, Botte found himself in the heart of New York's crime wave in the 1980s. Murder, drugs and robbery were all parts of his daily job.


"You had a crack epidemic. Homicides were 2,000 -- 2300-plus homicides a year. And at a very young age -- I was 22 -- I went to organized crime as a narcotics agent. So you're basically living in the crack dens buying crack and heroin and you're acting like a street guy and becoming one of them."
Life on those streets led to one promotion after another until his career led him to the Crime Scene Investigation unit. A cover of Newsweek magazine captures him on duty at the scene of a homicide.
All those days and nights intercepting drug pushers and murderers. All those grisly scenes of misery and death captured by his crime scene camera could not prepare him for the moment that would forever change his career… and his life.
"When that second plane hit… that was like the kiss of reality, man."


It was no surprise to Botte that New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Keric wanted him to be part of a special security detail at Ground Zero in the wake of the attacks. Keric was a fan of his photography work. Botte could not be an official photographer for the NYPD because of a conflict of interest. But Keric encouraged him to do what he did best.
"He was aware of my method of photographic expression. And he gave me the unique situation to express myself photographically."
It was an assignment that would curse John Botte. From September through December of 2001, he took hundreds of photographs of the urban destruction in Lower Manhattan. He did so in the worst health conditions, breathing in toxic air that would eventually cripple his lungs.
"It felt like walking into hell. And the smell and the vapor would draw you in. And as you walked in, the air got thicker and heavier and the ash, the dust, was ankle deep."


His images are some of the most iconic of the aftermath of 9/11.
All that he saw, all that he took pictures of, all that you see in stark black and white, would take its toll on his emotions… and his family.
"When I say that I lost all regard for much around me, it was just… you know, I became distant. I kind of lost interest."
Because of his failing health, Botte was forced into early retirement in 2003 and now collects a disability pension.
The images he took those four months in 2001 appeared in several books, including Bernard Keric's autobiography "The Lost Son." Though that book made millions of dollars, Botte says he never saw a cent for the pictures he took.
He was in the middle of a divorce, unemployed, and tens of thousands of dollars in debt when he received an offer to publish the pictures in a book of his own. Botte was hopeful it would help him recoup some of his expenses.
"Aftermath: Unseen 9/11 Photos by a New York City Cop" was released in mid-August in the United States. That same week, the city of New York threatened to sue the publisher for the book's profits.
The city contends that Botte was on police time using privileged access to take the photos. While Botte admits that's true, he says he did not use police equipment or money to take and develop the pictures. He adds it would also take a lot of book sales to begin making a profit, which is not what his book is about.
"The whole mission of those photographs was about the dedication of my profession. The dedication of my profession visually and as a public servant."
Any potential lawsuit has yet to make its way into the court system. Botte claims complete ownership of the photos. But he has indicated he's willing to reach a settlement by donating some of the profits to the New York Detectives Widows and Childrens Fund -- after he's managed to recover some of the costs it took to get the book published.
One thing a settlement won't help him cure is the pain he'll carry with him for the rest of his life. Pain in his lungs from breathing the toxic air. Pain in his heart for parting ways with his wife and his career. And the pain of betrayal he now feels by the same city he once swore to serve and protect.
Kane Farabaugh, VOA news, New York.


¤注解¤:

1. permanently adv. 永存地, 不变地
2. lawsuit n. 诉讼(尤指非刑事案件)
3. concession n. 让步
4. fumble v. 摸索
5. undercover adj. 秘密从事的, 秘密的
6. homicide n. 杀人, 杀人者
7. toxic adj. 有毒的, 中毒的
8. cripple v. 削弱
9. aftermath n. 结果, 后果
10. autobiography n. 自传
11. betrayal n. 出卖, 暴露

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-12#46
VOA第4季度上-b002

A City Divided Five Years After 9/11
By Kane Farabaugh
New York City, NY
12 September 2006



It was almost as if it could have been that same September day five years ago. There were few clouds in the sky -- a weather condition airline pilots call "severe clear."
The clear sky that is now easier to see near the hole in New York City's heart was perhaps the only similarity five years after September 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks changed the world and brought many New Yorkers together.
It was a unity that was hard to find at Ground Zero Monday.
Thousands came near the fence at Ground Zero to remember.
They came to honor.


And they came to protest.
The war in Iraq and conspiracy theories about government complicity in the collapse of the towers were two of the central issues addressed by the protesters.


But some looked on in silent contemplation near two steel beams in the shape of a cross. It has become an iconic symbol at the site. Not far from its perch stood the man who found it in the rubble in the days after 9/11.
Frank Silecchia is a concrete worker who spent 10 months at Ground Zero. The cross isn't the only thing he found in the recovery effort. "To me, I'm a veteran of 9/11. I served 10 months in this hellhole and I have 47 bodies in recovery. It means a lot for me to be here to meet and greet the people I worked with and I've grown to love."
Protesters marched as the names of the victims filtered out to the crowd from loudspeakers.


Frank Silecchia was unhappy with the scene.(He expressed his frustration.) "They're using this moment that should be of solitude and silence and recognition and reflection, but instead they want to bring turmoil and chaos and disruption, which I think is totally inappropriate."
Tania Garcia made the trek from Florida to attend the memorial ceremony inside the site. Her sister Marilyn worked on the 100th floor of the World Trade Center and died on 9/11.
Garcia has been back each year for the memorial and doesn't mind the protesters, or the lack of progress at the site. "My concerns are not about what goes on here. It's not about rebuilding to me because it's not some place I would want to visit. But that's just me. I know that the city needs to rebuild. I know that the city needs to keep up its status. I understand that people need to move on. But for me, I will never move on when it comes to this. This is somewhere where I will be for the rest of my life. This is a pain I will carry with me the rest of my life. This is something that no one or anything that they wrote here will replace what has happened to us."
It is easy to see what was lost here in New York. The hole in the ground and the empty sky above are continuous reminders of the physical cost of that day five years ago.
But the personal loss is clearer to see on days when so many who survived gather to remember those who did not. They honor the memory of family members and friends, who remind the rest of the world of the greatest cost of terrorism.
Kane Farabaugh, VOA news, New York.


¤注解¤:

1. conspiracy n. 共谋, 阴谋
2. complicity n. 同谋, 共犯
3. contemplation n. 注视, 沉思
4. iconic adj. 图标的
5. inappropriate adj. 不适当的, 不相称的

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-12#47
VOA第4季度上-b003

Africities Summit Focuses on Implementing Millennium Development Goals

By Cathy Majtenyi
Nairobi
18 September 2006


Speakers opening the event noted that an increasing number of Africans are moving into urban areas, with more than half of the continent's population expected to live in cities by 2020.
This movement, in turn, puts more and more pressure on water, sanitation, housing, roads, and other systems that in many cases are seriously underdeveloped, speakers said.
U.N.-Habitat's executive director, Anna Tibaijuka, told the gathering some 72 percent of Africans live in slums, most of which lack basic services and infrastructure. She issued a strong challenge to local governments and their partners to improve the lives of people living in those areas.
"When the majority of African people still find themselves in slum conditions, it poses a serious challenge and draws our attention to the linkage between human settlements and the goals that the international community committed itself to achieve some six years ago. For the people of Africa, you are the closest institution that mediates the bulk of their every day lives. Indeed, you are the ultimate custodians of the Millennium Development Goals. Achieving the MDGs in Africa requires, therefore, local governments and the key stakeholders to take the challenge of urbanization more seriously."
The summit, organized by the pan-African body Municipal Development Partnership and other groups, is expected to bring together some 5,000 delegates to discuss problems in African cities such as poverty, crime, and inadequate shelter.
Discussions are expected to focus on devolving power from central governments to local councils and how to better fund municipalities.
Kenyan minister for local government, Musikari Kombo, urged the gathering to look for creative ways to deal with the continent's growing urbanization trend. "One such practice, which most African countries need to appreciate, is the creation of more cities in the rural settings instead of encouraging the growth of megacities."
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki described how his government plans to tackle the problem of rapid expansion of the capital Nairobi and other urban centers in Kenya, beginning with the election of mayors and deputy mayors. "We will soon be announcing the establishment of a Nairobi Metropolitan Region Development Board for the proper planning and administration of the city of Nairobi. The board will coordinate planning, environmental management, enforce compliance, and promote the metropolis as a regional hub for investment and services."
The summit is taking place six years after the United Nations unveiled its eight millennium development goals that aim to dramatically reduce poverty, illiteracy, disease and food insecurity by 2015.
Cathy Majtenyi, for VOA news, Nairobi.

¤注解¤:

1. sanitation n. 卫生, 卫生设施
2. slum n. 贫民窟
3. custodian n. 管理人
4. stakeholder n. 赌金保管者,股东
5. urbanization n. 都市化, 文雅化
6. municipality n. 市政当局, 自治市
7. metropolis n. 主要都市, 大城市
8. illiteracy n. 文盲

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-12#48
VOA第4季度上-b004

American Muslim Film Spurs Cultural Discussion

By Greg Flakus
Dallas, TX
21 September 2006


Muslims and others attending screenings of the documentary "American Ramadan" are learning more about the fasting Muslims do during daylight hours all through the month of Ramadan.
The film served as a catalyst for discussion in the Dallas suburb of Plano.
"I really enjoyed seeing the movie because I did not know anything about Ramadan and I learned a lot today and I particularly enjoyed seeing it with such a diverse group of people here in Plano."
Plano Mayor Pat Evans was among those who came to see the film and meet people from the Muslim community.

"The thing I enjoyed about this was that it emphasized how much we are all alike, how many things we have in common, all of the races and religions of the world."
"American Ramadan" is the brainchild of filmmaker Naeem Randhawa. He was born in Pakistan, raised in Canada and has been a resident of the Dallas area for the past eight years.
He and his brother, Imran, started a year ago to make a 15-minute film about Ramadan. But he says the stories they heard inspired them to go further.
"The content just drew us in. The content was so rich."
So the film grew to 48-minutes in length and involved five separate families in Dallas and Los Angeles.
"We witness their fears, their hopes, their challenges, what is it that they are trying to overcome. We have a divorced dad who is struggling to manage time between himself, his kids and his ex-wife. We have a student who is trying to balance school life with work life and with her parents. We have an interracial couple. They have cultural issues they are trying to manage."

The film includes input from Muslim scholars. It also features a medical doctor talking about the benefits of fasting and a Christian scholar and Jewish rabbi discussing similarities with their religions. Rabbi Robert Haas said,”A community that fasts together supports each other. All of these beliefs you can find in Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Not only can you find them, I think you could not be Islamic, Jewish or Christian without having those beliefs."
"Muslims working with Christians, working with Jews. I do not want to sound corny, but truly, that is the essence of the film and that is what we hope to get out of it and that is what we are getting out of it."
Imran Randhawa says demand for copies of the film is growing, especially among academics. "You have a lot of professors from different states that have e-mailed us and requested a copy because what they want to do is introduce it into their course."

Naeem Randhawa says he has had inquiries from people in Muslim nations. Many are ill-informed about Islam in the United States and the open dialogue between religions that can take place.
"The rabbi talks about it in the film. He says, 'Hey, man, I go visit the imam at my local mosque and I sit down with my Christian clergy friends and I am open to do so, living in America.' I think for us, that is what America is all about. It is about opening the doors to your neighbors. It is about sharing your views and respecting each others views."
Greg Flakus, VOA news, Dallas, TX.


¤注解¤:

1. fasting adj. 禁食的
2. catalyst n. 催化剂
3. interracial adj. 人种间的, 不同种族间的
4. essence n. 基本, 本质
5. imam n. [伊斯兰]阿訇, 教长
6. clergy n. 牧师, 神职人员

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-12#49
VOA第4季度上-b005

Bissell Dinner Theater Solves 'Murders' Over Dinner
By Cheng Xiao Hong and Zhang Songlin
St. Louis, Missouri
19 September 2006

"Now ladies and gentlemen, my name is Elliot Mess," says the actor to the dinner guests. "Well, my mother is a mess, my father is a mess, and I am proud to say I am a mess. Hey, you look like a mess too, honey."

Elliot Mess' real name is Mike Missouri Smith. He is an actor and writer at the Bissell Mansion Restaurant and Dinner Theater. "I have been performing for 35 years, written 16 plays that were performed here."
The dinner theater is located in the historic Bissell mansion, the oldest home in St. Louis. The Bissells were a well-known family of military leaders, including the famous American Revolutionary War General Daniel Bissell.
Built in the 1820s, the mansion sits on a vast stretch of land over 600 hectares in size. Almost two centuries later, it was given new life when it became home to St. Louis' original interactive dinner theater in the '70s.

Barbara Schepker is the manager of the dinner theater. "We were the first restaurant dinner theater in the whole United States. It was our idea, our whole concept, now there are murder mystery dinner theaters all over the country."
The dinner theater boasts its own cast of dedicated actors. Missouri Smith is one of them.
The show tonight is about a long ago murder in St. Louis.
"In the 1920s, it was illegal to drink. So in the city of St. Louis, there were a lot of bootleggers, different bootlegger gangs. We created a fictitious gang of female bootleggers called 'dapper flappers.' When our show starts, the leader of the gang, Norma Lee Vicious, has been brutally murdered down here in the wine cellar."

In the show, Smith is the funny FBI agent Elliot Mess and Florence Achenbach plays his partner Miss Betty Bustem. Suspects come from the audience. Everyone will help the actors solve the crime.
Scripts in hand, the customers at the dinner tables are excited about their moment to shine over food and wine. The four-course dinner is served between acts of the play
Achenbach enjoys being an actor. "The best part about it is that I get to be somebody else for a few hours. Forget about my nine to five [job], when I am an editor. This way I can be somebody."
Upstairs and downstairs, the restaurant can entertain more than 100 people, while two casts of actors are performing at the same time. Among them is Morgan Hatch, who returned to his hometown from Hollywood to enjoy the dinner theater acting experience.
"When you walk in the room, your mind just explodes, because you (have) so many things going on. You are trying to remember your lines. You are trying to remember where you should walk. You are trying to listen to anything clever coming from the audience, and sift out the bad stuff. And hang onto the good stuff. You are going to answer to them, and ad lib, so your mind just explodes."
Every diner receives a part in the play when they arrive. It does not matter if they have a line to read from the script or not, it is the spirit of participation, the laughter, and the unique dining experience that draw people to the dinner theater.
Birthday parties, bridal showers, or whatever the occasion, the theater managers say it would be a crime to miss out on this much fun.
For producer Cheng Xiao Hong and Zhang Songlin, Enming Liu VOA news.


¤注解¤:

1. mansion n. 大厦, 官邸, 公寓
2. interactive adj. 交互式的
3. fictitious adj. 假想的, 编造的, 虚伪的
4. dapper adj. 整洁的, 整齐的, 短小精悍的
5. explode vi. 爆炸, 爆发
6. participation n. 分享, 参与

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-12#50
VOA第4季度上-b006

Comanche Nation Keeps its Traditional Life Alive

By Joseph Mok
Washington, DC
12 September 2006


Comanches are believed to have been the first native people on the plains to utilize the horse extensively, and their horseriding skills are the standard by which other tribes are judged. In the past, their exceptional horsemanship helped to drive their foes away. Today, it continues to be an essential part of their day-to-day life.
During World War II, Comanche Indians were part of the 1944 Allied D-Day invasion of Europe. As code talkers, they frustrated enemy code breakers by translating Army messages into their native language. Verbal messages were relayed over field telephones between the battlefield and divisional headquarters.

In the decades since, the Comanche people have continued to live on the plains. Farming and husbandry are the mainstays of their economy.

Sandra Nevaquaya is preparing dinner for her family. "I am making fry bread. It is traditional bread and it is made with flour, sugar and water. You cook it in hot grease. It is a traditional food we eat with healthy soup and meat."
Families are greatly valued among Comanches. Relatives are gathering tonight at Edmund and Sandra Nevaquaya's house. Edmund, a musician.

"We Comanches, we have adjusted and adapted to two ways of lives. To this day, the Comanche nation, we are one of the most educated tribes in North America. Also we are the keepers of a great religion that has really swept throughout the Indian country and that is the Native American church we filmed yesterday. We also kept our customs and our horses and livestock and things we used to enjoy.
We do co-exist within what you would say the 'white-man's world.' Or you would say the existing world, the educational world. Our children are still inside of education. They still know our traditional customs. We get along with it real good. We know how to adapt to it. There is no bitterness about it. It is the way we progress into the future and life. We continue on and on and on (for) generations to come."

After dinner, the Nevaquaya family gathers under the shed for some cool air and music.
The water drum is a traditional musical instrument of the Comanches. It is made from cowhide, water, bucket, ropes and seven pebbles. The accompanying gourd rattle reinforces the rhythm. And the staff is made from a bow without its string. It is decorated with colorful beads and bristle, symbolizing war turning into peace, and joy on earth.
Comanche traditional music and songs are passed along from generation to generation.
Joseph Mok, VOA news.

¤注解¤:

1. husbandry n. 管理
2. mainstay n. 支柱, 中流砥柱
3. livestock n. 家畜, 牲畜
4. co-exist vi. 共存

附件


yangyang2005 : 2007-04-12#51
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

angel,不要这么辛苦了,先处理好家里的事情吧

angelonduty : 2007-04-14#52
VOA第4季度上-b007

Comics Drawing on Indian Mythology Are a Hit in US

By Shilpi Jha
Washington, DC
27 September 2006


Comic books are not just for kids anymore. Young adults buy thousands of comics and related products. And tens-of-thousands of fans gather each year for comic conventions to celebrate heroes like Spiderman, Wonder Woman and Supergirl.
Now, British-based company Virgin wants to introduce comic readers to Snake Woman, the heroine of one of its new comic books, inspired by Indian mythology. The books went on sale a few weeks ago in the United States, and have made a big impression already.

