VOA常速讲解2011-09-30

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VOA常速讲解2011-08-19

VOA常速讲解附字幕:外交官批评日本核事故后反应查看原文第一部分：原文中英对照After a magnitude9.0earthquake and historic tsunami battered northeastern Japan on March 11a veteran U.S.diplomat,who had just been removed from the top post on the island of Okinawa,was among those put in charge of a crisis task force in Washington.Kevin Maher says American decision-makers quickly realized there was little reliable data coming from their Japanese counterparts about the Fukushima-1nuclear power plant."There was a point where we told the Japanese government,'Look you guys got to take this seriously.This is a real serious situation.The government needs to respond to this.'And,I think the[Japanese]government eventually came to that conclusion,itself,"he said.Maher says that was based on flights over the crippled nuclear plant by a U.S.Air Force (RQ-4)Global Hawk remotely piloted plane. The unmanned aircraft took photographs and could roughly gauge temperatures inside the damaged reactor and spent fuel buildings."And when you looked at the information we did have,it was very clear to me early on that there had probably been at least one,probably two meltdowns,"Maher stated.Maher recalls that prompted the U.S. government to explore scenarios for evacuations,including transporting100,000 American citizens from the Tokyo metropolitan area.3月11日，9.0级大地震和历史性的海啸袭击日本东北部之后，刚刚退下冲绳岛最高职位的美国退休外交官负责华盛顿的一个危机调查任务小组。

VOA常速讲解2011-09-08

VOA常速讲解附字幕:美国邮政濒临破产边缘查看原文第一部分：原文中英对照The mail service Americans have known for generations is losing billions of dollars a year, as handwritten communication has all but disappeared-replaced by emails,text messages,and social-media-and billing and other commercial transactions are increasingly conducted over the Internet.The changing technological landscape has left the regular mail service,what many Americans now refer to as"snail mail,"in dire financial straits.U.S.Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee."The Postal Service is at the brink of default,"said Donahoe."Without the enactment of comprehensive legislation by September30,the Postal Service will default on a mandate d$5.5billion payment to the Treasury to pre-fund retirement retiree health benefits.Our situation is urgent."The Postal Service is seeking congressional authorization to cut costs and curtail services, including eliminat ing hundreds of thousands of postal jobs,changing health care and retirement programs for postal workers, consolidating post offices,and ending Saturday mail delivery across the country."The Postal Service requires radical changes to its business model if it to remain viable into the future,"added Donahoe.由于书信这种通信方式几乎已经消失，被电子邮件，短信和社交媒体等取代，收费和其他商业交易越来越多的通过互联网进行，美国几代人都非常熟悉的邮政服务每年损失数十亿美元。

VOA常速讲解2011-08-27

VOA常速讲解附字幕:金价上涨引发淘金热查看原文第一部分：原文中英对照Todd Bonshire is the manager of Monroe Park, a restored18th century gold mining camp in Goldvein,Virginia.A historian by training,he teaches visitors about the rich history of gold mining in the area and how to pan for gold."It is amazing how many have started coming here to buy prospecting equipment and to find places in the area to go prospecting,"said Bonshire."Especially now that gold is near $1,800an ounce,the interest has just skyrocketed."In1782,Thomas Jefferson wrote in his notes on Virginia that a man found a piece of quartz with gold in it near Fredericksburg,and gold fever spread across the state.In the early19th century,there were19gold mines in the immediate area.But during World War II, gold mines were deemed not essential and were shut down."Well this is some quartz from the area,and this is where you find the gold,"added Bonshire.Gold is found inside quartz rock that runs in a belt along the eastern United States.Miners would have to dig out thousands of kilograms of rock to find a few ounces of gold trapped in the crevices."Right here there is a little crevice and you can you see that there is some pyritein there,somebody popped this open,and there is a nice little pocket,"added Bonshire. "The gold would also be found similar to this inside a big piece of quartz."Todd Bonshire是门罗公园的经理，这里是位于佛吉尼亚州Goldvein经过恢复的18世纪的黄金开采地点。

