深圳大学研究生基础综合英语听力(12-13第二学期)VOA-Special English

1.allowanceThis is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Many children first learn the value of money by receiving an allowance. The purpose is to let children learn from experience at an age when financial mistakes are not very costly.The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend as they wish differs from family to family. Timing is another consideration. Some children get a weekly allowance. Others get a monthly allowance.In any case, parents should make clear what, if anything, the child is expected to pay for with the money.At first, young children may spend all of their allowance soon after they receive it. If they do this, they will learn the hard way that spending must be done within a budget. Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until the next allowance.The object is to show young people that a budget demands choices between spending and saving. Older children may be responsible enough to save money for larger costs, like clothing or electronics.Many people who have written on the subject of allowances say it is not a good idea to pay your child for work around the home. These jobs are a normal part of family life.Paying children to do extra work around the house, however, can be useful. It can even provide an understanding of how a business works.Allowances give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with money. They can share it in the form of gifts or giving to a good cause. They can spend it by buying things they want. Or they can save it.Saving helps children understand that costly goals require sacrifice: you have to cut costs and plan for the future.Requiring children to save part of their allowance can also open the door to future saving and investing. Many banks offer services to help children and teenagers learn about personal finance.A savings account is an excellent way to learn about the power of compound interest.Compounding works by paying interest on interest. So, for example, one dollar invested at two percent interest for two years will earn two cents in the first year. The second year, the money will earn two percent of one dollar and two cents, and so on.That may not seem like a lot. But over time it adds up.2.e-commerceFrom VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report in Special English.Americans are buying more products and services than ever before through the Internet. And experts say the popularity of online sales is likely to spread to other countries.Online sales now represent as much as one-tenth of all retail sales in the United States. This has led traditional stores to seek new ways to keep their customers loyal.Lynne Shaner used the Internet to buy everything she needed for her wedding and holiday gifts for her husband and step-daughter. Other than food, 90 percent of her purchases were made on her home computer."I find that, by being able to go online and choose the things that I need to choose, and have them delivered to me right at my doorstep, I eliminate all the driving, all the crowds, all the noise of that, and I usually get a better selection."There are a lot of people like her. Experts say American online shopping hit records in both November and December. Fifty-seven percent of Americans have bought something electronically.Store owners worry that this growing amount of online sales will hurt their business. Cornell University marketing professor Ed McLaughlin says they should be worried. He spoke to VOA b y Skype."Anything that can move online, will. And it's just a matter of time."Professor McLaughlin says traditional stores can keep their customers by selling goods like clothing, which buyers may want to see and try on before purchasing. He says the stores could also offer things that are difficult to ship. He also says some stores can please customers by offering to set upor repair electronic products.Bill Martin is the founder of ShopperTrak. His business helps stores learn about their customers. He told VOA by Skype that traditional stores offer a social experience that some people enjoy."There is still a lot of emotion in the buying decision, you know, that takes place. Oftentimes, you know, you need that last sense of …Boy, this is exactly what I want' -- that feeling before you're ready to part with money, and you can't always get that on-line. It's a rather cold process."Bill Martin says traditional stores can provide goods to buyers more-quickly than online stores. And some retailers are using websites to persuade people to visit their stores.While e-commerce worries some business owners, the only worry for delivery services like FedEx and UPS is keeping up with the number of packages. UPS Manager Dana Kline says her company is very busy at this time of year. UPS is so busy that it has filled 55,000 temporary worker positions during the holiday season.3.food safetyThis is the Agriculture Report in Special English.Each year, bad food sickens about one in six Americans. Proposed new rules aim to improve food safety. Officials say the changes could prevent more than one million cases of food-related illnesseseach year.The new rules were proposed this month, exactly two years after President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act. The rules are the first step in putting the law into effect, making the biggest changes in food safety since the 1930s.The law makes the Food and Drug Administration responsible for preventing foodborne illnesses. Experts say this is a change from the role that the FDA has played in the past in reacting to disease outbreaks.Congress passed the law after a series of outbreaks linked to bagged spinach, peanut butter and other foods. Margaret Hamburg is commissioner of the FDA.They occurred because of problems that would have been addressed by these kinds of approaches. So I think, you know, we‟re very optimistic that we will begin to see real change.”The agency is proposing to require food manufacturers to show that they have identified where contamination is most likely to happen. Manufacturers would also have to show that they have taken steps to prevent it. The proposed rules also deal with safety in growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables.The Congressional Budget Office estimates that establishing all of the provisions of the law will cost the government $1.4 billion. The Grocery Manufacturers of America, an industry group, has not released an estimate of what it will cost producers.But FDA Deputy Commissioner Michael Taylor says the new rules are worth the price.