Reader Geremy Hartwik says the comics combine good writing and fresh ideas. "I can see the Indian elements especially in the character names and everything," he says. "But I didn't think they seemed only accessible, if you know anything about Indian culture. I think they seemed very accessible because the story is very well written."
Virgin is producing the new comics in Bangalore, India, where it has a facility with 50 artists and writers. The firm says it wants to mine the rich history and mythology of India and other parts of Asia to produce new stories that appeal to American comic book fans.

One of Virgin's first comic book hits, Snake Woman, is about a quiet young woman working as a waitress in Los Angeles, California, who suddenly discovers predatory instincts that seem to possess her. It is based on an ancient legend, in which the spirit of a serpent is born into a young woman.
Other new titles include Devi and Sadhu, which include stories of Indian mystics and female super heroes. Aspects of the books should be familiar to all comic fans. They include plenty of action, adventure and stories about people struggling to do the right thing and help others.
Andrea Henessey says she is a fan of the Indian-inspired stories. "I've been interested in Indian culture for as long as I can remember, I just think they're beautiful people. So, when I read Devi, I could see some of it in there. And the art is fantastic, too."
Many other American comic book fans agree. Virgin has sold 20,000 copies of its new comics in the first edition alone.
Comic book storeowner Jim Bernekon says sales of the Virgin comics have been strong. "We sold out. We and other retailers across the country had trouble getting more copies from the distributor."
Virgin has launched another new series called Ramayan Reborn, written by filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor and lifestyle guru Deepak Chopra.

Virgin Comics CEO Sharad Devrajan says the story is based on an ancient Hindu text. "Our interpretation of the Ramayan is to take that mythology and use it as a springboard to tell a great new story that's not exactly true to the original mythology, but something we feel is a futuristic, science-fiction epic."
Many American comic book super heroes have taken life in feature films. And Virgin Comics hopes to do the same.
The firm says American actor Nicholas Cage and Chinese director John Woo have already agreed to projects. And the marketing doesn't stop there. The company plans to launch video games and other products featuring its original characters.
Shilpi Jha, VOA news.


¤注解¤:

1. mythology n. 神话
2. accessible adj. 易接近的, 可到达的
3. predatory adj. 掠夺的, 食肉的
4. serpent n. 大毒蛇, 阴险的人
5. springboard n. 跳板, 出发点

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-14#53
VOA第4季度上-b008

DaimlerChrysler to Sell Low-Cost Chinese-Made Cars in the US
By Mil Arcega
Washington, DC
28 September 2006



DaimlerChrysler has joined the rush of foreign automakers for a share of the booming Chinese market.
This month, the German-based automaker formally opened its new plant in Beijing -- complete with traditional pomp and fireworks. Chairman Dieter Zetsche says it's all part of the company's $1.9 billion investment in China.



"This, obviously as everybody knows, is one of the most dynamic if not the most dynamic countries and economies on the face of the earth. And DaimlerChrysler, we are very proud to play a role in contributing to China's economic growth and development."
China is the world's second-largest car market after the United States, with seven million new vehicle sales a year. The company is said to be in talks with a state-owned company to sell Chinese-built subcompact cars in the U.S. and Europe.


Chrysler Group Chairman Tom Lasorda says the company plans to introduce 10 new models this year. "Bottom line, we need to partner with someone who has low cost, high quality. We can't rule out China and we can not rule out European markets or other parts of Asia because there are a lot of key players in the "B" segment today and we are going to look at all of them."
Unlike other automakers that have produced specially designed cars targeted for a Chinese market, Dieter Zetsche said Mercedes and Chrysler models made in China will be identical to models sold abroad.
"The only difference ought to be the country of origin. As far as quality is concerned, there can only be one quality we are striving for with Mercedes or with Chrysler products around the globe."
The company plans to reduce dealer shipments in the U.S. by 15 percent because of declining sales of pick-up trucks and sport utility vehicles.
Although DaimlerChrysler claims its international operations have been profitable, its U.S. sales are down about 10 percent this year resulting in a projected loss of $1.5 billion in the third quarter.
Mil Arcega, VOA news, Washington.


¤注解¤:

1. pomp n. 壮丽, 盛况
2. dynamic adj. 动态的,生气勃勃的
3. subcompact n. 微型小客车, 微型汽车
4. identical adj. 同一的, 同样的

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angelonduty : 2007-04-14#54
VOA第4季度上-b009

Former President Clinton Holds His Second Global Initiative

By Kane Farabaugh
New York, NY
25 September 2006

The Clinton Global Initiative, or CGI, is the former president's non-partisan effort to take on the biggest challenges, in big and small ways.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton describes the organization's mission. "CGI was designed to tackle big global challenges in bite-sized pieces with the conviction that, regardless of size or scope, our problems will yield to concerted action and innovative partnerships of individuals, NGO's (non-government organizations), businesses and governments."
After Clinton launched the initiative in 2005, more than 300 commitments brought in over $2 billion. By the second day of this year's conference the amount of money had tripled last year's efforts, thanks in part to a $3 billion pledge by British tycoon Richard Branson to develop environmentally friendly fuels.
Other commitments yielded $2billion towards efforts such as promoting global health and alleviating poverty. One of those efforts is a $16 million commitment announced by first lady Laura Bush. Provided by the United States and two private foundations, the money will go towards clean drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa -- powered by children.

"Play pumps are children's merry-go-rounds attached to a water pump in a storage tank. When the wheel turns, clean drinking water is produced. Play pumps are fueled by a limitless energy source, children at play."
Some foreign leaders took the opportunity to use the CGI as a stage to address current events.
Participating in a panel discussion called "Urgent Issues and Innovative Solutions," Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf denied media reports that the Taleban is conducting operations in Afghanistan from bases in his country.
"But Taleban, under the commander and control of Mullah Omar, is in the southern provinces of Afghanistan -- in Khandahar region and below. Mullah Omar has never come into Pakistan since 1995 when he initiated this movement in Afghanistan."
Musharraf explained that helping the Muslim world escape from poverty includes helping them realize that "modernization is not westernization." He also made pointed statements about combating terrorism in the world.

"We cannot put the cart before the horse by going after Iraq or Lebanon or Afghanistan without solving the Palestinian dispute…. It lies at the core... it lies at the core of everything. It lies at the core of terrorism and extremism in Pakistan, in Afghanistan; it lies at the core of whatever is happening in Iraq and what is happening in Lebanon. So let's go to the solution of the Palestinian dispute. Other things will themselves fall in line."
The group Seeds of Peace stepped forward at the CGI with a commitment to help deal with the Palestinian issue. The group is funding a $1.2 million institute to provide advanced negotiation and mediation training to university- aged Israelis and Palestinians.
Kane Farabaugh, VOA news, New York.


¤注解¤:

1. tackle vt. 应付(难事等), 处理, 解决
2. conviction n. 深信, 确信
3. initiate v. 开始, 发起
4. terrorism n. 恐怖主义
5. extremism n. 极端的倾向, 过激主义
6. mediation n. 仲裁, 调停, 调解

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yangyang2005 : 2007-04-15#55
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

finished

明月灯火 : 2007-04-17#56
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

lz真是好人,谢谢!
接着来---下。

angelonduty : 2007-04-18#57
VOA第4季度上-b010

Gates Philanthropy Follows Long US Tradition

By Brian Padden
Washington, DC
20 October 2006


After seeing the devastation caused by AIDS in Africa, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation pledged $500 million to help get HIV drugs to more than 500,000 people. And they have vowed to do more. "AIDS is getting worse every year. We need to provide the latest drugs. We need to provide intervention and so that crisis has become a top priority for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation."


Friend and fellow billionaire Warren Buffet was so impressed with the work of the Gates Foundations that he donated $1.6 billion to the cause. "It was clear that an outstanding mind with the right goals was focusing intently with passion, heart on improving the lot of mankind around the world without regard as to gender religion, color, geography, just doing the most good for the most people."
Gates and Buffet are the latest in a long line of wealthy American philanthropists. In the early 1900s industrialists Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller set up the model for the modern day non-profit foundation. Their organizations were structured like corporations but their goal was to serve the public good. Their initial projects were building libraries and hospitals.

Stacey Palmer, editor of the weekly newspaper Chronicle of Philanthropy, says these early industrialists were intrigued with trying to solve age-old problems with new-age science and technology. "There was also this feeling in society that we could change things. We had scientific ideas about how to change the world and we were really learning about ways to do that. So modern social science came into being and philanthropists seized on that right away."
This corporate science-based model of philanthropy has not been free of controversy. Until the 1930s, the Rockefeller Foundation funded eugenics programs in both the U.S. and Nazi Germany supporting forced sterilization of persons with genetic defects. Critics say Hitler later used this research to justify the killing of Jews and other races he considered inferior.

While this case was extreme, William Shambra, director of the Center for Philanthropy at the Hudson Institute, says foundations often overreach when trying to solve the root causes of social problems. "It would be lovely to get to the root cause of the problem and solve it once and for all and put it behind you, and move on to the next big problem, and get on to the next root cause, but that is not how it happens. You can't name a single major social problem in the United States that hasn't been tackled by a big foundation in the 20th and the 21st centuries, and you can't name a single problem that has been solved."
Shambra says foundations operate best when they work with grass roots [locally run] organizations to alleviate human suffering. He says this is what the Gates foundation is doing. He also says foundations must guard against what he calls "corrupting flattery" from people looking for money. "It is hard to find truth tellers in philanthropy. Foundations, there are all sort of jokes. You know, once you become a foundation program officer, all your jokes are funny; all you observations are witty and accurate. All your questions are just excellent questions."
One of the great advantages of private philanthropic organizations is the speed in which they are able to respond to a crisis. After hurricane Katrina, churches and private charities were providing relief long before government assistance arrived.
Still, the Chronicle for Philanthropy's Stacey Palmer says foundations cannot replace government's responsibility in addressing long-term needs. "Sometimes people say why doesn't a philanthropist just take care of the health insurance crisis because so many people do not have health insurance in this country. But there isn't enough money in philanthropy in a year to take care of that kind of thing. So there needs to be governmental solutions to some of those kinds of problems."
In addition to the good works they do, Palmer says Bill Gates and other philanthropists also influence public policy by focusing worldwide attention on important social problems and solutions.
Brian Padden, VOA news, Washington.


¤注解¤:

1. intervention n. 干涉
2. billionaire n. 亿万富翁
3. chronicle n. 编年史
4. philanthropy n.慈善事业
5. eugenics n. 优生学
6. flattery n. 阿谀, 奉承, 恭维话

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angelonduty : 2007-04-18#58
VOA第4季度上-b011

Getty Center Restores Art Treasures

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
19 September 2006

Much of the work that is done at the Getty has been overshadowed by the bad news. A former curator, Marion True, is on trial in Italy for allegedly trafficking in stolen art treasures. Italy has demanded the return of scores of Getty art works, and Greece has pressed claims for the return of other antiquities. Last month, the museum returned two artifacts to Greece.
Getty officials say they are working to resolve disputes over contested art works, and say similar controversies affect other major museums.
And life goes on at the Getty's striking hilltop campus, and its antiquities museum in a recreated Roman villa overlooking the nearby coastline. Every day, thousands of visitors view the museum's extensive collections, or take part in its educational programs. Behind the scenes, experts conduct research and engage in art conservation.

Some of that work involves the careful restoration of damaged pieces of art that belong to other museums. Mark Leonard heads the Getty's paintings conservation department.
"We do the work for free in exchange for having the opportunity to put the pictures on view in our public galleries. In many cases, they simply are integrated into the existing collection for a period of six months or so, and in some cases they actually catalyze entire exhibitions."
Leonard is now restoring several 18th century paintings for a German art museum. They will be the focus of an exhibition that will open here next year. The highlight is a huge portrait of an Indian rhinoceros painted by the French artist Jean-Baptiste Oudry.

"Her name was Clara. She was quite a famous rhinoceros in her day, an animal that was traveled throughout Europe in the middle of the 18th century, was in Paris around 1749, 1750, which is when Oudry made this portrait of her."
Next to the painting are two others, also by Oudry. Restoration work on one will be finished in time for the exhibition, and it will go on display along with the portrait of Clara. The second large painting depicts a lion from the animal collection of the French King Louis XV.
The art works are owned by a museum in the town of Schwerin in northern Germany, and were once part of the collection of the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Scott Schaefer, the Getty's curator of paintings, says they had been in storage for decades when they were rediscovered.
"They were the pictures most difficult for them to deal with over the years when the ducal collection went into public hands. And during the communist era particularly, and Schwerin was part of communist East Germany, it was easier to forget about them and not think about them than smaller more easily handled pictures."
Today, the art works are getting a second life. The canvases have been repaired and flaked-off sections of paint have been covered. Luckily, says conservationist Mark Leonard, these art works suffered only from neglect, not from the intervention of overzealous conservators.

"If a picture has been damaged in cleaning, meaning that someone has used a strong solvent, abraded away original paint, broken through original layers, those are the kinds of damages that are irreversible, because once the surface has been broken and the artist's final workings on the surface have been interrupted or destroyed, that's a bit of magic that you can't put back."
He says each picture has a story, and the story of the portrait of the rhinoceros Clara is an engaging one. The animal was brought to Europe by a Dutch seaman and toured the continent for 17 years. It was the first time Europeans had ever seen such a creature, and Clara became a sensation, inspiring an industry of memorabilia and souvenirs, and this oversized painting.
The story of Clara, King Louis' lion and the other animals will be told in a Getty exhibition called Oudry's Painted Menagerie, which will open in May of next year.
Mike O'Sullivan, VOA news, Los Angeles.


¤注解¤:

1. overshadow v. 遮蔽, 使...失色
2. antiquity n. 古代, 古老, 古代的遗物
3. rhinoceros n. [动]犀牛
4. depict vt. 描述, 描写
5. overzealous adj. 过分热心的
6. solvent n. 溶媒, 溶剂
7. memorabilia n. 大事记

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angelonduty : 2007-04-18#59
VOA第4季度上-b012

Gun Control Debate Resurfaces in Wake of Deadly US School Shootings

By Richard Green
Washington, DC
05 October 2006


In less than a week, a total of six students across the United States have been shot and killed. Five girls between the ages of 13 and 7 died after a stranger seized their one-room schoolhouse in a remote area of Pennsylvania.
Just days earlier, a female high school student in Colorado was killed after a homeless man took her and several classmates hostage.
Between those two incidents, a 15-year-old student gunned down a principal at a small Wisconsin high school.


Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, says the incidents are proof the entire nation can be affected by gun violence. "And for too long, folks have turned basically a blind eye to some of the shootings if they occur in the poorer part of town, or the other part of town, or felt that it happened in the big city, or people of a different color or a different class. These recent shootings, certainly tragic, part of what they do is they bring home that this is happening every day at some level in America."
The Brady Campaign is one of many groups, which have advocated for stronger gun control laws in the United States. In the 1990s, they successfully pushed for laws that require a waiting period and background check for potential gun buyers, and a ban on assault weapons.
But Helmke says their efforts have gotten more difficult in recent years. "If anything, we've gone backwards, we've let the assault weapons ban expire in 2004. We constantly are fighting legislation that would make it harder to crack down on gun dealers, that would make it impossible to find out where the guns that are used illegally are coming from."
They have also come up against many groups, such as the Natonal Rifle Association, which believe more gun control laws would violate the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gives citizens the right to keep and bear arms.

Connie Hair, a spokeswoman for the Second Amendment Sisters, says this is more than just a basic American right. "Well the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights guarantees us the right to defend ourselves, and we're protecting the second amendment, you have a right to defend yourself. And if you regulate weapons by taking them away from everyone, only the bad guys will have weapons. You just have a fundamental right to defend yourself. "
Hair says more gun control laws are not the answer in preventing any future school shootings. "There's really not a law that you can put on the books outside of outright confiscation of weapons, which is ludicrous.
Our hearts go out to those poor parents who lost seven-year-old daughters and 13-year-old daughters. But there's not one law on the books that would have taken the guns out of that man's hands, because he had never committed a crime. There's nothing you could have done to prevent that with a law, like I said outside of outright confiscation."
President Bush has convened a meeting of leading experts at the White House next week to determine how best the federal government can help states and local governments improve school safety.
Richard Green, VOA NEWS.


¤注解¤:

1. hostage n. 人质, 抵押品
2. assault n. 攻击, 袭击
3. expire v. 期满, 终止
4. amendment n. 改善, 改正
5. confiscation n. 没收, 充公, 征用
6. ludicrous adj. 可笑的, 滑稽的, 愚蠢的

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angelonduty : 2007-04-19#60
VOA第4季度上-b013

Holocaust Victims Remembered at Washington Museum

By Poupeh Missaghi and Jim Bertel
Washington, DC
20 September 2006



Since it opened in 1993, more than 23 million people, including dozens of world leaders, have toured the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Many have described it as one of the most powerful experiences in Washington.
Sara Bloomfield is the museum's Director. She says, "It is meant to be a reflection on human history, on American history and also on human nature. And to encourage our visitors to think more about their own moral responsibilities in our world."
Visitors are taken back in time to the World War Two era, experiencing the conditions of life then, the Nazis' rise to power, the war, and the aftermath. Through it all, Bloomfield says the Germans kept careful records of their reign of terror on the Jews.


"The Germans themselves documented their crimes and regarding the documentation of the crimes, this is probably the most well documented crime in human history. And they left thousands of photographs, millions of pages of documentary evidence that we have in the museum's archives."
One of the museum's goals is to remind visitors that the Holocaust was not about statistics but people and it tries to return individual identity to the victims.
From room to room visitors are immersed deeper and deeper into the horrors of the holocaust. In the "Tower of Faces" pictures depicting the ordinary lives of Jews in a small town on the Polish-Lithuanian border cover the walls.
"This Jewish community had lived in this town for 900 years. And in two days, in September 1941, this entire community was destroyed by mobile killing units sent in behind the German army."