高中英语 VOA常速听力09月合辑(文本)RomneyAttemptsCampaignReset素材

VOA常速英语听力09月合辑（文本）：Romney-Attempts-Campaign-ResetIn the U.S. presidential race, the latest polls show that President Barack Obama has pulled into a modest lead over his Republican challenger, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Romney is trying to get his campaign back on track after a difficult two-week period.Mitt Romney was in damage control mode as he tried to appeal to Hispanic voters on the Spanish language network Univision.“So my campaign is about the 100 percent in America, and I am concerned about them. I’m concerned about the fact that over the past four years life has become harder for Americans," said Romney.Romney has been on the defensive after the release of a secretly-recorded video from a fundraiser in May showed him with a dismissive attitude toward Obama supporters.Romney said 47 percent of voters will support the president no matter what because they depend on government handouts and see themselves as victims.“So my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives," he said.President Obama responded on the David Letterman show.“When I meet Republicans as I am traveling around the country, they are hard-working, family people who care deeply about this country and my expectation is that if you want to be president you have to work for everybody, not just for some," said President Obama.Analysts say the Romney comments are damaging, at least in the short term.“And then he makes the colossal mistake of presuming you can say things in secret," said presidential historian Allan Lichtman. "We know in this day and age that everything is photographed and recorded and that you can’t just write off half of the American people as dependents and people who don’t pay taxes.The comments could also hurt because voters already find the president more likeable than Romney, says Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown.“His favorable to unfavorable ratios have not gotten better and voters say Obama much more understands their needs and their lives than Romney, and that is a problem for the challenger," said Brown.Obama has built a slight lead in the polls since the party conventions and may be benefiting from an improving public perception of the economy, says Allan Lichtman. “That [the economy] was his one big area of advantage over Obama. That’s gone and on almost every other issue - you know, likeability, national security, foreign policy, health - Obama is ahead," he said.Romney’s best and perhaps last opportunity to give himself a boost will come in next month’s debates, says Peter Brown.“We are in the final stretch drive and the president is ahead. Now there are events that afford Romney perhaps the opportunity to change that status quo," he said.In addition to the presidential debates there will be one vice presidential debate between the incumbent, Joe Biden, and Republican candidate Paul Ryan.- 1 - / 1。

高中英语 VOA常速听力09月合辑(文本)IndicatorsShowUSEconomicRecoverySlowUneven素材

VOA常速英语听力2012年09月合辑（文本）：Indicators-Show-US-Economic-Recovery-Slow-UnevenA look at some key industries in the United States shows that the economic recovery is a bit erratic and growth seems to be slowing down.Economists say trucks haul nearly 70 percent of the freight used in the United States.The American Trucking Association says freight is a measure of the economy, because manufacturers have to move raw materials, carry parts to factories, haul imports and exports and deliver goods to store shelves.“We are actually a very good indicator, a leading economic indicator ((a way of looking at the economic future)) in fact. And so if tonnage starts to fall, we get nervous. If it’s going up, we are pretty happy,“ said Bob Costello, the group's chief economist.Freight tonnage is going up at the moment, but the rate of growth is slowing down."It is telling me that the economy is not falling into another recession. It will continue as a sort of a slow growth recovery," Costello said.Other clues about economic growth come from the volume of air freight. The most recent data show demand for air freight fell more than three percent globally during July."It can also, as you start to see air cargo dropping off and you are seeing other signs -- it can also be a leading indicator of a downturn,” said Perry Flint, of the International Air Transport Association.However, the same report shows that passenger traffic made gains during the same period.That may be why a top official of Cambria Suites Hotels, Michael Murphy, says business is strong.“We are seeing the highest demand in the history of the hotel industry right now. More people are traveling now than ever before, and that's in all segments of travel,”Murphy said.The contradictory indicators are one reason that predicting the economic future is a complex and difficult task.For example, government experts first said the U.S. economy expanded at a 1.5 percent annual rate during April, May, and June. Then they made a revision -- as new information became available and showed growth was more likely at a 1.7 percent rate.Trying to figure out what to do about the sluggish economic recovery is even more complicated.。