“Even if you just look at estimated reductions in illness, but if you also take into account avoiding disruption of the food supply and the loss of confidence in those commodities by consumers, so Ithink we‟ll see that the benefits substantially outweigh the costs of implementation.”Caroline Smith-DeWaal is director for food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. She says the rules should have been released a year ago.“We‟re really happy that the new rules have come out. They‟re a little late.”And she notes that they are not finished.“The bigger question is, where are the rules on imports that haven‟t been released yet?”The FDA says about 15 percent of food eaten by Americans is imported, and that share is growing. Rules have not been released yet to require imported foods to meet the same standards as food produced in the United States. But the agency says they are coming soon.4.IphonesFrom VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report in Special English.The iPhone has become one of the most popular mobile phones in the United States. An 18-year-old student in California has used his knowledge of the device to create his own business. And he has gained national recognition for his work.Vincent Quigg is the chief executive officer of TechWorld. His company is kind of like a hospital for iPhones."I'm 18 years old. I'm a college student. And I'm the CEO and founder of TechWorld, where we specialize in customizing and repairing iPhones."Vincent Quigg launched TechWorld while in high school."My mom became single a couple of years ago and I had to grow up. And in order to keep my lifestyle, I had to find different ways to stay financially ahead of the game [to] keep my phone, keep a car, transportation and all that stuff. So I had to find ways to be entrepreneurial."An organization called the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, or NFTE, helped the young man get started. Both he and his mother, Carla Quigg, admit that he had a hard time developing a business plan."He quit the class, which I was very disappointed.""It was extremely hard for myself to find a business to start and run with it. But once I had that 'aha moment' or what I knew I wanted to go with, it was really easy and extremely fun."At the time, Vincent worked for the electronics store BestBuy. He says people always came into the store with broken electronic devices. He decided that repairing those devices was what he wanted to do. He not only re-registered for the NFTE class, but he also won the organization's national competition for best young entrepreneur.Estelle Reyes is executive director for NFTE in Los Angeles."He has an incredible gift for presenting himself and his dreams in a very compelling way that engages everyone to rally around him."His business has grown through word-of-mouth. Vincent says he now fixes up to 10 phones per week. He earns about $1,500 each month in sales. Brisa Munoz is one of his satisfied customers."I actually looked him up on the Internet because I had heard so much about this kid, how he won entrepreneur of the year. So I looked him up, and I was like, whoo, I want him to fix my phone.'"TechWorld has two other employees. Kacee Wheeler is one of them."He's such an amazing kid, and you always see his wheels turning with ideas every day. And it's really inspiring for him to be so young and pushing and have the drive. It's amazing to me."Kacee Wheeler works on the technical side of the business. Vincent Quigg now deals with finances and planning. He says he wants to continue to grow his business. His biggest goal, he says, has always been to work for himself.ughingThis is the VOA Special English Health Report.Imagine this situation. You pass a group of people. The people are talking to each other. You cannot hear what they are saying. But suddenly they start laughing. What would you think? Would you think they were laughing at something funny that one of them said? Or -- be honest with yourself -- would you think they were laughing at you? Yes, you.Being laughed at is a common fear. But a major study published in two thousand nine found that this fear is not the same around the world. It differs from culture to culture.People in Finland were the least likely to believe that people laughing in their presence were making fun of them. Less than ten percent of Finns in the study said they would think that, compared to eighty percent of people in Thailand.Some people in the study said they felt unsure of themselves in social situations but hid their feelings of insecurity. Others said they avoided social situations where they had been laughed at before.The study found that people in Turkmenistan and Cambodia were more likely to be in the first group. They would hide their feelings of insecurity if they were around other people's laughter. But peoplein Iraq, Egypt and Jordan were more likely to try to avoid such situations if they felt they had been laughed at before.Shy people often avoid situations that would force them into close contact with other people. They worry that something they say or do will make other people laugh at them. But some people worry much more than others. They may have a disorder called gelotophobia. Gelos is a Greek word. It means laughter. Phobia means fear. This fear of laughter can be truly sad for those who live with it. It can affect how they lead their lives.In the study, a team from the University of Zurich led more than ninety researchers from around the world. They wanted to understand the difference between normal shyness