It is estimated more than a million children were killed during the Holocaust, including Anne Frank who kept a diary during her two years in hiding.
"I've heard it said that after the Bible and the Koran it's one of the most well-read works of non-fiction in the world. And it is still a very powerful testament to a young child's experience and to really what was lost."
As she walks through the museum, Bloomfield shows how the exhibits go beyond words and pictures, giving visitors a first-hand look at some of the inhumane conditions endured by Jews.
“You would have, for example, a hundred people in a railroad car like this for anywhere from up to one to three days with no sanitation, no food. As you can imagine, many people did not survive the deportation itself.”
The Holocaust Memorial Museum vividly recounts the horrors endured by the Holocaust's victims. Many visitors are shocked by what they see. But the museum's curators believe this is a good thing and hope this translates into a willingness to do something about similar horrors in the world today.
For producer Poupeh Missaghi, Jim Bertel VOA news.


¤注解¤:

1. holocaust n. 大毁灭, 大屠杀
2. documentation n. 文件
3. archives n. 档案室, 案卷保管处
4. inhumane  adj. 残忍的
5. deportation n. 移送, 充军, 放逐
6. curator n. 馆长, 监护人

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-19#61
VOA第4季度上-b014

Kenya's Maasai Commemorate 9/11 Victims

By Cathy Majtenyi
Enoosaen, Kenya
11 September 2006



On the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, a Maasai community in a remote village in western Kenya paid homage to victims and their families. The elders, who in 2002 had dedicated 14 head of cattle to the victims' families, say they continue to think about those who lost their lives in the violence.
The 14 cattle and their offspring graze on a farm near the village of Enoosaen. Maasai elders had deemed the animals sacred, never to be eaten or given away, but to act as a permanent reminder of the day on which thousands had lost their lives.
Meanwhile, just up the hill, an American delegation headed by U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger arrives for the ceremony, flanked by hundreds of community members wrapped in their bright red traditional cloths and beaded necklaces.
In addition to remembering the September 11 victims and their families, organizers say the ceremony is meant to cement the bond of friendship between this community and the American people that began in 2002.
Ranneberger tells the gathering that, following the publicity of the cattle donation, some 40,000 Americans sent letters, cards, and drawings thanking the Maasai people.
"But, while the cattle could not be physically moved to the United States, I want to assure the people of this community of one thing: your gift achieved its objective. You did ease the pain and suffering of the people of the United States. Tomorrow, back home, the people of the United States will be reminded that in a remote village of western Kenya that does not have skyscrapers or fighter planes or concerns that international terrorists will disrupt their lives, that the Maasai of Enoosaen again express their solidarity with the American people."
The Maasai elders, in turn, say they are personally affected by what happened to the 9/11 victims and their families.


The elders came to know about the events of September 11 through Kimeli Willson Naiyomah, a young man from Enoosaen who was poor and homeless. With funds raised from the community and a scholarship, Naiyomah pursued his undergraduate degree at Stanford University in the United States.
On September 11th, Naiyomah was visiting New York and saw the World Trade Center towers falling. A few months later, he returned to Enoosaen to undergo a ceremony that would make him a community elder, and told people in the village what he had seen.
"Americans embraced me like their baby, like their child. They did not look at my poverty. When the tragedy of 9/11 happened, you can see why I was emotionally devastated just like an American, and I felt like I was an American too. It created that deep emotional distress that an American boy from Alabama would have felt."
The elders were moved by Naiyomah's story and were distressed that a country that provided education for one of their own underwent such suffering.


Maasai elder Oltetia ole Pempa Semeyioi tells VOA what happened next. Semeyioi says the community elders talked about what occurred on September 11th and decided to volunteer the main resource they have, their cattle, because, in his words, cattle is a handkerchief to wipe the tears of the American people.
In Maasailand, cattle mean much more than just a source of food.
Elder Ole Yiamboi explained, Yiamboi said the cow is central to the Maasai culture. One of two things will happen if anyone touches a Maasai cow, he says: either the cow's owner will die, or the person touching the cow will die.
Yiamboi explains to the gathering that a man cannot get married unless he gives his bride's family a number of cows.
As well, during different stages of growing up, children are required to give their fathers cows to pass certain rights of passage. For instance, he says, a son must give his father a cow to earn the right to shake his father's hand.
At Sunday's event, Ambassador Ranneberger announced that the American embassy in Nairobi is providing 14 four-year secondary school scholarships to Maasai youth studying in Enoosaen in memory of the September 11 victims.
The elders promise to donate the offspring of the original 14 cattle to a Maasai scholarship fund.
In an agreement signed at the event, Maasai elders say education is valuable in the struggle against international terrorism as the tool most likely to break down barriers of cultural misunderstanding.
Cathy Majtenyi, for VOA news, Enoosaen.


¤注解¤:

1. anniversary n. 周年纪念
2. permanent adj. 永久的, 持久的
3. cement vt.接合, 巩固
4. solidarity n. 团结
5. distress v.使悲痛, 使忧伤
6. donate v. 捐赠, 赠予

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angelonduty : 2007-04-19#62
VOA第4季度上-b015

Language Barriers Plague Hospitals in the US

By June Soh
Washington, DC
06 September 2006



Leticia Menjaros is a medical interpreter in Spanish. She says she is busier than she's ever been in the two years since she began working at the INOVA Fairfax Hospital in the U.S. state of Virginia.
"I work a 12-hour shift and I am here on a pager and a phone. When a doctor needs me they just call me and tell me to come into the room."
Interpreters trained in medical terminology are in high demand in the U.S. as the country's population becomes more and more diverse. The boom in the Hispanic population has led some hospitals to hire full-time Spanish interpreters.


Martine Charles is the director of Cultural Competence at the INOVA Health System, which has five hospitals in Virginia. She says the hospitals are paying bonuses to volunteers who complete language and cultural competence training.
"We also have trained hundreds of our bilingual staff who serve as volunteer interpreters. They are called on in multiple languages when there is a need."
"I have somebody here who doesn't speak English. Could you just ask her why she is here today."
Some health care organizations hire contracted interpreters and have telephone services that work 24 hours a day in 150 languages.


Laura Pfeifer is with Fern, a non-profit organization that has more than 100 interpreters. They work for medical facilities in the eastern state of Maryland. "Since I started a little over five years ago, each year there has been about 20 to 25 percent increase in demand for interpreters."
Census data says the number of U.S. residents with limited English proficiency has grown to 22 million -- eight percent of the population. Federal rules require medical providers receiving federal funds [Medicaid or Medicare] to offer language assistance.


But the rules have not been followed, says Marjory Bancroft. She is with the National, an organization that promotes qualified medical interpreting services.
"In general a lot of (medical) organizations don't know about the law or they don't understand it. This is a big problem."
A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows no interpreter was used in 46 percent of emergency room cases involving patients with limited English proficiency.
"The consequences can be tragic. In many cases miscarriages have occurred. People have had amputations on the wrong limb or limbs cut off that they didn't know. A woman had an abortion without her knowledge."
Advocates say health care workers throughout the world should be aware of diverse cultures. They say medical interpreters should be available everywhere in order to overcome language barriers and avoid tragic miscommunications.
June Soh, VOA news.


¤注解¤:

1. competence n. 能力
2. bilingual adj. 能说两种语言的
3. proficiency n. 熟练, 精通
4. amputation n. 切断手术
5. miscommunication n. 错误传达

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angelonduty : 2007-04-22#63
VOA第4季度上-b016

Natural Wonders on Display at Smithsonian Natural History
By Tabinda Naeem
Washington, DC
29 September 2006


Washington, D.C. is a city of museums, none more famous than those of the Smithsonian Institution. Millions of tourists from all over the world visit these galleries every year. One of the most popular is the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History -- dedicated to inspiring curiosity about the natural world.
A giant African elephant standing four meters tall greets visitors inside. It is the centerpiece of the museum's mammoth collection of more than 125 million natural science specimens and cultural artifacts.

Larry O'Reilly is the head of Special Projects at the museum. "The primary focus of our museum is what they call taxonomic research. In other words, we collect animals from all over the world, but then we classify them. In other words, to understand where an animal fits into the world and in evolutionary history. We've got exhibits here, for example, we have objects on display here that go back to the very beginnings of the Earth, when it was formed."
The museum was established nearly a century ago. In addition to exhibit halls, the facility houses seven different scientific departments with more than 100 researchers.
Museum curators say several of the museum's most popular displays have Hollywood director Steven Spielberg to thank for their newfound appeal. His series of "Jurassic Park" movies has sparked interest in the museum's giant skeletons in the Dinosaur Hall.

Matt Carrano is the exhibit's curator. "The oldest dinosaurs we know of are about 225 million years old and that is in the period of time known as the Triassic period. And dinosaurs begin then, they live through the next period, which is the Jurassic period, which is very familiar because of the movie, and then they live into the Cretaceous [period]. And at the end of the Cretaceous, 65 million years ago, dinosaurs go extinct. And that is about 60 million years before the earliest ancestors of humans that we know of. So, there is a very large gap between the last dinosaurs and the first humans."

Evidence of dinosaurs can be traced back thousands of years, but understanding the significance of these findings only dates back to the 1800s, with the birth of the science known as paleontology. Today, more than 1,000 types of dinosaurs have been identified. Children are among their biggest fans.
While the dinosaurs are popular, museum curators say the number one attraction is the Hope Diamond, the world's largest deep blue diamond. The gem weighs in at over 45 carats and is believed to be a billion years old. This priceless jewel is just one of the thousands of exhibits awaiting visitors at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
For producer Tabinda Naeem, Jim Bertel VOA news.


¤注解¤:

1. mammoth n. [古生] 猛犸, 毛象
2. taxonomic adj. 分类学的
3. evolutionary adj. 进化的
4. skeleton n. (动物之)骨架, 骨骼
5. paleontology n. 古生物学

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-22#64
VOA第4季度上-b017

New York Exhibit Highlights Iraqi-Born Architect's Work
By Barbara Schoetzau
New York
28 September 2006



Hadid is known as the "Diva" of architecture for her visionary designs pushing the boundaries of architecture, urbanism and design. Hadid's buildings appear organic: they bend, climb and flow, often seeming to overlap each other.
Hadid grew up in a modern house Baghdad, Iraq, where she says the progressive ideas of her parents influenced her.
"My mother was interested in design. But my father was an industrialist and a politician. He was one of the leaders of the Iraqi Democratic Party and so they were interested in new ideas."


Zaha Hadid studied mathematics in Baghdad and then architecture in London, where her firm is based. For many years, her designs were admired for their beauty and boldness, but considered impractical. One critic called them "brilliant, but unbuildable." That view changed in 1993 when the Vitra Firehouse was built in Germany. More commissions followed, from a ski jump in Austria to an art museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, to an automobile plant in Germany where a conveyor belt transports cars through an office building on the way to another production facility.
Hadid's associate, Patrik Schumacher, says the firm's work stands out because of its melding of elegance and nature.
"We are opening up a discourse about elegance in a new definition where we are saying it is about articulating complexity and resolving complexity, rather than having jarring contradictions and collage-like assemblages. Beauty was always, elegance was always, a kind of ambition. But injecting diagonals, curvilinearity, also has to do with this emphasis on movement in the contemporary city."
The Guggenheim exhibit examines 30 years of Hadid's work in chronological order: drawings, paintings, animations and furniture as well as her buildings.
Schumacher says the structure of the Guggenheim, a rotunda with a spiraling ramp from bottom to top, emphasizes the fluidity and undulating spaces that are the hallmarks of Hadid's work. The Guggenheim Museum was designed by iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
"This building here, there is a kind of ease of movement and spirally move which spins off into the side galleries and is an early example of a kind of fluid architecture here, the Frank Lloyd Wright building."
Hadid is set apart by more than her radical designs. She is the only woman member of a very exclusive club. She is well aware of her lone status as the only woman on the top of architectural pyramid and calls it strange.
"I think part of the issue is there are lots of younger women, not so many senior women. In Europe, in England, once they have kids, it is very difficult to continue. Maybe it is easier in America. All of my friends in America who have children, they are still working. In London, it is much more difficult for architects, not for other professions. Architecture is very demanding time wise. I am not saying women don't do it. I think it is continuity is an issue."
Hadid is not sure why there is a vacuum at the top but she says it is certainly not due to a lack of talent.
"My best students were always women. It has nothing to do with science or the logic of engineering. They make you uncomfortable as a woman. If you are young, you are patronized. You have to be quite tough to do it. There are lots of women who teach, heads of schools. The academic side is much more understanding. On the other hand, you have lots of lawyers, doctors but not many engineers. I think it is because of this problem that the industry is mostly male. All the developers are male."
After years of designing projects that did not get built, Hadid's work and her vision of the future are now visible in projects across the globe.
Barbara Schoetzau, VOA NEWS, New York.


¤注解¤:

1. visionary adj. 幻影的, 幻想的, 梦想的
2. overlap v. (与...)交迭
3. industrialist n. 工业家, 实业家, 工厂主
4. impractical adj. 不切实际的, 昧于实际的
5. elegance n. 高雅, 优雅, 雅致
6. assemblage n. 与会者(集合称), 集合, 集会
7. continuity n. 连续性, 连贯性

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-22#65
VOA第4季度上-b018

Not All Americans Know The Star-Spangled Banner's Origins
By Enming Liu
Baltimore, MD
27 September 2006

The American national anthem was inspired by the valiant defense of Fort McHenry. It is now a national park about an hour outside Washington D.C. It was the site of fierce fighting during the War of 1812 between the Americans and the British.


Ben Kreshtool is a park ranger at Fort McHenry. "Fort McHenry was built in 1798. It was designed as part of the coastal fortification along the east coast. Fort McHenry was finished in 1803. It was named for James McHenry who was the secretary of war under President George Washington. Britain's Royal Navy attacked Fort McHenry in September of 1814. The ships later withdrew. That led Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner, our national anthem"
The British burned down the White House and the Capitol in August of 1814. They headed toward Baltimore Harbor, a strategic east coast port 64 kilometers outside Washington. Fort McHenry is the main military post there. Commanding officer Major George Armistead made a statement of their readiness by hanging what he called "a flag so large that the British will have no difficulty seeing it from a distance."
September 12th, 1814 -- British troops launched their land incursion. The Royal Navy began its bombardment of Fort McHenry the next day. One thousand American soldiers held on at the fort.


Park ranger Kreshtool (continues the story.) "Out here you can see the green buoy, which is the approximate location the Royal Navy had come in close to do the bombarding of the fort itself."
The bombardment lasted 25 hours. It was estimated that some 1800 bombs, rockets and shells were fired, burning over the sky above Fort McHenry. Native Marylander and lawyer Francis Scott Key witnessed it all.
"Francis Scott Key is on a ship, a flag of truce vessel way down the river behind the British fleet. He was there to negotiate the exchange of a friend of his, Dr. William Beanes who had been taken prisoner by the British. So he was there to exchange with Colonel John Skinner, who was the prisoner of war exchange agent. They would not release everybody to come to Baltimore until the battle was over. They feared they knew too much of the plans."


Francis saw the American flag flying proudly throughout the night. He was inspired to write the Star-Spangled Banner on an envelope he found in his pocket.
Madeleine Halfner is visiting Fort McHenry from West Virginia. “It must have been for Francis Scott Key to be writing The Star Spangled Banner. I mean, I can imagine what Key felt like when he looked through all the bombardment and everything and see the flag still standing. I would think that would be very emotional moment."
The Star-Spangled Banner became the official national anthem in 1931.
The original flag that flew over the fort was given as a gift to the family of Major George Amistead. It was in the family for a long time until it was donated to the Smithsonian Museum in 1909. The 15 stars on the flag have become 50. And Fort McHenry continues to stand tall to tell the story of the birth of the American national anthem.
Enming Liu, VOA news.


¤注解¤:

1. valiant adj. 勇敢的, 英勇的
2. fortification n. 防御工事, 要塞, 筑城术
3. readiness n. 准备就绪
4. incursion n. 袭击, 侵入
5. bombardment n. 炮击, 轰击

附件


yangyang2005 : 2007-04-25#66
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

期待新内容

angelonduty : 2007-04-26#67
VOA第4季度上-b019

Orange County, California Grows Up as a Cultural Center

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
19 September 2006


This was once a farming area, then a bedroom community for the city of Los Angeles, where workers in manufacturing and the aerospace industry could buy cheap tract homes. Wealthier families settled on the hillsides.
In 1955, Orange County became a tourist center, as cartoonist Walt Disney opened his famous theme park.
Before long, Orange County's palm-lined beaches were known around the world for their swimming and surfing, and movies like Orange County poked fun at the local lifestyle.
"I was just another Orange County surfer, carving waves, playing volleyball. But there's more to life than extreme sports and partying."
Orange County has moved beyond its laid-back image. In 1965, a branch of the University of California opened in the Orange County city of Irvine, and the area has become a high tech and automotive design center.