VOA常速讲解2011-04-28

VOA常速讲解附字幕:美国就业市场对年轻人不利查看原文第一部分：原文中英对照The labor market in the United States is starting to show signs of recovery,but for many young workers the recovery is not happening fast enough.Although the national unemployment rate is now the lowest it has been in two years,one study suggests the job prospect s for16to24-year-olds remains grim.America's youth faces an increasingly uncertain future.Despite a slowly improving job market,economist Heidi Shierholz at the Economic Policy Institute says young workers have yet to see similar gains."Young people across the board have never seen anything like this in70years,"said Heidi Shierholz."Since the Great Depression we have not seen unemployment rates this high."With unemployment rates more than twice the national average,Shierholz says the graduating Class of2011faces fierce competition for fewer jobs."New college grads are in direct competition with the cohort from last year and the cohort from the year before that,when the unemployment rate was also incredibly high, so there's just extremely stiff competition for new jobs for young people,"she said.George Washington University law student Elliot Reaven feels good about his career choices but he admits it is an intimidating economy for many students.美国就业市场已经开始出现复苏迹象，但是对许多年轻的劳动者来说，复苏的速度还不够快。

VOA常速讲解2011-03-25

VOA常速讲解附字幕:西方联合部队继续空袭利比亚查看原文第一部分：原文中英对照Anti-aircraft batteries fired into the air over Tripoli overnight as coalition warplanes bombed military target s inside the capital and elsewhere.ABC News reported that coalition forces shot down a Libyan warplane that was defy ing the U.N.-imposed no-fly zone.Meanwhile,Libyan state TV showed imagesof several charred bodies it said were casualties of the coalition bombing.French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe insisted that coalition airstrikes are targeting only military sites.Haitham al Traboulsi,a Libyan doctor who said he is in Tripoli,told al-Arabiya TV that "no civilians were hit"in recent coalition airstrikes and that the strikes were"extremely precise."He claimed that the bodies shown on Libyan TV were of people killed in previous fighting in Zawiya and Tripoli"Libya's Deputy Foreign Minister Khalid Kaim, however,complain ed to reporters that the western coalition is hitting civilian targets and he called for an end to airstrikes:"The airstrikes as what happened today didnot differentiate between civilians and armored personnel,"Kaim said."To start up the national dialogue and get life back to normal,the airstrikes should stop immediately."由于国际联合部队战斗机轰炸了首都和其他地方的军事目标，防空炮整晚都向的黎波里上空发射。

VOA常速讲解2011-09-07

VOA常速讲解附字幕:索马里难民营营养不良加重查看原文第一部分：原文中英对照Thirty children cling to life at the emergency ward of the Doctors Without Borders clinic at Hilaweyn Camp.Eight died of severe malnutrition last week,and80more new cases show up at the door each morning.Hilaweyn was just opened a month ago to handle the overflow from three other camps at Dollo Ado,a sprawling complex holding more than120,000refugees from Somalia's famine zone.Hilaweyn's emergency coordinator Voitek Asztabski says these recent arrivals are in worse shape than those who came earlier."They are chronically malnourished.The journey itself lasts for days or weeks.It's a tremendous effort for them to cross and come to this place here.And they are not getting stronger during the walk,they are getting weaker,so that's why what we observe is over 50percent of malnourished kids below five years old that cross the border are malnourished,"he said.Asztabski says1,800children,or nearly half those under the age of five,are in the camp's nutritional assistance program.The United Nations refugee agency says the flow of refugees into Dollo Ado was more than2,000a day at its peak.Now the flow has dried to a trickle.But agency spokeswoman Laura Padoan says the latest group of refugees is showing symptoms of a variety of malnutrition-related diseases.在无国界医生组织海勒文难民营急救室，30名儿童命悬一线。