and true gelotophobia. Another purpose of the study was to compare the levels of fear of being laughed at in different cultures. The researchers surveyed more than twenty-two thousand people in forty-two different languages. The findings appeared in the scientific journal Humor.And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. Is shyness a serious problem for you or someone you know? It was for a university student who asked people in our audience for advice on how to deal with it. You can find out what they said at -- where you can also read, listen and learn English with our stories. I'm Faith Lapidus.6.living longerFrom VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report in Special English.A new study says people are living longer, but many are living longer in poor health. Researchers found that life expectancy has increased by about five years since 1990. On average, men worldwide can expect to live 67 and a half years. Women can expect to live to age 73.Almost 500 researchers in 50 countries took part in the study of global disease and disability. The findings appear in a series of articles in the Lancet. Richard Horton is the medical journal's editor-in-chief."All of us in the world of health focus on diseases and often bad news. Actually, the Global Burden of Disease 2010 Study broadly presents very good news."The research found that far fewer people died of measles, tetanus, respiratory problems and diarrheal diseases in 2010 than in 1990. Deaths from infections, childbirth-related problems and malnutrition fell about 17 percent to 13.2 million.Global efforts have focused on reducing HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. HIV/AIDS deaths have dropped since 2006, and TB deaths fell almost 20 percent since 1990. But each of these diseases still kills more than a million people every year. The number of malaria deaths increased by an estimated 20 percent, to almost 1.2 million in 2010."Those three big, big diseases are not just going to go away."Mike Cohen is the head of global health research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was not involved in the research, but says it shows a change taking place worldwide."As infectious diseases have been better controlled and people live longer, and as their diets change and lifestyles change, the inevitable consequence in health is, you have to deal much more broadly with hypertension, heart disease, diabetes."The study found that these kinds of non-communicable diseases caused more than half of the global burden of disease in 2010.The two biggest killers -- heart disease and stroke -- caused one-fourth of all deaths in 2010. That was up from one-fifth in 1990.There was a 48 percent increase in the number of deaths from lung cancer, which is commonlycaused by smoking tobacco.The top causes of disability in 2010 were physical conditions like arthritis and back problems, and mental and behavioral problems like depression, anxiety and substance abuse. Harvard University professor Joshua Salomon was a co-author of the disability research."I think in general we've been more successful at reducing mortality and less successful at actually addressing chronic disability."7.SahelFrom VOA Learning English, this is the Agriculture Report in Special English.In Africa, severe food shortages have affected eighteen million people in nine Sahel countries this year. This was the third severe food crisis in four years in the area bordering the Sahara. How can the Sahel break its cycle of food insecurity? Aid workers are asking that question as this year's emergency eases. David Gressly is the United Nations regional humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel."If we don't seize the opportunity in two thousand thirteen, there's a good chance that this whole issue will be forgotten until the next drought, and then we'll be asking ourselves the same set of questions."Mr. Gressly says during a crisis, families eat just one or two meals a day, take their children out of school, sell their animals and go into debt. These actions put them at greater risk in a future crisis. In fact, many of the families affected by this year's food crisis had yet to recover from the earlier ones.Aid agencies sent food and emergency assistance. They supplied farmers with drought-resistant seeds, improved fertilizers and medicine for livestock. Aid groups also worked to improve irrigation systems and grain storage. These measures dealt with short-term needs, but David Gressly says thework should not stop when the crisis eases."And I think now there's an understanding [of the need for] a very targeted program looking at these eighteen million people affected this year, working with them to find ways so that they don't have to make the kinds of decisions to survive in a crisis of a drought, for example, that compromises their long-term future."Aid groups say they are working to build the "resilience" of communities, to make them stronger during a crisis. David Gressly says this means taking steps like reducing child malnutrition and changing cultural practices that may be harmful.For example, he says there is a practice in many communities across the Sahel to give water to babies under six months of age because of the heat. But the water is often dirty and makes the children sick. This starts a cycle toward severe malnutrition. It can be prevented by feeding babies only breast milk.This year's food crisis followed unpredictable and insufficient rains. High food prices only made the situation worse. David Gressly says aid agencies in Chad have been building dams to store water during the rainy season. This water can later be used to irrigate fields.Al Hassan Cisse from the British aid group Oxfam says building the resilience of poor people also means investing in food reserves and social protections like health care. Aid groups say prevention costs less than treatment.8.SchoolFrom VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report in Special English.Funerals began this week for the school shooting victims in