Now, local leaders say it is a cultural destination. The newly expanded Orange County Performing Arts Center includes a 2,000-seat concert hall and smaller 500-seat theater, to supplement two existing venues.
Henry Segerstrom, whose family made a fortune growing lima beams, built one of the country's largest shopping malls in Orange County. He donated land for the new hall and gave $40 million toward its cost. The hall is named after Segerstrom and his late wife, Renee.
The 83-year-old developer was born in Orange County when it was home to fewer than 200,000 people.
"Our population base now is 20 times that. We're at three million people. And we're a high technology center in the world and a higher education center. So we have now matured in one more step. With the opening of the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, we've become a cultural center in America and internationally."
Terrence Dwyer, president of the performing arts center, says the new multi-tiered theater is itself a work of art, and an acoustic wonder.
"It's actually a tunable hall. There are over 100 doors on every level throughout the hall that are opened and closed and adjusted to the needs of each particular piece of music. It's really an amazing musical instrument in and of itself."
John Alexander directs and conducts the Pacific Chorale, the 170-member vocal group that performs at the center.
"We have performed in every hall in Southern California, as well as Carnegie Hall and Chicago Symphony Hall and in New York at Lincoln Center. This is our favorite place. After two weeks of dealing with acoustics, we can hear beautifully in this hall. We are just thrilled. It's an extraordinary place."
Cesar Pelli, an Argentinian-born American architect, designed the new addition, working with the noted acoustic designer Russell Johnson. Pelli's facade of undulating glass gives the hall a distinctive appearance.
As he sat onstage hours before the opening performance, he spoke about the design of the new building.
"I would not know how to describe it for somebody who has not seen it in some images, but I will say that the building is welcoming, delightful, uplifting - that's very important to me. This will prepare you for the magic that is a great concert, in a very intimate way, with other fellow citizens, with friends. And you will be listening to music being created right there.
Performances the opening weekend featured tenor Placido Domingo and the violinist Midori.
The expanded performing arts center will also feature opera, ballet and Broadway shows, all in the heart of Orange County.
Mike O'Sullivan, VOA news, Los Angeles.


¤注解¤:

1. laid-back adj. 松驰的,懒散的
2. tunable adj. 可调的
3. acoustics n. 声学
4. extraordinary adj. 特别的, 非凡的
5. intimate adj. 亲密的, 隐私的
6. violinist n. 小提琴演奏者, 小提琴家

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-26#68
VOA第4季度上-b020

Unusual Tribute To 9/11 Victims Goes On Display

By Amanda Cassandra
New York
08 September 2006


The exhibition is a stark reminder of what happened on September 11. A thick layer of ash and debris cover what was once a clothing display from the The Chelsea Jeans Store in lower Manhattan, illustrating the desolation left behind when the Twin Towers collapsed in a cloud of dust that rained down over the entire area.
The New York Historical Society decided to exhibit the window display from that fateful day: Rows of hanging clothes in an array of bright yellows, reds, blues, blacks and whites that were muted by thick layers of gray ash.
In the days following the attacks, the store, one block away from the World Trade Center complex, became an impromptu place of pilgrimage for thousands of mourners and tourists. They stopped just to look and remember.
The store closed in October of 2002, like many stores in the area that experienced an economic slump in the wake of the attacks.
Chelsea Jeans owner David Cohen says he was determined to preserve part of the store because of the memories held in the dust.
"I remember there was one lady who walked in with her son and they asked to take some the ashes. I said 'sure, you're welcome to take some.' I mean the store was full with ash and she just took like a coffee cup filled it up with some of the dust from the ashes. And then I went in and I was like may I ask just why? And she said that her husband, the father of the kid, was in the buildings and they can't find him and they just want something to hold onto."
Moved by her response, Cohen decided to the leave display intact.
"I think we need to remember. There are things that it is very important to keep them the way they are because taking a history book in twenty or thirty years from now and looking at this or looking at pictures is never going to be the same as actually standing in front of it and seeing what happened that day."
The store display was moved in sections to the New York Historical Society and stored in moisture resistant crates to keep the fragile clothing materials from degrading. The display has been reconstructed as part of the fifth anniversary exhibit, Elegy in the Dust: September 11 and the Chelsea Jeans Memorial.
Historical Society Conservator Alan Balicki says this exhibit is a departure from other exhibits about September 11.
"Most of the other exhibits are photographs and they are artifacts as well found at Ground Zero, damaged material. This is actually a time capsule and I think that differs dramatically from the other exhibitions."
In the wake of the attacks, the dust from the collapsed buildings was determined to be hazardous material. Exhibit Curator, Amy Weinstein, says the Society took great care to protect visitors.
"We designed a Plexiglas case which is sealed to the floor with silicon. It's Plexiglas. It's sealed so there's no air exchange. All of our visitors can feel comfortable, feel safe looking at the memorial knowing that they're not breathing in the dust."
Weinstein says the Society understands that the dust is not only historic, but to some, sacred.
"We don't know precisely what's in this small sample of the dust, but what we chose to do was treat it with a great deal of respect and reverence, because if nothing else, symbolically it stands for the 3,000 people, who lost their lives in the attacks on the World Trade Center," she added.
Photographs that portray the timeline and the aftermath of the September 11 attacks accompany the glass-encased display. A video also documents the removal and reconstruction process of the Chelsea Jeans display.
This exhibit is part of the History Responds initiative launched by the Society to help the public learn about, and learn from the September 11 attacks.
Amanda Cassandra, VOA news, New York.


¤注解¤:

1. debris n. 碎片
2. desolation n. 荒芜, 荒凉, 忧伤, 悲哀
3. impromptu n. 即席演出adj. 即席的
4. slump n. 消沉, 衰退
5. intact adj. 完整无缺的
6. moisture n. 潮湿, 湿气
7. reverence n. 尊敬, 敬重, 尊严, 威望

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-27#69
VOA第4季度上-b021

US Company Builds Large High-Flying Balloon to Fill Communications Niche
By Mike O'Sullivan
Palmdale, California
06 September 2006



The prototype of the robotic airship is being assembled in a huge hangar where the B-1 bomber was built, and where engineers once worked on the experimental X-33 spacecraft.
Bob Jones of the company Sanswire Networks says the balloon will hover in the stratosphere at a height of nearly 20,000 meters. From there, it will provide video, voice and data communication to an area the size of Texas.
The Stratellite will offer links for cell phones and television receivers, in what he calls the last-mile solution.
"The last-mile solution - it means that people that live up in the mountains or out in the country where there's no infrastructure, well, this is the answer."
He says a network of Stratellites could offer computer users Internet access anywhere.
"For example, if I'm in the middle of the Mojave Desert, I could open up my laptop and I could communicate."
Jones envisions hundreds of the airships hovering high above the United States to augment, but not replace, existing satellite and ground communications.
"We would like to see a lot of these things flying and providing the needed communications."
The Stratellite is a rigid airship, unlike a blimp, which has no supporting structure. The new ship is more like the Zeppelins of the 1920s and '30s.
The prototype is a little smaller than an advertising blimp, at 37 meters stem to stern. Made with modern materials such as carbon composites, it is incredibly light, weighing only 340 kilograms. The prototype is one-fifth the size of the final version.

Jones shows a visitor the components being crafted in the hangar.
"Yeah, these are the fins. They are very light. This is carbon/carbon right here. This is a foam core. And you have got carbon with foam sandwiched. So what we are doing is, for the structure - this is the main structure here - we want to make sure that this does not fail."
The Stratellite is intended to stay aloft for 18 months, before operators on the ground return it for servicing.
The airship will undergo testing in coming days. Its technology is unproven, and even if it works, there is tough competition in a crowded industry. But Jones believes the new device will fill a niche in the communications market, and will also have other uses.
"It is amazing looking at the potential of this vehicle, not only the use of the communication but for homeland security, utilizing something like this to fly the coastal area, the border between Canada and the U.S., and down in Mexico and the U.S., and being able to detect people going across."
He says the balloon could be used for search-and-rescue operations and in natural disasters.
Jones says the South American nations of Colombia and Peru and the US military have shown interest in the project.
Sanswire is not the only company looking for new uses of old technologies. Next door, a company founded by Russian immigrants is making advertising blimps, and developing a new hybrid airplane-airship to carry tourists and cargo.
And just down the highway, in the desert town of Mojave, aerospace visionary Burt Rutan is working on a craft to carry tourists into space. In 2004, he launched the world's first private spaceship, called SpaceShipOne, from Mojave Airport.
Mike O'Sullivan, VOA news, Palmdale, California.


¤注解¤:

1. prototype n. 原型
2. stratosphere n. [气]同温层, 最上层, 最高阶段
3. infrastructure n. 下部构造, 基础下部组织
4. composite n. 合成物
5. hybrid adj. 混合的, 杂种的

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-27#70
VOA第4季度上-b022

US Population Hits 300 Million

By Margaret Besheer
Washington
17 October 2006


At 11:46 universal time Tuesday, the U.S. Census Bureau says the 300-millionth U.S. resident arrived.
Demographers say this person was either a newborn, an immigrant crossing the border or someone flying into the United States.
They calculated the moment based on estimates that one baby is born every seven seconds, one person dies every 13 seconds, and a new immigrant arrives in the United States every 31 seconds, adding up to one new American every 11 seconds.
In 1915, the United States reached the 100-million mark. Fifty-two years later, on November 20, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson held a news conference to mark the 200th million arrival.
The popular Life magazine crowned a baby boy born in Atlanta, Georgia to a Chinese immigrant mother and American-born father as the 200-millionth American.
Now a 38-year-old attorney and father of three, Robert Ken Woo, Jr., says it was sometimes difficult being known as the 200-millionth American.
"The attention was embarrassing to me."
Today's milestone was met with little celebration, and comes at a time when Americans are debating the controversial issue of illegal immigration and environmentalists are warning about the impact a growing population has on the environment.
Jeffrey Passel is a demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington. "It does mean that we are more crowded than we used to be and are using more resources."
Joseph Chamie of the New York-based Center for Migration Studies says growth can be both positive and negative.
"More people, more houses; more people, more cars; more people, more plumbers, electricians, more work."
Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of America's population, and demographers say the 300-millionth American could have been born to Hispanic parents or walked across the border from Mexico.
Margaret Besheer, VOA news, Washington.


¤注解¤:

1. immigrant n. 移民, 侨民
2. celebration n. 庆祝, 庆典
3. controversial adj. 争论的, 争议的
4. demographer n. 人口统计学家

附件


angelonduty : 2007-04-27#71
VOA第4季度上-b023

Youngest Imams Fill a Void in Ramadan

By June Soh
Washington, D.C.
17 October 2006


Aman Chhipa is 13 years old, an eighth grader at a Washington-area middle school. He is taking on an unusual responsibility for a teenage boy -- leading a special prayer called Taraweeh during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
"I felt nervous. I was scared. I am, 'like how am I going to do this?' It is such a huge responsibility. Well, later on, like a few days later, I built confidence. I said, 'O.K. I can do this.' "
Aman and another teenager, 16-year-old Uzair Jawed, are being entrusted with the revered role of imam at the Islamic Community Center of Northern Virginia in the Washington D.C suburbs.

"It's nervous because they expect you not making any mistakes so you have a lot of responsibility to know it [Koran] good and you have to recite it like perfect to them."
A cleric from South Africa, who had led the center's prayers during Ramadan in past years, was deported this year, right after he had arrived at the airport. It was the day before Ramadan started.
Suddenly, leaders at the Islamic center found themselves desperate to find a "hafiz," a person who has memorized the more than 6,200 Arabic verses of the Koran and can recite them without looking at the text. They searched among the adults, in their community and elsewhere in the U.S. and found no one.
That's when they turned to Aman and Uzair.
Mohmedsharif Munshi is the president of the Islamic center."We tried the first day. Everybody was uneasy, then he [Aman] turned out really excellent. And another boy, 16-year-old also [excellent]. So they are taking turns. We are really enjoying their recitals. So thanks God, everything worked out good."
Aman's parents are from India. Determined to make him a hafiz, they sent him to a school for higher Islamic studies in Pennsylvania at age seven. Aman memorized the Koran by the time he was 10. Uzair's family is from Pakistan. He memorized the Koran by age 13.
Aman's father, Nasir Chhipa, is a director at the Islamic center. He says some mosques in the U.S. have hafizes in their area, but 70 to 80 percent rely on scholars from overseas. He says there is a growing need for U.S. Muslims to stop depending on those from other countries since the U.S government has applied stricter entry regulations since the 9/11 attacks.
"What I believe is we have to make our own scholars because we cannot depend on the world. We will have to produce our own scholars from America."
Munshi, the center's president, agrees. "That is very much essential. I think local talents who are born here have more power of convincing and better representing and everything. We should create local talents no matter how much time it takes and how much effort and everything it takes."
Islamic communities say Aman and Uzair may be the youngest imams in the U.S.
"I feel special because I think Allah has been giving me a talent so I shouldn't waste it. I should use it. I didn't know that this opportunity would come so fast."
But with the opportunity comes responsibility. Gone are the days that Aman could spend hours sitting in front of his computer playing games -- at least for a month. Once he comes home after school, his life as a Muslim leader starts. In between his religious duties, he constantly practices the Koran alone or with Uzair, who has become his best friend.
"The main thing is that memorizing is the easy part. That is the first step. Now the second step is to remember because the prophet, peace be upon him, said that the Koran is nobody's friend. If you forget it, it will forget you."
Aman's long day starts before five o'clock in the morning with prayers at home. Then there's school -- followed by more prayers. After he leads the final nightly prayer at the mosque, his homework usually keeps him up until about 11:30. But it's all part of a day's work. "I feel a bit tired and I feel happy that another day is completed. I feel like I accomplished something."
Despite the long hours, Aman says, he looks forward to each day, and he is thankful to Allah for giving him the gift.
June Soh, VOA news.


¤注解¤:

1. hafiz n. 能背诵全部可兰经的伊斯兰教徒
2. verse n. 诗, 诗句, 诗篇
3. mosque n. 清真寺
4. accomplish vt. 完成, 达到, 实现

附件


julieeric : 2007-04-27#72
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

lz你太棒了,向你学习

yangyang2005 : 2007-04-28#73
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

4242

angelonduty : 2007-04-28#74
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

lz你太棒了,向你学习
呵呵,谢谢您的景仰!
俺只是刚找到点儿听力的感觉,无他.

angelonduty : 2007-04-29#75
VOA第4季度上-c001

Advances in Artificial Limbs Help Returning Soldier-Amputees

By Melinda Smith
Washington, DC
01 November 2006


This is the physical therapy room for amputees at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, young soldiers come for the assistance they'll need to help them make the transition to civilian lives. They already have two major advantages: they are young and in top physical condition. Daniel Carroll who works with the amputees. "At Walter Reed, they're fit with prostheses a lot sooner than the normal population. And that's to prevent de-conditioning and just to keep them coordinated and have them back into action as soon as possible."
'Back into action' does not mean back on the front lines for a large majority of these soldiers. It means learning to walk before learning to run.

Lance Corporal Kade Hinkhouse has dreams of running again. He is training with a 'mechanical' leg, rather than the customary "C" leg worn by most soldier amputees. The "C" leg directs physical movement by means of a computer inside the knee unit.
Hinkhouse likes the mechanical leg because it gives him more muscle control. "There's probably some more fine tuning I can do, to make sure I walk a little bit better, and not fall so much."
Hinkhouse was only 19 when an improvised bomb in the Iraqi town of Ramadi blew up next to the military vehicle in which he was riding. He lost a leg, part of his skull, and one of his buddies. "My friend was sitting six inches next to me, off to my right, and he died."
Hinkhouse might also have died if it had not been for the medics who moved in behind the blast. Quick-response surgical teams can set up a hospital unit in one hour.

They may also have saved the life of Marine Corporal Travis Greene. At Walter Reed, he is learning to balance on his computer-directed limbs, with the help of a walker. He describes how he lost both legs when a secondary explosion happened during the rescue of another soldier. "An IED [Improvised Explosive Device] blew up on the other side of the 'seven-ton' [large military vehicle] and all the shrapnel came from underneath and took everybody's legs from there."
Bullet-proof vests worn by the U.S. military protect the largest part of the body. The head, arms and legs are more vulnerable. The rate of head and neck injuries, as well as limb amputations, has been higher in Iraq compared to previous wars.
In the past, wartime has always been the source of innovation in the development of prosthetics. The conflict in Iraq has prompted the use of lighter, more durable materials like graphite and titanium for the prostheses. Again, Daniel Carroll, "The biggest advent we saw was the addition of carbon fiber, which is an energy storing material for things, to add strength to the socket and also flexibility and energy storage to the feet."
Returning soldiers like Kade Hinkhouse say they realize their physical abilities will never be as they were before going off to war. But they hope to have fewer limitations by learning to use these lighter, more flexible prostheses. "If I have kids, how am I going to chase after them in a wheelchair, if I don't have my leg on. There are a lot of obstacles that I'll have to overcome."
Melinda Smith, VOA news, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.


¤注解¤:

1. amputee n. 受切断手术的人
2. mechanical adj. 机械的, 机械制的
3. surgical adj. 外科的, 外科医生的, 手术上的
4. vulnerable adj. 易受攻击的
5. graphite n. 石墨
6. titanium n. [化]钛

附件


等待ME : 2007-04-29#76
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

thanks

angelonduty : 2007-05-03#77
VOA第4季度上-c002

Africa Population Experts Seek to Make Motherhood Safer

By Efam Dovi
Accra
06 November 2006
-----

Pregnancy and childbirth are life-changing events expected to bring joy to families. But for many women in sub-Saharan Africa, these events have become associated with death and misery.
World Health Organization and United Nations studies, indicate that one out of 16 women living in sub-Saharan Africa will die from pregnancy related causes, compared to developed countries where the figure is one out of 28,00.
About 200 delegates meeting in Ghana will be discussing and sharing experiences on the problem during the next three days.
Ghana National Population Council Cahir Virginia Ofosu-Ammah says it is important to make all components of reproductive-health services easily accessible.
She said, "So this meeting is suppose to look at what is happening in countries in West Africa, find out exactly what they are doing right, what they are doing wrong, so that we do not repeat the mistakes, and then we hope that through the exchange of experiences we will really strengthen what we are doing and try to scale up the programs on safe motherhood."
Jacques Van Zuydam represents the African Population Commission, currently chaired by South Africa. He stressed the need to empower women to take control over decisions that affect their bodies.
"The countries that have made progress in the provision of reproductive health services as part of a comprehensive primary healthcare are the ones that have achieved lower maternal, infant and child mortality rates and lower fertility rates," he said.
U.N.F.P.A. Ghana's representative, Makane Kane, called for action in addressing the problem.
He said, "It is no longer the time for projects or pilots as we have enough evidence of what works and at what cost. The majority of countries have already successful but limited projects to reduce maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity, it is time to go to scale up, to scale to ensure universal access to maternal health services in as many countries as possible."
Experts say 80 percent of maternal deaths are due to direct causes such as blood loss, unsafe abortion, obstructed labor and pregnancy induced hypertension.
Professor F.T. Sai, Ghana's presidential advisor on population and health, asks delegates to advocate for laws that protect women from unsafe abortion.
"My main concern is that if this [unsafe abortion] is killing so many women and the technologies are available why should we allow ideologies or religion or whatever, to make them die, which religion says my people should die?"
Nearly 50 percent of all maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa are blamed on unsafe abortion.