高中英语 VOA常速听力09月合辑(文本)VolunteersStepUptoHelpinUSAfterIsaac素材

高中英语 VOA常速听力2012年09月合辑（文本）Volunteers-Step-Up-to-Help-in-US-After-Isaac素材NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Isaac did not approach the vast destruction of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but it still displaced large numbers of residents in and around New Orleans. The storm has passed and volunteers are providing food and shelter to those now in need.Hurricane Isaac caused serious flooding in rural communities outside New Orleans, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.Now, these Volunteers from AmeriCorps are helping coordinate the relief effort in some of those communities north of the city.Most of the volunteers are recent college graduates who made a one-year commitment to serve in this government program. It provides disaster assistance and community service in the U.S.Patrick Hess joined two months ago. He was helping rebuild houses in New Orleans destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when he got the call to help out with the current relief effort.“I'm from Virginia. We don't really have to deal with hurricanes or earthquakes or any of the major disasters, really. So I've seen minor stuff but never something like flooding, like this,” said Hess.For Samantha Perez, working at an evacuation center brings back memories. She's from the New Orleans area and her family had to evacuate during Hurricane Katrina. She said this is an opportunity to help others as she was helped.“We got the call. We came out here, working nearly 16 hour days. We really feel like we're doing things, and we're doing what we came here to do, pretty much,” said Perez.While working to the point of exhaustion, these young volunteers say they've gained as much as they have given to this relief effort, learning more about the world and about themselves.。

VOA常速讲解2011-09-03

VOA常速讲解附字幕:八月份西班牙失业率上升查看原文第一部分：原文中英对照The number claiming unemployment benefits in Spain went up by more than50,000last month.Spain's Labor Ministry says the hike is typical of the month of August but,nonetheless, discouraging."Spain has the largest unemployment rate in the euro area and one of the largest unemployment rates in the world,"noted Javier Diaz-Gimenez,professor of economics at the IESE Business School in Madrid."In fact,our employment rate currently is about twice the euro area average and about three times the unemployment rate in Germany."Spain's unemployment rate is more than20 percent.For those under the age of25,it is more than45percent.But economic growth does not appear to be on the horizon.Spain,like a number of European nations,is struggling with a major public deficit.Greece,Portugal and Ireland have already had to borrow money from their euro neighbors in order to avoid defaulting on their debts.It has not yet come to that in Spain,and its lawmakers want to keep it that way.上月，西班牙申领失业救济的人数增加了50,000多人。

高中英语 VOA常速听力09月合辑(文本)AidCutsThreatenM

VOA常速英语听力2012年09月合辑（文本）：Aid-Cuts-Threaten-Millennium-Development-Goals-Warns-UNLONDON — The Secretary General of the United Nations has warned that declining aid donations mean many of the UN Millennium Development Goals are likely to be missed. The UN says official development assistance in 2011 was less than half the $300 billion needed annually to meet the targets set in 2000. Researchers say up until now good progress has been made in tackling poverty and improving healthcare.Margaret Gift has brought her son Simplicious for a check-up at a mobile health clinic in the remote village of Chikhwawa in Malawi. His diarrhea can be treated on the spot.Officials say Malawi has made rapid progress in cutting child mortality - one of the UN's Millennium Development Goals or MDGs - partly due to decentralizing healthcare. UNICEF's Victor Chinyama says that makes health workers more accessible."These are people who live within the communities and are able to provide basic treatment to children for some of the most common illnesses, such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea," said Chinyama.Since 2000, there has been an estimated 40 percent fall globally in the number of children dying under the age of five - good progress towards the goal of two-thirds reduction.Launching the 2012 MDG Gap Task Force Report, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned gains are at risk because of a $167 billion shortfall from donors."Last year, official development assistance declined for the first time in many years.I repeat my call to the international community: do not place the burden of fiscal austerity on the backs of the poor," he said.Professor Anne Mills of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine specializes in the health economics of developing countries. She says the fall in donations is alarming."If that continues into the future, then I certainly think it's of major concern. Ultimately that may have an impact in terms of maternal deaths, neo-natal deaths and child deaths," said Mills.Mills says child and maternal health has improved significantly since 2000. But she says the global financial crisis is having an impact."We can see increased arguments about the value of aid as we see in the UK. We've also seen that for some of the donor countries, the increase in aid is beginning to plateau off," she said.Another of the Millennium Development Goals calls for the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water to be halved by 2015. That appears to be on track thanks to programs like this one in Mali, which aims to bring clean water and improved sanitation to half a million school children.One of the students, Youssouf Dissa, says that when he came home he spoke to his grandfather and grandmother and explained what he had learned at school, especially the importance of washing hands before eating.Health professionals appear to agree that the Millennium Development Goals have led to widespread improvements in healthcare and poverty relief. But with a 2015 deadline, there are warnings that the financial crisis could bring a halt to that progress.。

高中英语 VOA常速听力09月合辑(文本)ViolenceCripplesPakistansEconomicHub素材

高中英语 VOA常速听力2012年09月合辑（文本）Violence-Cripples-Pakistans-Economic-Hub素材Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi is the country’s economic engine and home to some 20 million people. It is also the country’s most violent city, where gangs aligned with local political parties settle scores with shoot-outs. The violence is taking a toll on the country's commercial hub.Political killings, honor killings, kidnappings and gang warfare are not uncommon in this city.Violence taking a tollAccording to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, more than 1,450 people including children were killed in Karachi in the first six months of this year. That’s an average of about 6 people a day.Karachi produces more than 50 percent of Pakistan’s revenue. Businessmen like Naeem Ahmed, a member of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce, say the daily violence is impacting the country’s economy. “If Karachi is not working well, it does not just mean that Karachi is not working, it means Pakistan is not working,” he explained.Police say they don’t have the manpower to secure such a large city, where there is high unemployment and poverty-driven crime.Beyond law enforcementBusinessmen say political parties also are also using violence to gain economic power. Police chief Ahmed Farooqi says political violence is beyond law enforcement's ability to control.“Police can stop them for a little while, [stop] this violence to happen, but for larger stability, and a larger improvement in the law and order situation, the political forces must come into play,” he said.There is also a lot of wealth in Karachi. And people want protection. Despite strict licensing procedures, gun sales are up. And not only among men, says shop manager Mahmoud Salim.“Besides hunting and paper target shooting at the range, people also buy guns for personal protection, and that also includes women, even young women," he added. "They come and they want to have a license, they want to have a weapon for their personal security.”Businessmen say the only solution will come from political parties joining forces, and tackling the problems, rather than being a part of them.。