¤注解¤:

1. pregnancy n.怀孕
2. Ghana n.加纳
3. chair vt.使入座, 使就任要职
4. infant n.婴儿, 幼儿adj.婴儿的, 幼稚的

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angelonduty : 2007-05-03#78
VOA第4季度上-c003

Aid Group: Urgent Need for New Drugs to Combat Drug-Resistant TB

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
30 October 2006

In the 1980s, many experts thought tuberculosis could be eradicated in a matter of decades. But, TB, which had been on the decline, has come roaring back in a more dangerous form than in the past.
Health experts are worried about the emergence of what they call extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB for short. They say existing drugs are ineffective against it.

The head of Doctors Without Borders, Rowan Gillies, says extremely drug-resistant TB poses a particularly grave threat in places with high HIV prevalence, because, with their weakened immune systems, HIV patients are more susceptible to TB. Public health officials say, of the 40 million people living with HIV, about one-third are infected with tuberculosis.
The World Health Organization reports, every year there are nine million new cases of TB. About two million people die. Ninety-nine percent of these cases are in the developing world.
Dr. Gillies says there has been little incentive for research and development of TB drugs.
"There has been very little research and development into tuberculosis in the last 40 or 50 years. The pipeline was almost completely closed down over the last 30 or 40 years, mainly because people with tuberculosis do not live in countries that is a reasonable market for pharmaceutical research."
Dr. Gillies says leadership from the World Health Organization to tackle this health crisis is urgently needed.
"We have been going on about this for a long time about requiring leadership from the WHO in the major health crises of today. And, especially with tuberculosis, they cannot delegate this responsibility. It must take on this responsibility, especially when it comes to research and development into new tools and new medications. This is what we desperately need."
Earlier this month, health officials from the WHO and Southern Africa met to discuss ways to deal with the growing cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis.
The director of Doctors Without Borders' Essential Medicines program, Tido von Schoen-Angerer, says several drugs aimed at treating extremely drug-resistant TB are under development. But, they are not likely to become available for a very long time, which he says is very worrying.
"We are calling here for today to fast-track the clinical development of those compounds in the pipeline that are already in clinical trials. We are calling on the regulatory agencies, like the [U.S.] Food and Drug Administration, or the European regulatory agencies, to guide the process, how a fast track clinical development can be done to move the most promising compounds to the patients as quickly as possible."
Dr. Schoen-Angerer says these new drugs should be given to TB patients as soon as they are proven safe, as happened with the HIV epidemic.
He notes the first HIV drugs were fast-tracked and made available for compassionate use before they had final approval. He says the TB emergency warrants a similar process.

¤注解¤:
1. tuberculosis n. 肺结核
2. ineffective adj. 无效的
3. prevalence n. 流行
4. pharmaceutical adj. 制药(学)上的
5. regulatory adj. 调整的

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angelonduty : 2007-05-09#79
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

This post is supposed to resume later this Sunday.

angelonduty : 2007-05-13#80
VOA第4季度上-c004

Cardiologists Debate Safety of Heart Stents

By Carol Pearson
Washington, DC
08 November 2006



A stent is a tiny mesh tube, usually made of metal, that is inserted into an artery so more blood can flow through.
Various drugs, such as antibiotics, can be used to coat the stents. About 6 million people worldwide have drug-coated stents implanted in an artery. Cardiologists are now debating whether these stents can cause potentially fatal blood clots.
Dr. Michael Lincoff explains. "The clot forms in the stent, closes the stent off and the blood stops down the artery. And so that area of the heart muscle has a heart attack."

Some research suggests drug-coated stents may be responsible for 6,000 heart attacks in the U.S. each year. Dr. Craig Smith of the Mayo Clinic says, "Even though there's considerable debate about the magnitude of the risk involved, it seems to be greater than was appreciated before."
Drug-coated stents prevent the buildup of scar tissue in the artery. But the stents have direct contact with the blood stream, and can allow clots to form.
Dr. Lincoff says for patients with a drug-coated stent it's critical to remain on blood thinning drugs that help prevent clots from forming. "By far, the majority of these blood clotting events that are happening in patients who have stopped one or both blood thinning medications."
The debate over drug-coated stents may one day be moot. Scientists are now testing a stent that can be absorbed into the artery wall once the stent does its job. This type of stent may prove to be a safer alternative to the other stents currently available.
Carol Pearson VOA news.

¤注解¤:

1. insert vt. 插入, 嵌入
2. cardiology n. [医]心(脏)病学
3. magnitude n. 大小, 数量, 巨大, 广大, 量级
4. currently adv.普遍地, 通常地, 现在, 当前

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卉樱果 : 2007-05-13#81
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

太好了,谢谢~

angelonduty : 2007-05-14#82
VOA第4季度上-c005

Child Mortality Rate Increases in Zimbabwe

By Tendai Maphosa
Harare
25 October 2006



Health Minister David Parirenyatwa is quoted in the state-controlled daily newspaper, The Herald as saying one in every 15 Zimbabwean children will die before his first birthday. Quoting the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey, Parirenyatwa added that one in 10 children would die before turning five.
The survey shows a rise from 59 to 102 deaths per 1,000 live births between 1985 and 1999. It also shows that more children die in rural than urban areas.
Maternal mortality more than doubled from 283 per 100,000 live births in 1994 to 695 between 1995 and 1999.
Parirenyatwa says one of the reasons for the increases was the high cost of health care, which is beyond the reach of the majority of Zimbabweans. He says, although public health institutions should not charge anything for treating children under five or pregnant mothers who cannot pay, some insist on payment.
Zimbabwe's health care system, once among the best in Africa, is reeling under the HIV and AIDS pandemic,compounded by a worsening economic crisis, which has caused an exodus of trained personnel to other countries and a severe shortage of drugs.
Tendai Maphosa, for VOA news, Harare.


¤注解¤:

1. quote vt. 引用, 引证
2. demographic adj. 人口统计学的
3. pregnant adj. 怀孕的
4. exodus n. 大批的离去

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angelonduty : 2007-05-16#83
VOA第4季度上-c006

Conference: Africa More Vulnerable to Climate Change

By Alisha Ryu
Naivasha, Kenya
15 November 2006---

57-year-old Michael Mukasa has lived near the shores of Lake Naivasha for most of his life. In the past seven years, he has been working here as a fisherman, hoping to provide for his wife and eight children.
Watching dark storm clouds gather over the 250-square-kilometer lake, Mukasa's weathered face breaks into a smile. Rain is coming and that is good news for him.
Mukasa says he has noticed that droughts in Kenya have become longer and more frequent in recent years, sometimes leaving the water levels in the lake dangerously low. But he says it has been raining much more than usual this year and the fish are thriving.
In the Eastern Rift Valley, it is not just fishermen who depend on the fresh waters of Lake Naivasha for their survival.
The lake hosts a large number of hippos and nearly 500 species of birds, which attract thousands of tourists every year.
The lake also plays a vital role in Kenya's economy by irrigating some 100 square kilometers of vegetable and flower farms in Naivasha that generate net revenues of nearly $65 million a year.
The farms employ an estimated 30,000 migrant workers, who, along with Naivasha's 250,000 permanent residents, rely on the lake for much of their daily water needs.
But the monitoring officer for a local wetlands association, Bogo Kamau, says the lake has begun showing clear signs of stress and degradation in recent years.
"What I have noted is that the lake levels have gone down,” he said. “It is tending toward a saline lake. Also, the color of the water has changed."
Kamau says the changes are occurring because tributaries of the two main rivers which feed Lake Naivasha, are no longer bringing as much fresh water as is needed to dilute some of the waste, salts, and minerals in the lake.
Environmentalists say the tributaries are contributing less water because severe deforestation in the local mountains, combined with warmer temperatures, is affecting the amount of rain that falls in the area every year.
George Otiang'a-Owiti is the head of Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute in Naivasha. He notes that the lake's ecosystem is so extensive, interdependent, and fragile, anything that upsets the balance can devastate it.
For example, Owiti says African cape buffalos, which have lost much of their nearby forest habitat, are threatening the health of the lake.
"Because of deforestation, the buffalos have now moved toward the lake area here,” he noted. “And because of that, the buffalos are trodding over the papyrus, which is a very good filter for the water in the lake. And the buffalos graze on the papyrus and this, of course, does not allow regeneration of the papyrus."
In the Kenyan capital Nairobi, many of the specialists attending the two-week U.N. talks on climate change have been urging the world's wealthy nations to pay greater attention to the effects of global warming, which they say could soon destroy entire communities in poverty-striken areas of Africa.
The United States and Australia have been especially criticized for not signing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which requires industrialized countries to greatly reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. The emissions, caused by burning of fossil fuels, are believed to be largely responsible for the earth's rising temperatures that have affected weather patterns.
But Bogo Kamau says he thinks local people must also be educated and taught to do their part in protecting and preserving their environment and livelihoods.
"We do not need to criticize what other people are doing,” he said. “We need to also change, to realize that you are also part of the problem."
John Stanton is the vice president of National Environmental Trust, a Washington-based, non-profit organization. He says to increase local participation in conservation efforts, one option being discussed at the U.N. climate change conference is to provide incentives for communities to preserve their forests.
"For communities that allow the forests to remain standing, they would actually be provided a financial reward and that would serve many developmental goals, including habitat conservation, clean-water benefits," he explained.
In Lake Naivasha, undisturbed forests mean financial security and a better life for many people, including fisherman Michael Mukasa.
Scooping up some water with his hands, Mukasa says he cannot imagine what his life would like if something were to happen to the lake.
"It would be very bad and everyone here would know what suffering really is," he said.
Alisha Ryu VOA news Naivasha, Kenya

¤注解¤:

1. fisherman n.渔民, 渔夫
2. drought n.干旱, 缺乏
3. hippo n.河马
4. mineral n.矿物, 矿石
5. deforestation n.采伐森林, 森林开伐

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angelonduty : 2007-05-16#84
VOA第4季度上-c007

Congo Hospital Keeps Dying AIDS Patients Unaware of Condition Because of Taboo

By Nico Colombant
Kinshasa
17 November 2006
-----
This hospital built by Belgium colonizers in 1928 is the biggest in the DRC. It now has an aisle for female victims of HIV/AIDS.
Most are very sick, but they do not even know they suffer from the disease. Doctors say AIDS is considered so shameful, that victims refuse to even consider the possibility of a test.

One exception is Chouchouna Mukesinga. She agrees to talk to VOA, but not to have her face filmed. "I am getting treatment but it is very difficult. I vomit all the time. I have horrible stomach-aches. I know about these symptoms all too well. Both my parents died of AIDS and two of my children died as well. My husband also died of AIDS. I took care of my mother before she died from this horrible sickness. I always thought it was my fault that she had AIDS, because I was so young. Now it is me who carries this burden. I saw her nails fall off, and mine are starting to do the same. I saw the spots on her face, and I am starting to get those as well."
She says it is important for her to know her status.
"My only surviving son is only nine years old. He needs to study. He needs to live. So I am under intensive treatment. But still it does not seem to be going too well for me. I had to go to other hospitals before ending up here. Now I am treated better, but I still cannot stop vomiting and having diarrhea. I have lost 30 kilograms. I try to eat well but it is so difficult."

Doctor J.M. Bwanahali heads the care for AIDS patients. Since many are never told they have AIDS, he came up with another system for treating them. "Those who can be released from the hospital, we use what we call confidantes. They are told about the victim's AIDS status. Then, they try to make sure the patient takes the necessary medication and that they take it regularly. And we see these confidantes at least once a month."
Doctor Bwanahali says it very difficult to treat HIV/AIDS in Africa, because many victims are so poor, and have so very little to eat. Those who refuse to be tested, he says, endure an uncertain future, in near-total isolation.
Nico Colombant VOA news Kinshasa

¤注解¤:

1. Belgium n.比利时(西欧国家)
2. symptom n.[医][植]症状, 征兆
3. diarrhea n.痢疾,腹泻
4. confidante n.知己的女友

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angelonduty : 2007-05-17#85
VOA第4季度上-c008

Countries Agree to Pursue Fusion Energy Research

By David McAlary
Washington
21 November 2006
The consortium brings together the United States, the European Union, Japan, Russia, China, South Korea, and India to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER for short, in southern France.


The U.S. delegate to the signing, Raymond Orbach, says the project will be carried out on an unprecedented scale for the betterment of a world dependent on fossil fuels, such as oil and coal.
"ITER has the potential to free the quickly growing global economy and population from the looming constraints of decreasing energy supplies and the unfortunate effects of environmental degradation," Orbach said.
ITER began with an agreement at the 1985 U.S.-Soviet Geneva Summit. It was one result of a plan to develop joint activities to help reduce Cold War tensions. Other nations joined later.
But Congress ordered the U.S. government to withdraw in 1998 because it considered the original reactor design too expensive. Faced with a sharp drop in the budget, the remaining ITER members redesigned the reactor at half the cost, making it attractive again to the United States, which rejoined in 2003.
Debate over the location of the project was another source of political friction. France and Japan both wanted it, but the partners agreed on France last year. In return, Japan pays lower construction costs and gets more staff, including the post of ITER director-general.
Now that the agreement is final, Raymond Orbach says the consortium can pursue development of the energy that powers stars.
"The fusion process is one of the most powerful ways of producing energy that nature has devised," he explained. "As examples of that, I simply suggest you look at the stars and realize how our sun is powered. So what we are trying to do is to take advantage of this quite remarkable property of nature that literally keeps us alive."
In fusion, the nuclei of light elements, such as hydrogen, fuse together inside stars to make heavier elements, such as helium. The fusing process gives off tremendous amounts of energy.
Using fusion to generate power, there would be none of the greenhouse gas byproducts of the sort fossil fuels emit. Nor would fusion produce radioactive material as does the other form of nuclear energy, called fission. The source of hydrogen for the energy-producing reaction would be water.
The ITER reactor will use doughnut-shaped magnetic coils to induce an electric current in a mixture of charged particles, making conditions hot enough to create fusion reactions like those inside stars.
Environmental groups oppose the project. At the Washington branch of Friends of the Earth, Eric Pica says the program is a tremendous waste of money for the slight hope of producing fusion energy.
"You can make better investments by investing in renewable energy and energy conservation," Pica said. "We know these things will save energy and reduce our fossil fuel dependence now."
But Raymond Orbach, the U.S. Department of Energy's science director, says not pursuing fusion research would be an outrage.
"We would be telling our world population that they do not have a chance of achieving the standard of living that the rest of us enjoy," Orbach said. "That is how serious it is if we do not pursue this opportunity."
Plans call for the eight-year construction of the ITER reactor to begin next year. Officials hope to have the unit working by 2040. They predict that if all goes well, fusion could provide 10 to 20 percent of the world's energy by the end of the century.
By David McAlary VOA news Washington

¤注解¤:

1. thermonuclear adj.高热原子核反应的
2. degradation n.降级, 降格, 退化
3. friction n.摩擦, 摩擦力
4. hydrogen n.氢

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angelonduty : 2007-05-17#86
VOA第4季度上-c009

Doctors Without Borders Displays Refugee Camp in New York City
By Kane Farabaugh
New York City
06 October 2006



The US Committee for Refugees says there are 33 million refugees in the world. More than 20 million are internally displaced people seeking safety from conflict in their own countries.


This human tragedy is a way of life that Doctors Without Borders Project Coordinator Brett Davis experienced first-hand while working in the Darfur region of Sudan. "I think it's really difficult to try to explain it. It's something that you really have to experience to understand the hardship people go through."
And Doctors Without Borders is now attempting to recreate that experience for people in the United States.
Here in the heart of Brooklyn, the rolling green fields of Prospect Park are transformed into a makeshift refugee camp.
The exhibit is filled with actual items the organization uses in the field. The simple straw huts and plastic tarp tents stand in stark contrast to the expensive apartment buildings just meters away.
It is a way of life many of the thousands of people who wandered through the exhibit have never experienced, or witnessed first-hand.


That's one of the goals of this campaign, according to Doctors Without Borders U.S. Executive Director Nicholas de Torrente. Another goal is to draw the attention of visitors and the media to what he calls lesser-known crises throughout the world such as Colombia and Congo. "The media often doesn't pay attention to these crises, these conflicts, and we call them neglected or under reported, so I think that there is a big gap there in terms of media coverage of what's happening in some of these areas."
Some familiar Hollywood faces are helping the effort to raise awareness. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie made news with a $1 million donation to Doctors Without Borders while the exhibit was on display in New York.
"She gave us an unrestricted gift which basically allows us to do the work, be true to humanitarian principles which is to go where the needs are the greatest, to help people who are in the most difficult conditions. That money doesn't have strings attached."
While money and awareness go a long way in helping the organization alleviate suffering, it doesn't solve all its problems.
Doctors Without Borders considers the security situation in Iraq too great a risk for its staff. In 2004, the group shut down operations in the war torn country and has not been able to return.
The Doctors Without Borders "Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City" plans to make stops in Atlanta and Nashville later this year.
Kane Farabaugh, VOA news, New York.

¤注解¤:

1. hardship n. 困苦, 艰难, 辛苦
2. makeshift adj. 凑合的
3. neglected adj. 被忽视的
4. coverage n. 覆盖
5. alleviate vt. 使(痛苦等)易于忍受, 减轻

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angelonduty : 2007-05-20#87
VOA第4季度上-c010

Genealogical Studies Being Aided by DNA Tests

By Greg Flakus
Houston, Texas
24 November 2006
---


Roberta Estes has a long list of European family surnames that she has encountered in her search through family records and public documents.
But through DNA testing she found out that she also has genetic links to sub-Saharan Africa and Native American Indians, bringing her closer to others who descend from those lines.
One of Roberta's lines has the surname Younger and many people with this name assume that they are related to the infamous 19th century Missouri outlaw band led by Cole Younger. But Roberta says DNA tests have shown not all Youngers are related.
Pointing to her research Roberta says, "There is the Cole Younger and the Younger gang line and then there is another line, even though they both come out of Virginia and Maryland at about the same time, but the DNA has proven that they are two distinct and separate lines."
DNA tests are most useful in determining genetic links between people who may have little documentation or oral history to guide them. Adrian Williams leads a group of people with the surname Williams, the third most common surname in the United States. There are many branches of the Williams line that may not be related to one another. But Adrian says a DNA test has helped him find connections with others who share his surname.
"Although it could not tell us explicitly that that Reuben was the brother of my George,” says Adrien, “when you take the testing along with all the circumstantial evidence, that makes [bridges] the gap."
"DNA testing is nothing more than a tool in the toolkit for the genealogist who has run into a paper trail roadblock," says Bennett Greenspan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Family Tree DNA, the Houston-based company that is considered the world leader in genetic testing for genealogical research. "With DNA testing we are able to unravel that history book that is contained within the cells of all of us."
Family Tree DNA is now working with the National Geographic Society on a large-scale program to trace the migrations of humankind. One of the experts assisting in this and in the use of DNA for genealogical studies is Professor Michael Hammer, head of the Genomics Analysis and Technology Core at the University of Arizona.
"We do carry mutations that go back a million years in our genome. We also carry mutations that are specific to a particular population,” says Hammer. “Those mutations probably arose in the past few thousand years after that population diverged and separated from their common ancestral population."
But Professor Hammer says the use of DNA tests also can tell us how all the various genetic lines have crossed and combined over thousands of years.
"Just by the nature of human migration and mixing in the past, we have not remained separated and isolated on different continents all these years. We do have a history of migration and our genome will reflect that," said the professor.
Genetic scientists, driven to some extent by demand from people doing genealogical research, keep coming up with new tests and new ways of tracing our genetic connections with one another.
Greg Flakus VOA news Houston, Texas

¤注解¤:

1. encounter v.遭遇, 遇到, 相遇n.遭遇, 遭遇战
2. documentation n.文件
3. roadblock n.障碍, 障碍物
4. geographic adj.地理学的, 地理的

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angelonduty : 2007-05-20#88
VOA第4季度上-c011

Ghana Studying Practices of Herbal Practitioners

By Efam Dovi
Accra
24 November 2006
--
The West African nation this year began an ambitious plan to include selected traditional herbal medicine - used widely in Ghana - on the country's recommended drug list.
This move will help the country cut back on drug importation, making health care more accessible.
Ghana's health minister, Major Courage Quashigah, told a gathering at the launch of the WHO African Regional Health Report in Accra Thursday that the medical practices of 10 traditional healers are currently undergoing testing at the country's Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.
The minister said a scientific study is necessary to secure the World Health Organization's approval for production and use of the medicines.
The program is being overseen by traditional health practitioners, WHO, Ghana's Food and Drug Board, Center for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine and Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.
Martha Gyansa-Lutterodt, who heads Ghana's National Drugs Program, said, "We are trying to find out what they [traditional practitioners] have, how long the medicine had been in use, the adverse reaction that has occur, which they know, we trying to find out the labeling, we trying to find out the part of the plant they are using, we are trying to find out safety procedures, manufacturing records, we want to find out the stability of the product."
Research indicates at least six out of 10 Ghanaians use traditional health medicine, either because they are readily available, cheaper, or simply believe the products work.
Gyansa-Lutterodt says the program is also being expanded to cover other diseases besides HIV/AIDs.
She said, "We are looking for priority diseases like malaria, which is our number one killer, tuberculosis, diabetics and those other diseases of public health importance."
"So we are looking at communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases," she continued.
The WHO representative in Ghana, Joaquim Saweka, who gave an overview of the African Regional Health report said the number of HIV/AIDS infected people on anti-retroviral drugs have increased from 100,000 in 2003 to 810,000 in 2005.
The report talked about the progress made in fighting diseases and promoting health care in Africa.
Efam Dovi VOA news Accra

¤注解¤:

1. ambitious adj. 有雄心的, 野心勃勃的
2. importation n. 进口, 输入品
3. practitioner n. 从业者, 开业者
4. stability n. 稳定性

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angelonduty : 2007-05-26#89
VOA第4季度上-c012

Global AIDS Epidemic Continues to Grow

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
21 November 2006

Latest data shows an estimated 39.5 million people around the world are living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. According to the report, this means every eight seconds somebody in the world is infected with HIV, resulting in 11,000 people becoming newly infected every day.
The executive director of UNAIDS, Peter Piot, says most of the new infections, nearly two-thirds, are in Sub-Saharan Africa. But, the biggest increases are in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, where infection rates have risen by more than 50 percent since 2004. He says 2.9 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses this year, the highest number ever.
"So, what is new is that in the report besides this continuing progress of the epidemic is, as I said, that in some countries that were examples for the fight against AIDS that we see an increase in new infections," said Piot. "We see that in Uganda. We see that to a certain extent in Thailand, across Western Europe, the United States and this really has to make us think how to sustain a response to AIDS in the long term because the AIDS epidemic will not be finished in a couple of years from now."
UNAIDS senior epidemiologist, Karen Stanecki, says infections are rising in countries where HIV prevention programs have not been sustained or have not adapted to the changing nature of the epidemics.
"In Uganda where latest national behavioral data shows erratic condom use and rising numbers of men who have sex with more than one sexual partner, there are signs of HIV prevalence rising again in some rural areas," noted Stanecki. "In Thailand, one of our past success stories, a large percentage of new HIV infections are occurring in people considered to be low risk. One third of new infections are among married women."
The report notes some positive trends in young peoples' sexual behaviors. It says data shows increased use of condoms, delay of sexual debut and fewer partners. This has resulted in declines in HIV prevalence among young people between 2000 and 2005 in a number of African countries, including Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe.
Nevertheless, the report notes young people between the ages of 15 and 24 account for 40 percent of new HIV infections. It finds the overlap of high risk behavior, such as injecting drug use, unprotected paid sex and men who have sex with men, is a factor of concern in many regions of the world, especially in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
The report notes the emergence of injecting drug use as a factor of HIV in Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa is a recent development in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Lisa Schlein VOA news Geneva

¤注解¤:

1. Sahara n. 撒哈拉沙漠荒野
2. epidemic adj. 流行的, 传染的, 流行性n.时疫,
3. epidemiologist n. 流行病学家
4. prevalence n.流行

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angelonduty : 2007-05-26#90
VOA第4季度上-c013

Melting of Earth’s Poles Confirmed

By Paul Sisco
Washington, D.C.
24 November 2006
---

The delicate balance between sun, water, and ice hugely impacts life on planet Earth; hence growing concerns over global warming, and a concentrated effort by scientists to accelerate polar research. This year, there was documented evidence of significant melting at both poles. And the U.S. Space Agency, NASA, and others, confirm the Earth has warmed nearly two degrees since 1900. That may not sound like much, but warming temperatures fuel extreme weather patterns. And a recent study suggests continued global warming could raise sea levels several meters by the end of the century.
The poles are strange, beautiful places, where the sun moves sideways, nights last for months, and bone-chilling winds scar the landscape. The North Pole is an ice sheet floating on the Arctic Ocean; a volatile terrain inhabited by fascinating creatures above and below the ice. The colder South Pole sits atop the massive, frozen continent of Antarctica. The southern ice sheet is over 2200 meters thick, on average. That amounts to 90 percent of the world's ice and 70 percent of its fresh water. Beneath these frigid waters researchers find a world teeming with life.
Dale Anderson a scientist with the Carl Sagan Center says, "Most of this area has never been explored or seen with human eyes. The surprising thing for me was just to find the great diversity of life that we find under the ice."
Life -- such as fish with a natural antifreeze that keeps their blood from freezing and huge jelly fish with tentacles fifteen meters long. More, along the sea floor: a silent, eerie forest thick with microscopic life.
Researcher George Simmons adds, "Upon landing on the bottom I realized that the entire bottom quaked around me, much like landing on a big bowl of Jello [gelatin]."
"These microbial mats that we see in the lakes in the Antarctic may resemble communities that may have lived on Mars billions of years ago," says Anderson.
Scientists say these icy polar waters have much to teach about the mysteries of life on our world and perhaps on distant worlds as well.
Paul Sisco VOA news Washington, D.C.

¤注解¤:

1. accelerate v. 加速, 促进
2. massive adj. 厚重的, 大块的, 魁伟的, 结实的
3. Antarctica n. 南极洲
4. tentacle n. (动物)触须、触角, (植物)腺毛

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angelonduty : 2007-05-26#91
VOA第4季度上-c014

New Species of Undersea Life Found Near Indonesia

By Zulima Palacio
Washington, D.C.
20 September 2006


The expedition led by Conservation International says it discovered 52 new undersea species off Indonesia's Papua province. They include 24 new species of fish, 22 new corals and eight new species of shrimp.
Sebastian Troeng, the conservation group's Director of Marine Strategies, said the new fish species include two species of shark that "walk" on their fins.

"It’s not very often that new species of sharks are found and finding two of them within these two surveys is very exciting. These are smaller sharks, about three or four feet in length [.91 to 1.22 meters]. They live on shallow reed flats and they come out at night to look for prey, things like crabs, snails and probably small fish, but mainly things that live at the bottom. And so these sharks have large pectoral fins which they can use almost to walk over the substrate."
The team said papers on two of the new fish species -- called flasher wrasse because of the bright colors the male exhibits during mating -- have been accepted for publication in Aqua, the Journal of Ichthyology and Aquatic Biology. The group is also in the process of writing papers on the other species.

This region, known as "Asia's Coral Triangle" has been poorly studied and is not often visited by marine biologists. But Troeng says its richness of coral and other species could make it more important than Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
"The number of species now recorded -- 1,233 species of coral reef fish -- is close to the just over 1400 species found in the Great Barrier Reef. And, in terms of corals, there are actually more species found in the Bird's Head Seascape than in the Great Barrier Reef."
The U.S.-based Conservation International team says the remote and extensive area is under danger from fishermen who use dynamite and cyanide to net their catches. The group called on Indonesia's government to protect the region.

¤注解¤:

1. shallow adj. 浅的, 浅薄的
2. pectoral adj. 胸的
3. substrate n. 底层,下层
4. ichthyology n. 鱼类学
5. dynamite n. 炸药

附件


angelonduty : 2007-05-30#92
VOA第4季度上-c015

New TB Test Yields Quicker Results

By Jessica Berman
Washington
12 October 2006



Each year, almost two million people worldwide die of tuberculosis, which is curable with proper treatment.
Researchers have been sounding the alarm recently about a resurgence of tuberculosis, especially drug-resistant strains of the disease.
The new test allows for a diagnosis in just seven days, and, it also determines whether the particular strain of tuberculosis will respond to drug treatment.
Dr. David Moore is with the Wellcome Trust Center for Clinical Tropical Medicine at Imperial College in London. He says the test that is currently most often used in the developing world, called the Lowenstein-Jensen test, takes almost a month to yield results.
"It is often very difficult to find that patient a month later. They tend not to come back. So, the argument against doing tests that take a month like Lowenstein-Jenson, and other slower, but inexpensive, culture-based methods, is that, actually, the clinical utility of a test that takes a month to get a result back is much diminished. In contrast, if you can have a result that takes a week, generally, it is easier to find those patients."
In conventional testing, it takes weeks to get a result because the bacteria from sputum coughed up by those suspected of having tuberculosis are grown in a sugary culture, and technicians make a determination by measuring the amount of carbon dioxide that is produced by the micro-organisms.
The new test also coaxes the TB bacteria to grow using a culture mixture, or broth. However, researchers discovered that when they examined small samples under a microscope, they could see the formation of what they call characteristic tangles in positive TB specimens. The samples are placed in tiny wells in microscope slides.
Dr. Moore explained, "The key thing that differs from previous studies is we examine that broth from an inverted light microscope from about the fifth day after we set the culture up to detect the characteristic growth tangles of the organism mycobacterium tuberculosis in the broth. And by adding TB drugs to some of the wells, in which the broth has been inoculated, but not to all of them, can determine whether the organism is resistant to the drugs."
Moore says, bacteria that grow in the absence of antibiotics and stop growing when exposed to the drugs, are not resistant to treatment. But if the TB microorganism grows, despite the antibiotics, it is resistant to treatment.
Moore led a field trial of the new test in Peru that found that, in every measure, including speed of detection, accuracy and detection of multi-drug resistant strains of TB, the test out-performed Lowenstein-Jensen and the automated detection test used in the West.
The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"This method not only reduces the time from conventional third world testing, it is faster than any method used in the industrialized world today." Dr. Michael Iseman, a specialist of pulmonary diseases at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colorado.
"I have done a lot of consulting in the developing world about tuberculosis. And all of us who do this have been frustrated at the inability to do drug cultures, and to do drug susceptibility testing. So in one swoop, this method has the ability to address those big problems."
But it may be a little while before the new test becomes the new "gold standard" TB test.
Iseman writes in his commentary in The New England Journal, there are concerns that not all tuberculosis strains may show the characteristic "tangles" under the microscope. And the new TB cultivation method could present bio-safety hazards that need to be addressed.
Jessica Berman, VOA NEWS, Washington.

¤注解¤:

1. curable adj. 可医治的, 医得好的
2. resurgence n. 苏醒
3. argument n. 争论, 辩论, 论据, 论点
4. bacteria n. 细菌
5. mycobacterium n. [微]分支杆菌
6. pulmonary adj. 肺部的
7. susceptibility n. 易感性, 感受性

附件


angelonduty : 2007-05-30#93
VOA第4季度上-c016

Nigerian Military Gets Free HIV/AIDS Treatment

By Gilbert da Costa
Abuja
17 November 2006
The Defense Headquarters Medical Center in Abuja provides cost-free HIV testing, anti-retroviral treatment and related services.
More than 400 service personnel have been put on anti-retroviral therapy under the United States President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, a five-year, $15 billion-global initiative to combat the HIV/AIDs epidemic.
The head of the Nigerian military medical facility, Captain Chris Ugwuadu, briefed the visiting U.S European Command Deputy Commander, General William Ward, on the changes that have occurred as a result of the joint effort.
"The DoD [U.S. Department of Defense] program has enabled us acquire new structures, has provided us with a fairly good number of laboratory equipment and other equipment that have made it easier for us to do our jobs and to render service to our clients," he said.
"The laboratory we run has been upgraded by the program and we are able to do our chemistry, we are able to do our CD-4 count. And we are able to have other backups to support the use of anti-retroviral drugs."
Six other centers across Nigeria have been opened for military personnel in need of HIV/AIDS treatment and there are plans to open three more by March 2007.
The U.S. government has provided $10 million this year in support of the Defense Department's HIV program in Nigeria and more funding is earmarked for 2007.
Although data on the HIV prevalence rate in the Nigerian military is not available, health experts say individuals in the armed forces are vulnerable to many high-risk factors.
The Nigerian government is hoping the availability of treatment will encourage servicemen to submit themselves for voluntary HIV testing. Until now, soldiers testing positive for HIV were discharged from service.
General Ward says the U.S. military hopes to deepen its relationship with the Nigerian military in dealing with conflicts and threats to security in the region.
"The military of the United States of America and the military of the Republic of Nigeria will continue to work together in cooperative ways to cause each of us to be better at what we do, in so doing hoping to create the peace, security and stability that we all look for in this part of Africa," he said.
"I thank you for the role that you played in these efforts in the past, as partners with us and we look forward to enhancing that partnership through very good, cooperative programs in the days ahead," he added.
The United States has significantly increased assistance to the Nigerian military since the return to democracy in 1999.
Nigeria, with more than 100,000 troops, has substantially fulfilled its role as a regional power by leading peace keeping campaigns in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan's Darfur.
Gilbert da Costa VOA news Abuja

¤注解¤:

1. therapy n.治疗
2. Nigerian n.尼日利亚人
3. prevalence n.流行
4. cooperative adj.合作的, 协力的