高中英语 VOA常速听力09月合辑(文本)DireWarningsIssuedonDiminishingArcticIce素材

VOA常速英语听力2012年09月合辑（文本）：Dire-Warnings-Issued-on-Diminishing-Arctic-IceNEW YORK — The extent of Arctic sea ice this week shrunk to a new low in the era of satellite record-keeping that began in 1979. The increased expanse of water near the top of the world could have implications for global shipping, wildlife and even international diplomacy.Polar bears hunt seals from sea ice, but could drown if forced to swim long distances in open water. Satellite photos released by America’s space agency, NASA, illustrate the daunting threat to such bears. An image shows the amount of Arctic Sea ice in 1979. Another shows the record minimum set this year on September 16. The shrinkage is equivalent to an area greater than Texas, an impossible distance for even the mightiest polar bear to swim.Scientists say fossil fuels are increasing carbon emissions in the atmosphere. This not only warms the oceans, but threatens biodiversity in cold and warm waters alike.“As we increase the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a high proportion, about 40 percent of that, goes back into the ocean, and so it’s increasing the acid content of the ocean and that’s threatening coral reefs,” said Ben Orlove, a Columbia University climate research scientist.Orlove notes that the demise of coral reefs subsequently threatens fisheries around them.Scientists at a recent symposium at Columbia University’s Earth Institute said less ice is likely to draw some shipping away from the Panama Canal. This is because a northern route, though still hazardous, reduces the distance between Europe and Asia by about 6,500 kilometers.Anne Siders of Columbia’s Center for Climate Change Law said countries bordering the Arctic are not the only ones with interests there.“There certainly will be interest in the Arctic from nations that don’t touch physically on the Arctic; that’s very clear for natural resources, for fishing, for a variety of reasons,” said Siders.Energy supplies are among those reasons. Siders says China and Japan are seeking influence - so far unsuccessfully - in the Arctic Council, an international forum of eight countries that border the Arctic.Scientists say more open water in the Arctic means more evaporation and extreme weather elsewhere. The Earth Institute’s Peter Schlosser adds that warmer water around Greenland could melt some of the island’s glaciers to the detriment of low-lying areas everywhere.“They are impacting sea levels, for example. If you look at the tropical Pacific and island nations there, they experience sea level rise and their existence is actually threatened by that,” said Schlosser.The Arctic is far from most of the world’s population. Scientists, however, caution that distance is no guarantee people will be spared the effects of warming in the planet’s northernmost regions.。

高中英语 VOA常速听力09月合辑(文本)APECLeaderstoDiscussRivalSouthChinaSeaClaims素材

VOA常速英语听力2012年09月合辑（文本）：APEC-Leaders-to-Discuss-Rival-South-China-Sea-ClaimsBEIJING — Asia-Pacific leaders meeting in Russia this week are expected to discuss how best to reconcile border disputes in the South China Sea. Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and China all have competing territorial claims.Chinese patrols in contested waters, and a new Chinese garrison on a disputed island put rival claims to the South China Sea front and center at this week's forum of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation."There is a small risk, and I think it is a growing risk, that an incident at sea could escalate into conflict involving China and one of its neighbors, and I think that is what we are all worried about," said Rory Medcalf, who directs the International Security Program at Australia's Lowy Institute.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Southeast Asian nations should draft a unified code of conduct with China to resolve competing claims to the sea."We believe the nations of the region should work collaboratively together to resolve disputes without coercion, without intimidation, without threats and certainly without the use of force," said Clinton.Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa is taking the lead."I had a very good, frank and candid discussion with my foreign minister of China colleague here in this very same building to call him to revert back to the diplomatic process," said Natalegawa. "I think the track is quite clear what is ahead of us, namely, we must apply ourselves to have the code of conduct done.But the Association of Southeast Asian Nations failed to agree on a code of conduct in July. Justin Logan of Washington's Cato Institute said this week's APEC summit may do no better."I think bringing in different countries will create a different dynamic. Although, in all likelihood, many of the countries that were in involved in the first go-around will be very, very reticent to get back involved again seeing the sour outcome that happened in ASEAN," said Logan.Resolving the standoff is complicated by Chinese wariness of the Obama administration's greater military and economic involvement in Asia."We have noticed the United States has said many times that it will not hold a position on the South China Sea issue," said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei. "We hope they can keep their promises and do more things that are conducive to regional peace and stability, not the opposite.Before APEC, Secretary Clinton tried to soothe tensions with China."We want to see them [China] play a positive role in navigation and maritime security issues," said Clinton. "We want to see them contribute to sustainable development for the people of the Pacific to protect the precious environment, including the oceans.U.S. officials expect this APEC summit to endorse the need for a code of conduct over the South China Sea so that mechanisms for resolving rival claims might be in place before November's East Asia Summit in Cambodia.。