附件


angelonduty : 2007-05-30#94
VOA第4季度上-c017

Nuclear Energy Hotly Debated in United States

By Richard Green
Washington
02 September 2006



There are currently 104 nuclear power plants operating across the United States. President Bush is calling for expanding the nation's reliance on nuclear power as part of his energy plan.
Supporters of nuclear energy say it will make the United States less dependent on foreign sources of oil.
But Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program for Public Citizen, a public-interest watchdog group, says increasing nuclear power will significantly reduce oil consumption.
"Oil is only used to power 1.2 percent of the nation's electricity. Nuclear power is not used to power automobiles, which is the biggest source of our oil consumption, and oil is not a significant source of electricity consumption. So, increasing America's reliance on nuclear power is not going to alter the current oil demand balance that we have in this country."
Another contentious issue is the environmental impact of nuclear power plants. Mal McKibben, a retired nuclear engineer who is now executive director of the non-profit Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness, says nuclear power plants are environmentally safer than other types of energy producers, such as coal.
"Nuclear [power] does not produce any acid rain. It does not produce smog. It does not produce global warming, where[as] coal and gas do all of those things."
Christine Todd Whitman headed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Bush. She is now co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, a group, which advocates the use of nuclear energy. She agrees nuclear plants have little impact on the surrounding environment.
"The footprint of nuclear facilities are very small, so that, many times, you find that you get natural habitats in and around nuclear facilities, because they do have such a low impact on the surrounding community."
But Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen says nuclear power plants carry their own unique risk to the environment.
"Each facility produces hundreds of tons of high-level radioactive waste that sticks around in the environment for hundreds of thousands of years. We currently have no solution of how to deal with the hundreds of tons of high-level radioactive waste safely, efficiently or environmentally sustainably."
President Bush has backed a controversial plan to build a storage facility for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, a remote area in the western U.S. state of Nevada. He also supports the recycling and reprocessing of nuclear waste through the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.
McKibben, the former nuclear engineer, says there is an alternative to storing nuclear waste, recycling it.
"You use all the energy that's in that fuel. Right now we're using less than 5 percent of it, by just going through one time and not recycling. If we did recycle, we could use up at least 95 percent of it."
Opponents of nuclear energy also point out the possibility of an accident, citing the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in the northeastern United States, and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in what is now Ukraine.
But Dale Klein, the new chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, praised the nuclear industry's safety record during a recent talk with reporters in Washington.
"Chernobyl was a very unstable reactor. The western world has no commercial reactors like Chernobyl and its inherent instability characteristics. The kinds of reactors in the western U.S. and [the kinds] Western Europe has are much more stable and have an excellent record."
But nuclear energy opponents, such as Dr. Ira Helfand with the group, Physicians for Social Responsibility, say there is a much more ominous risk involved with nuclear energy.
"I think, we have to look at nuclear power plants, basically, as prepositioned weapons of mass destruction that we place at various strategic points around our country, that we make available to terrorists, who might attack them in the future."
But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Klein says the industry has beefed up security to ward off any potential terrorist attacks, particularly since the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001.
"I believe the industry has responded very well after 9/11, they have spent a lot of money to make things better, and the security of the nuclear plants is quite good."
Klein says the nuclear industry must not become complacent.
Nuclear energy opponents, however, say the United States should consider alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar power.
Richard Green, VOA NEWS, Washington.

¤注解¤:

1. reliance n. 依靠, 依靠的人或物
2. surrounding adj. 周围的
3. controversial adj. 争论的, 争议的
4. alternative n. 二中择一, 可供选择的办法, 事物
5. ominous adj. 预兆的, 恶兆的, 不吉利的
6. complacent adj. 自满的, 得意的

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-04#95
VOA第4季度上-c018

Studies Say Benefits of Eating Fish Outweigh Risks

By David McAlary
Washington
17 October 2006

Two new U.S. studies say the nutritional benefits of eating fish outweigh the potential hazards from environmental contaminants. Some environmental and consumer groups dispute the finding.

You may have heard that fish contain mercury and other compounds called PCBs and dioxins that can be harmful physically. But Harvard University doctors and a separate panel of private experts reporting to the U.S. government say eating fish regularly is very healthy, especially for the heart.
One of the authors of the Harvard study, Dariush Mozaffarian, puts it this way.
"The benefits of eating fish are far greater than the potential risks. If you eat a fish and it has some mercury in it, you might be getting less benefit from that fish than if it did not have mercury in it, but the overall benefit is still positive."
The Harvard team says that benefits are great even for women of childbearing age if they avoid certain fish that are likely to contain mercury levels dangerous to fetuses. The second study lists them as predatory fish with long lifespans, such as swordfish, shark, and tilefish.
This study is by the U.S. Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences that uses private experts to investigate issues for the U.S. government. Like the Harvard study, it is a summary of recent major research on fish consumption.
Both reports note that consumers are faced with conflicting evidence about eating fish. It is a good protein source containing the type of fat considered healthy for the heart. But some species absorb toxins present in the environment, causing confusion about the role of fish in a healthy diet.
So Institute of Medicine committee member David Bellinger, a Harvard nerve specialist not associated with the Harvard study, offers this advice.
"Because of the uncertainties, especially on the risk side, consumers should consume a variety of fish because the fish that contain one contaminant may not be the same fish that contain another contaminant, so that by consuming a variety of species, the benefits can be maximized, but the overall risk profile can be managed."
A U.S. environmental group disputes the findings. The National Environmental Trust argues that the two studies ignore evidence that chemicals used as flame retardants are also pervasive in the environment and contaminate fish. In addition, the organization's vice-president for marine conservation, Gerald Leape, says boosting fish consumption would strain wild fish populations that already suffer from overfishing and cause expansion of fish farms where contaminants are more prevalent.
"They have left out a true examination of the role of contamination, and there was no effort to take into account the ecological impacts not only of wild fish captures, but also of aquaculture farming."
Another group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, warns that fish and shellfish are significant sources of cholesterol, a factor in heart disease. It points out that shellfish in particular have more cholesterol than an equivalent amount of beef.
But Harvard University's Dariush Mozaffarian counters with one of the main findings of his study.
"We found that a modest intake of fish, about one or two servings per week, was enough to reduce the risk of dying from a heart attack by about 35 percent, which is a considerable effect."
David McAlary, VOA NEWS, Washington.


¤注解¤:

1. nutritional adj. 营养的, 滋养的
2. contaminant n. 致污物,污染物
3. childbearing n. 分娩
4. lifespan n. (动植物的)寿命, 预期生命期限
5. toxin n. 毒素
6. pervasive adj. 普遍深入的
7. aquaculture n. 水产业

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-04#96
VOA第4季度上-c019

Study Shows Costs of a Worldwide Pandemic: Staggering

By Mil Arcega
Washington, DC
14 November 2006


Since 2003, H5N1, better known as the avian flu virus, has spread to nine countries, mostly in Asia and Africa. Health experts fear the bird-borne virus could mutate and spread among humans. If that happens, new computer models suggest the outcome would not only be deadly, it could also cripple the global economy.

Joshua Epstein is a member of the computer simulation project. "We have computer scientists and epidemiologists and demographers and economists and very diverse teams of people contributing to aspects of the modeling. And government agencies, for example: the transportation data needs to be obtained from the FAA and other agencies. So it involves big-time computing, big-time expertise and a lot of quite creative collaboration, not a small project.”
The project's objective is to develop strategies that would limit the worst outcome of a global epidemic. Warwick McKibbin, an international economics professor, says an uncontrolled outbreak of pandemic influenza in Southeast Asia would send shock waves around the world.

"When people get sick or die the labor supply changes. People don't go to work or they die. That changes the capacity of the economy to produce. It disrupts production, that's one serious shock. Another shock is that industry has to take some sort of action and that usually raises costs, depending on your industry it could raise costs a lot -- in the tourism industry for example."
And there's a wide range of scenarios. McKibbin says the mildest foresees a nearly one percent drop in the world's gross domestic product.
"For the most severe, the ultra scenario, it was very dramatic. We had over $4.4 trillion wiped off the world economy. 140 million people killed. So the individual consequences were severe -- the death rates. But the economic consequences were also severe."
Hardest hit would be developing countries. Mckibbin says that's because some don't have the economic resources to prevent an outbreak or adequate health care to deal with the effects.
Epstein says the computer models should help scientists develop effective containment strategies. "Interrupting the flow of people from hemisphere to hemisphere is part of that approach. It buys time in which you can do other intelligent things like develop vaccines and engage in social distancing and other measures to reduce the spread."
Unfortunately, McKibbin says, most countries are not doing enough. "I don't think we are. We certainly are not spending enough in developing countries in public health systems for example. Because by the time this pandemic influenza breaks out from Asia, you can't stop it at the border. So what really matters is preventing it in the first place."
And Mckibbin says their findings show something else: that preventing a pandemic would cost far less than having to deal with its aftermath.
Mil Arcega VOA news

¤注解¤:

1. avian adj.鸟类的n.鸟
2. mutate v.变异
3. simulation n.仿真, 假装模拟
4. hemisphere n.半球

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-09#97
VOA第4季度上-c020

Surgery in US Saves Afghan Boy's Life

By Wajid Ali Syed
Washington, DC
12 September 2006

Eight-year-old Afghan Muhammad Umer is no ordinary little boy. He was born with a hole in his heart that prevented his blood from carrying enough oxygen. The condition stunted his growth and harmed his organs. His prognosis was dire until he met an American Army doctor in Afghanistan.

Gerard Martin, co-director of Children's National Medical Center's National Heart Institute in Washington, D.C..
"Muhammad is a very lucky young man for meeting (Dr.) Sloane Guy and having someone really get interested in him. And I know the soldiers are very interested in trying to do something that made a difference in the community in which they were undergoing a lot of adversity."
Muhammad was moved from his remote village in northeastern Afghanistan to the main U.S. base in Afghanistan.

He became affectionately known as "Blue" around the base because his illness caused his lips, fingers and toes to turn blue. Dr. Drew Kosmowski is the chief surgeon at Bagram Air Force Base. "At eight years old he has a 75 percent mortality rate if we did nothing. As he gets older to adulthood he has a 95 percent mortality rate. With the surgery the expectations of survival are much greater than average by more than the 75 percent range that he will survive the surgery and continue to do well and live a healthy life."
The little boy says he is happy to go to America for treatment. But getting Muhammad and his father to the United States for the life-saving surgery was not easy. They were twice denied visas before Senate Majority Leader -- and heart surgeon -- Bill Frist intervened and made the trip possible.

Muhammad and his father arrived in Washington, D.C. in May. They were greeted by doctors from Children's National Medical Center. The shy, young boy from Afghanistan quickly won the hearts of his medical team as he bravely prepared for surgery.
The difficult operation was successful. Doctors repaired Muhammad's heart and removed blockages in the arteries to his lungs. His skin color has improved and he can walk more easily now. And the good news for Muhammad does not stop there.
Doctors have offered to fix another problem. Dr. Martin asked Muhammad’s father, "If I could arrange one of the eye doctors to take a look at his eye, would the father like that?" His father answered yes.
Muhammad's father is very appreciative of all the support for his son and looks forward to enrolling him in school. As for the boy, he is happy to go home and for the first time in his life worry about nothing more than being a child.
For producer Wajid Ali Syed, VOA news.


¤注解¤:

1. prognosis n. 预后
2. adversity n. 不幸, 灾祸, 逆境
3. mortality n. 死亡率
4. surgery n. 外科手术, 手术
5. blockage n. 封锁, 妨碍
6. appreciative a. 表示感激的

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-09#98
VOA第4季度上-c021

The Dead Sea is Dying Because It Doesn't Have Enough Water

By Jim Teeple
Jerusalem
02 November 2006


Christians come from around the world to the Yardenit - one of two sites on the River Jordan in Israel where Jesus is believed to have been baptized by John the Baptist. What many of these Christians don't know is that this is the only safe place where baptisms can take place. Further south, at a site thought to be more historically accurate than Yardinet, the River Jordan is too polluted to be used for baptisms.

This is the Sea of Galilee, one of the world's largest fresh water lakes and the source of nearly all of Israel's drinking water. The Sea of Galilee feeds the River Jordan and the Dead Sea further south. For thousands of years the waters flowing out of the Sea of Galilee have nourished the River Jordan and have been the only source of fresh water for the Dead Sea. These clean waters enter the River Jordan at Yardenit where the baptisms take place but just a few kilometers south is where the river begins to die.
Beyond this earthen dam the River Jordan as we know it no longer exits.

Just out of eyesight, sewage from communities along the Sea of Galilee is dumped into one of the world's most sacred rivers. The environmental group, Friends of the Earth in the Middle East, says action must be taken to save the River Jordan before it is too late.

Gidon Bromberg is the group's director in Israel. "We have an earth dam here on the River Jordan. North of this point no fresh water flows down the River Jordan out of the sea of Galilee. And from this point raw sewage and saline water diverted from the sea of Galilee is dumped into the River Jordan, a river holy to half of humanity has been turned into an open sewage canal."
Further south along the River Jordan here at the Gesher crossing on the Israel-Jordan border, bridges built by the Romans, the Ottoman Turks and British straddle the once mighty Jordan.
By the time the River Jordan reaches the Dead Sea it is a mere trickle, and as a result, the Dead Sea is dying.
In 1900 and 1917 a British expeditionary force traveled along this road, but they did it in boats as Mira Edelstein of Friends of the Earth in the Middle East explains, "Once the water was way up here they came by boats. On the Jordanian side, where the topography is different and more cliff oriented, you can see the straight drop. Here, in this areas, the gradient is much less, so it goes a long way. Now we are a few kilometer from the shore."
Over the last 50 years the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth and world's saltiest body of water, has dropped by 25 meters and shrunk by more than a third. Every year, the Dead Sea drops by more than one meter. These are results ? sinkholes.

The shoreline of the Dead Sea is opening up and will soon destroy the road that runs along the Israeli side of the sea, according to Mira Edelstein. "Sinkholes began appearing about a decade maybe 12 years ago. Today there are more than a thousand. What is happening is that the receding waters of the Dead Sea are taking the salt water further into the sea. And in their place is coming fresh water from all the springs around the sea. It is very dangerous and they are opening up along the western shores. There is no development of infrastructure or tourism whatsoever."
As the sinkholes continue to devour the shoreline of the Dead Sea, experts are warning that with no fresh water flowing from the River Jordan, one of the most unique environments on the planet is in critical danger.
Jim Teeple, VOA news, on the dead sea.


¤注解¤:

1. baptism n. 浸洗
2. earthen adj. 土制的, 泥制的
3. saline adj. 盐的, 苦涩的
4. straddle v. 横跨
5. topography n. 地形学
6. critical adj. 重要的,关键的

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-20#99
VOA第4季度上-c022

UN Climate Change Conference to Open in Kenya

By Cathy Majtenyi
Nairobi
03 November 2006


The 165 countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol, which took effect last year, are legally committed to reducing their output of six carbon gasses most responsible for causing global warming.
The worst of these gasses is carbon dioxide, the by-product of burning oil, gas, and coal. In industrialized countries, much of the emissions come from cars.
The United States withdrew support for the Kyoto Protocol in 2001 saying the agreement was flawed, and it would look to high technology measures to reduce emissions. Australia has also refused to ratify the protocol.
The United States' reluctance to sign on is expected to be a topic of conversation at the United Nations' Climate Change conference, set to open Monday.
Kenyan environmental activist Grace Akumu, who is the executive director of Climate Network Africa, explains why.
"In the United States of America, the total number of cars in New York is equivalent to the total number of cars in the entire African continent. The entire African continent only emits three to four percent of the global total greenhouse gas emissions. So we need the big emitters - and the single biggest emitter is the United States of America - to be able to impact on the entire emissions of the world."
Scientists point to carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides as being three of several gases that, in excess, form a barrier in the atmosphere that traps heat from the sun, thus raising the earth's surface temperature.

Such climate change has been linked to more frequent occurrences of drought, flooding, hurricanes, forest fires, and increases in the number of malaria cases, with long-term impacts being rising sea levels and damage to crops.
And that has activist Akumu very worried. She says one major agenda item at this year's U.N. Climate Change conference will be looking at long-term solutions.
"One of the priority areas is that the Kyoto Protocol - that we want the U.S. government to ratify, the Australian government to ratify - the legal life-span is coming to an end by 2012, in six years' time. So, there is a need to discuss what's after Kyoto, what's going to be the post-Kyoto regime to govern greenhouse gas emissions."
Also on the agenda are discussions on how especially developing countries can cope with climate change, and methods to reduce emissions of the so-called greenhouse gases, such as using power generated from wind, solar, and hydroelectric sources.
This is the first time that the United Nations' Climate Change conference will be held in sub-Saharan Africa. The gathering, which opens Monday and ends on November 17, is expected to draw some 6,000 participants worldwide.
Cathy Majtenyi, for VOA news, Nairobi.


¤注解¤:

1. dioxide n. 二氧化物
2. ratify vt. 批准, 认可
3. protocol n. 草案, 协议
4. equivalent adj. 相等的, 相当的
5. impact n. 影响
6. methane n. [化] 甲烷, 沼气
7. occurrence n. 事件, 发生的事情
8. hydroelectric adj. 水力电气的

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-20#100
VOA第4季度上-c023

UN Drug Agency Reports Sharp Fall in Golden Triangle Opium Production
By Ron Corben
Bangkok
16 October 2006



The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime - the UNODC - says its annual survey of opium production in the Golden Triangle region shows poppy cultivation there fell by 29 percent this year.
Burma, the main poppy growing country of the region, reported a more than 30 percent decline in areas under cultivation from the previous year.
Burma is the second largest opium grower globally after Afghanistan, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the world's supply of heroin.
Burma's northern Shan State produces 90 percent of the country's opium. The ethnic Wa community there declared a total ban on opium cultivation and trade last year.
The decrease in Burmese production means that a plan to eradicate opium in the Golden Triangle by 2014 remains on target. The region's share of world poppy cultivation dropped from 66 percent in 1998 to 12 percent last year.
But Leik Boonwaat, the UNODC Representative in Laos, said recently there is still a need for international support for development programs to assist opium growers to move toward alternative crops.
"There is a need to provide the relief to former opium farmers, in order to enable them to adapt to new alternative livelihoods or new ways of life, and it's also important to enable the national poverty reduction programs to be able to incorporate all these areas."


The UNODC report says the two other countries in the Golden Triangle, Thailand and Laos, are almost opium free.
But the gains from the decrease in opium cultivation are being offset by a rise in methamphetamine and ecstasy abuse in Southeast Asia. A recent report by the UNODC found that methamphetamine is a concern across the region.
The UNODC's Leik says, in Laos, methamphetamine is a particular problem among young people.
"For methamphetamine in Laos, it's mostly targeting the youth - school children. We have children as young as 12 that are addicted, and this is causing great concern. We see it in the schools, we're seeing it in urban areas, we're seeing it in rural areas."
Factories producing methamphetamine-type stimulants are found along the Burma-Thailand border, with millions of tablets finding their way onto the Thai market each year.
Ron Corben, for VOA news, Bangkok.


¤注解¤:

1. opium n. 鸦片
2. poppy n. [植]罂粟
3. heroin n. 海洛因, 吗啡
4. eradicate v. 根除
5. methamphetamine n. [药]甲基苯丙胺, 脱氧麻黄碱

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-20#101
VOA第4季度上-c024

US Doctors Perform First-Ever Quintuple Kidney Transplant
By Carol Pearson
Washington, DC
22 November 2006


The transplants took place simultaneously at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland: 12 surgeons, 18 nurses and dozens of support staff worked in six operating rooms. Here's how it worked:
Kristine, George, Gerald, Gary and Sheila needed kidneys. Each had a potential donor. Kristines's mother, Florence, was a good match for George. George's wife, Sharon, had the right tissue type for Gary. Doctors gave Leslie's kidney to Gerald, Sandra's kidney went to Sheila, Honore's kidney to Kristine. None of the donors was a good match for their original recipients, but they were good matches for one of the other patients needing kidneys.

Dr. Robert Montgomery led the surgical team. "These patients who are seated at my left participated in what is believed to be the first five-way domino kidney pair donation in the world."
Both donors and recipients are doing fine. All were moved by either saving a life or receiving a new life. Sheila Thornton received Sandra Loevner's kidney. "I can never thank her enough. How do you thank somebody who saved your life and made your life better?"
Dr. Montgomery called for clarification of a law that says organ swaps are to be made without an expectation of something valuable in return.
The transplants could not have happened if the donors did not agree to a swap that would save the life of their intended recipient while saving the life of their actual recipient. "The legality of what we have done here is unclear. Yet no one who has a mind or a heart could say that it is wrong."
Dr. Montgomery said a kidney swap program could help ease the severe shortage of available organs, cut the cost of dialysis and save lives.
Carol Pearson VOA news

¤注解¤:

1. simultaneously adv.同时地
2. Montgomery 蒙哥马利(姓氏)
3. clarification  n.澄清, 净化
4. dialysis n.[化] 透析, 分离

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-20#102
VOA第4季度上-c025

US Government Approves Use of Silicone Breast Implants

By Carol Pearson
Washington, DC
21 November 2006


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned most silicone implants in 1992 because of reports that ruptured implants and leaking silicone could lead to cancer, autoimmune disease and connective tissue disorders.
The FDA now says the claims are not supported by scientific review.
Spokeswoman Donna-Bea Tillman. "Based on extensive data on the implants, and because we've determined they are safe and effective."
Breast enlargement is one of the most popular cosmetic surgeries in many countries. One manufacturer (Mentor) says more than one million women in over 50 countries have had its product implanted.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons applauds the FDA decision. Spokeswoman Dr. Roxanne Guy says, "We have listened to exhaustive studies. We have read reams of paperwork, and it's time for science to take back over here, where emotion has run rampant in the past."
Women, such as Denise Pardue, who simply wanted to enlarge their breasts, had been limited to saline implants. She plans to have her saline implants replaced by silicone. "I've gotten an opportunity to look at them and feel them and they just look and feel so much more natural to me."
Critics of the decision, like Diana Zuckerman, describe it as a "low point" for the FDA. "It really tarnishes their image to approve a product that has not been proven safe for long-term use."
The Food and Drug Administration is requiring implant manufacturers to conduct extensive safety studies --- following 40,000 women for ten years.
It is also urging women who get the implants to get regular checkups to make sure the devices have not ruptured.
Carol Pearson VOA news

¤注解¤:

1. silicone n. [化]硅树脂
2. enlargement  n. 放大
3. rampant adj. 猖獗的, 蔓生的, 猛烈的, 狂暴的, 跛拱的
4. manufacturer n. 制造业者, 厂商

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-20#103
VOA第4季度上-c026

US Seeks More Foreign Doctors, Medical Students
By Saba Shah Khan, John Featherly
Washington, D.C.
24 November 2006
---


Experts say several states have or will soon experience shortages of physicians in a variety of specialties, including cardiology, radiology, surgery and pediatrics.
Dr. Susan Wolfsthal, the director of the University of Maryland's Residency Program, says the United States needs more doctors in all specialties. "There are some parts of the United States where there are many, many physicians and it is very easy for patients to have access to clinical care. And then there are other areas of the United States where there is less and there might be only one physician for many thousands of patients."
This shortage is putting pressure on American medical schools to increase enrollment and on the U.S. government to allow more foreign doctors into the country.
U.S. Congressman Rob Simmons says the United States needs these foreign nationals. "We have people who come to the United States to provide nursing care and medical care and gosh knows we need all the help we can get."
Educators, including Wolfsthal, say foreign students can gain valuable experience and knowledge studying in the United States and working in U.S. hospitals. "You get the same exposure, you get the same opportunity to see whether this is something you are interested in and they also get to see you in action."
Sonia Yousef, a rheumatology fellow at the University of Maryland, says foreign students should try to have well-rounded experiences before coming to the United States.
"So you should try to do some volunteer work, anyways it’s good, and that looks good on your resume as well. So that is probably the fourth thing, but it is not as important as clinical experience."
Wolfsthal says universities value the diversity international students bring. "When you have international graduates they bring, as someone from another institution would, they bring a different perspective, they have different interests and so they bring that to the program."
Experts and educators say foreign medical students and doctors gain a lot from their time spent in the United States. They say working in American hospitals and studying at universities in the United States gives foreign students and doctors a chance to work with the latest technology and to grow professionally.
¤注解¤:

1. physician n.医师, 内科医师
2. enrollment n.登记, 注册, 入伍, 入会, 入学
3. rheumatology n.风湿病学
4. clinical adj.临床的, 病房用的

附件


yangyang2005 : 2007-06-20#104
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

angel:由于置顶帖子太多,我把第3季度的两个帖子取消置顶了,不好意思啊;要不你在签名档加上链接吧

angelonduty : 2007-06-20#105
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

没关系呀,本来就是充实这个板块的,放哪里都一样.

yangyang2005 : 2007-06-20#106
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

好象你和我的帖子占了不少置顶帖,怕其他筒子说我们搞特权,哈哈

o0天下第一刀客0o : 2007-06-20#107
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

lz,我下载的录音为什么只有第一句哪?谢谢!

angelonduty : 2007-06-21#108
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

楼上的,我随意点开一个文件,一切正常啊.

angelonduty : 2007-06-21#109
VOA第4季度上-c027

Water Shortage Strains Urban Areas in Western United States

By Greg Flakus
Dallas, TX
27 September 2006

The population of Dallas and its suburbs has grown by more than 12 percent in recent years.
The urban area relies for the most part on nearby reservoirs, artificial lakes, for its water. But drought has reduced the volume of one of the principal lakes, Lake Lavon, which has dropped around five meters in the past two years.


The lake is managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The chief manager for Lake Lavon is Ken Robinson. "What has happened is that the water gradually goes down and, as it does, the silt in the bottom of the lake holds the moisture and so you get this green growth coming up on what is essentially, normally under water."
The drop in water level has reduced the lake's recreational and aesthetic appeal.
"People like to build houses where they have a view of the lake, but they also like to have a lake that has water in it."


The drop in Lake Lavon's water level has put some strain on the North Texas Municipal Water District, which uses water from the lake to supply one-and-a-half million people in the Dallas area.
Executive Director Jim Parks says lower rainfall over the past couple of years is a reminder that water should not be taken for granted. "I think people have come to consider this area of Texas as if it were a semi-tropical area, when, in reality, this part of Texas is more semi-arid."
The water district has imposed mandatory restrictions on water usage and is encouraging even more conservation by consumers. But as more houses go up and more people move into the area, the demand for water is growing.
At Texas A and M University, Professor Ron Griffin studies urban water use. He says the abundant water that supported growth in urban areas is reaching its limits. "We have already tapped the cheap sources of water and so, as we proceed further with more and more growth, we will progressively tap more and more expensive sources of water."


Professor Griffin says there is water available to support more urban growth, but not necessarily at current levels of usage. "We can deal with large population increases, but only if we curtail, on a per-person basis, our water use."
He says the rising cost of water will eventually force hard decisions on its use for such things as large lawns and landscaping.
"It will be a gradual process, it won't be an overnight sort of thing. It will be something motivated by the increasing cost of water supply and the expenses that households, cities and industries face."
Jim Parks says the doubling of population projected for the Dallas area over the next 50 years will require a lot more conservation as well as development of new resources.
"It is a multi-faceted program that involves the implementation of more aggressive conservation, building of new reservoirs, connections to existing reservoirs, using existing supplies, such as lakes to our north and southeast and east of here and pulling all of those things together in order to meet that growth."
Surveys show that most Texans support water conservation and want the state to do more to promote it.
Greg Flakus, VOA NEWS, Dallas.


¤注解¤:

1. reservoir n. 水库, 蓄水池
2. moisture n. 潮湿, 湿气
3. mandatory adj. 命令的, 强制的
4. implementation n. 执行

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-21#110
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

West African Nations Fight AIDS by Easing Border Restrictions

By Efam Dovi
Accra
08 November 2006

Traveling along the1022-kilometer stretch of the highway from Abidjan to Nigeria means crossing several borders and checkpoints, an experience many travelers say cause long delays and harassment by border officials.
The Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Project, launched in 2005 to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS, says these delays are contributing to the further spread of disease as drivers and travelers stop in border towns to visit commercial sex workers and local people living along the corridor.
Justin Koffi, who heads the project, says there is an established link between the time people spend on the road and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
"For example you know the closing of borders - the border between Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire close at 6:30, so there is no way for you to make it from Nigeria to Cote D'Ivoire within a day. In the meantime, Elubo [Abidjan-Ghana border] does not offer any lodging facility, so this early closing of the border turns to transform this area into a sex industry, so this may fuel the HIV/AIDS spread."
An estimated 30 million people live along the Abidjan-Lagos corridor, with another 14 million traveling through each year.
The delegates, from Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, agreed to work to cut in half the number of checkpoints within their countries by end of the year, and also cut back on border crossing time for people and goods.
Nigerian Police Commissioner Of Border Patrol Aloysius Okorie says he intends to take some decisive action when he returns home.
"The major task for me now is to go back, maybe undertake a tour of our own stretch of the corridor to make sure that the number of road blocks that has been approved is the number we have, no more, no less."
ECOWAS recommends three checkpoints per every 100-kilometer distance, but this provision has been largely violated by member countries.
Efam Dovi VOA news Accra

¤注解¤:

1. harassment n. 折磨
2. decisive adj. 决定性的
3. stretch n. 一段时间, 一段路程, 伸展
4. corridor n. 走廊

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-21#111
VOA第4季度上-c029

WHO Reports Progress in Fight Against Tuberculosis in Worst-affected Asian Countries


By Anjana Pasricha
New Delhi
22 October 2006


For decades, tuberculosis has extracted a heavy toll in India, although the disease is usually easily cured with an inexpensive, six-month treatment of drugs. Nearly two million new patients are stricken with the disease every year in impoverished Indian communities, and one thousand die every day.
But an international panel of health experts that traveled through six Indian states this month to review the world's largest tuberculosis control program says the tide may finally be turning.
World Health Organization officials say the program has prevented at least one million deaths in India from the disease in recent years, and the cure rate has increased dramatically, to more than 80 percent.
But a top international tuberculosis expert and senior member of the mission that reviewed the program, Fabio Luelmo, cautions that combating tuberculosis is a long-term battle.
"You have to maintain this for about 50 years minimum to reduce tuberculosis so it is not a major problem, because no matter what you do, tuberculosis reduces slowly, because a large part of the population is already infected. So it [the program] needs sustainability."
WHO officials say the main battle against tuberculosis is being waged in the five countries of South and Southeast Asia that account for the bulk of the worldwide cases. The five are India, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Burma and Indonesia.
Jay Narain, the director for communicable diseases at the WHO's Southeast Asia office in New Delhi, says all these countries are making progress against the disease, and two - India and Indonesia - are showing particular success.
"Most of the countries are making extremely good progress. I can say categorically that the global progress in TB control is being driven by the progress that is being made in this region, led by India, followed by Indonesia."
The panel of international health experts, which included WHO officials, says the Indian government has expanded coverage of a successful treatment strategy through most of the country, enabling life-saving services and diagnosis to reach millions of people in remote, rural communities.
The strategy is called "directly observed treatment," or DOTS. It simply means that drugs are not handed out to patients themselves. Instead, the patients are asked to take their medicines at the nearest free clinic, three times a week, while a health worker watches.
The reasoning behind this is simple: patients often stop taking medicines as soon as they feel better, but before the disease-causing bacteria are completely killed, which can allow deadlier, drug-resistant forms of bacteria to develop. The health workers make sure patients complete the entire course.
Tuberculosis is one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases. A dramatic upsurge of the disease since the mid-1980's prompted the WHO to declare it a global emergency in 1993.
Anjana Pasricha, for VOA news, New Delhi.


¤注解¤:

1. toll n. 代价
2. impoverished adj. 穷困的
3. sustainability n. (细胞的)可染性
4. communicable adj. 可传达的, 会传染的
5. upsurge n. 高潮

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-21#112
VOA第4季度上-c030

Worst-Ever Drought Intensifies Australian Climate Change Debate

By Phil Mercer
Sydney
01 November 2006

Australian Prime Minister John Howard this week again defended his government's decision not to sign the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto agreement sets targets for industrialized countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions, considered by many scientists to be a major factor in global warming.
The agreement's critics say it is flawed because it does not require developing countries to reduce emissions.
Mr. Howard says Kyoto would harm Australia by imposing obligations on its economy that the country's competitors could escape.
"But China and India, although being part of Kyoto, don't carry the same burden under Kyoto that Australia carries, and that is reason why until that changes, this country won't join Kyoto," he said. "Because, unless you have everybody in, you are not going to have a solution to the problem…."
Although it will not sign the protocol, Australia insists it is on track to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is spending $1.5 billion on new technologies, including the world's biggest solar power plant.
Mr. Howard has also proposed what he calls a "new Kyoto" to reduce emissions through technological development rather than the setting of targets. He says the new program should work through an organization like the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, an existing environmental group that includes Australia, India, the United States, China, South Korea and Japan.
Canberra this week also announced $46 million worth of projects - many of them in collaboration with the other five countries in the partnership - aimed at reducing emissions.

The climate is a very hot topic right now in Australia, a land of extremes, where thousands of miles of rugged coastline and lush rain forest eventually give way to a parched interior. At the moment, the country is in the grip of its worst-ever drought.
Some experts believe that what they call the "Big Dry" is a clear indication that the country's weather is shifting.
Dr. Karl Mallon is the scientific and technical officer for an environmental consultancy in Sydney. He says that parts of Australia can look forward to a drier and more barren future.
"This sort of drying is consistent with what climate science is telling us is underway," he said. "We have to both adapt to climate change and we have to make sure we're starting to mitigate climate change if we're going to keep the economy - the global economy and the national economies - under control."
The five-year-drought is already threatening the survival of many of the small communities in the Outback, Australia's countryside.
The farming town of Bourke, 500 miles northwest of Sydney, is in real peril.
Sheep farmer Ben Mannix says this isolated part of the Outback is slowly dying of thirst.
"They generally grow wheat or cotton out there and it's irrigated, but as you can see there's no crop out there and…I'm fairly certainly there wasn't a crop last year."
Even the children of Bourke are aware of the town's problems. One schoolboy knows there may be no future for his family here.
"I haven't seen heavy rain for a long time. If we don't get rain soon it's going to be pretty hard 'cause my dad's in the water industry selling irrigation, and he said if it doesn't rain soon we might have to move [to another] town to where there's more rain."
If climate change continues, far more than the inhabitants of Bourke could be affected.
An environmental study commissioned by the British government and published this week warns that unchecked global warming could cost world economies trillions of dollars to address.
Phil Mercer, VOA news, Sydney, Australia.


¤注解¤:

1. emission n. (光、热等的) 散发
2. collaboration n. 协作
3. lush adj. 丰富的
4. grip n. 掌握, 控制
5. consultancy n. 顾问(工作), 咨询
6. mitigate v. 减轻
7. irrigation n. 灌溉, 冲洗

附件


angelonduty : 2007-06-21#113
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

The end of this part.

yangyang2005 : 2007-06-21#114
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

我这里下载的也正常

yangyang2005 : 2007-06-21#115
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

Thanks again!
做个标记:下载至此

angel: VOA第4季度上-c030 重复了

yangyang2005 : 2007-06-21#116
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

期待VOA第4季度下

angelonduty : 2007-06-21#117
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

谢谢洋洋提醒,嘻嘻.

yangyang2005 : 2007-06-21#118
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

哈哈,你动作真快

亲亲我的宝贝猪猪 : 2009-06-03#119
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

A的下载完了,做个记号,明天继续,谢谢楼主!

故乡的云 : 2009-06-21#120
回复: 《美国之音》2006下半年新闻合辑MP3及文本-第4季度上

谢谢分享!