Newtown, Connecticut. Last Friday a20-year-old local man killed 20 children, six educators and himself at Sandy Hook ElementarySchool. Officials say Adam Lanza used guns owned by his mother after shooting her to death at their home.The shooting was the second deadliest ever at an American school. In 2007 a student at Virginia Tech killed 32 people and then himself.What happened in Newtown has once again reopened debate about gun control and issues like mental health services. President Obama spoke Sunday at a memorial service in the town. He said he will use whatever power he has as president "in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this."On Wednesday, he named Vice President Joe Biden to lead an administration team in developing proposals to reduce gun violence.Students at Sandy Hook Elementary are expected to return to school in a neighboring town in January after winter break. Sandy Hook will remain closed until further notice.In the gunfire last week, a community lost a school for the most tragic of reasons. Days earlier, another community not very far away regained a school in a story of hope, renewal and the strength of the human spirit.Flooding from Hurricane Sandy nearly destroyed Saint Camillus School in the Rockaway area of Queens, in New York City. The Catholic school stands just a short distance from the Atlantic Ocean. The more than 200 students and teachers went to another school while Saint Camillus was closed for six weeks.Many people remain displaced in the area. But the reopening of the school on December 10 was a victory for the community."So good morning boys and girls."Good morning, Sister Agnes!"Sister Agnes White is principal of Saint Camillus."We're all together. We're back home, and we are ready to start anew."Earlier, Sister Agnes gave cut-out paper stars to students to tape anywhere they wanted on the school walls."Between now and Christmas, this building should be filled with stars, a symbol of light. We all lost light. We know what it's like to be without light. But now we have light in this building and we need the light that you're going to put up with the stars, a symbol of the light of Jesus Christ."Parts of the school remain damaged beyond repair. Some students lost their homes as a result of the storm.School secretary Kerry Montero says the message from Hurricane Sandy is clearest in the many recent acts of kindness."It's touching, you know, the outpouring of help that we've received from everyone. I mean, we've had people from Connecticut, California, Brooklyn, all over the place, coming and helping us."9.sun powerFrom VOA Learning English, this is the TECHNOLOGY REPORT in Special English.Officials say the islands of Tokelau in the South Pacific Ocean have become the world's first territory totally powered by the sun. The move is expected to save money and ease the environmental burdenof depending on imported fossil fuels.New Zealand's foreign affairs minister released a statement about The Tokelau Renewable Energy Project. Murray McCully said Tokelau's three main atolls, or islands, now have enough solar capacity to meet all of their electricity needs. He said until now, Tokelau has been one hundred percent dependent on diesel for producing electricity. That, he said, has burdened the country with heavy economic and environmental costs.The three atolls of Tokelau are Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo. The group o f islands is about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii and is administered by New Zealand. Together they have about one thousand five hundred citizens.Each atoll received its own solar power grid system. New Zealand officials estimated the cost of the project to build the three solar grids at around seven million dollars. The last of the grids was completed earlier this month.It is estimated that oil imports make up to thirty percent of national income in some parts of the Pacific. The move to solar power could save Tokelau about one million dollars a year. One project coordinator said Tokelau would now be able to spend more on social programs to help its citizens.Other South Pacific islands are attempting similar projects. The island nations of Samoa and Tuvalu are aiming to get all of their electricity from renewable sources by twenty-twenty. The Cook Islands plans to start moving to solar panels and wind turbines. And most houses in the South Pacific groups of islands will begin to use solar water heaters.East Timor's government has promised that no households in the capital, Dili, would be using firewood for cooking by twenty fifteen. It also says fifty percent of the country's electricity will come from renewable sources by the end of the decade.New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully says the country will hold a Pacific energy summit in March next year. He said the meeting would build on the success of clean and affordable energy solutions for Tokelau, Tonga, and the Cook Islands.10.UnemploymentFrom VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report in Special English.The International Labor Organization says nearly 200 million people are without jobs. And the ILO is warning of even higher unemployment this year.The United Nations agency this week released a report called "Global Employment Trends 2013". It says the number of unemployed worldwide rose by more than four million last year, compared with 2011. The report says one fourth of this increase was in developed economies. The remaining 75 percent were in mainly developing economies in Asia, and in African countries south of the Sahara Desert.The report says an estimated 39 million people stopped looking for work last year. It says the average length of unemployment increased sharply in developed economies. One-third of all job seekers there were unemployed for a year or more.The ILO's Director-General, Guy Ryder, is concerned about the world economy. He says the recovery is not expected to be strong enough to reduce unemployment quickly."We see that unemployment is set to rise again. Our projection would be for 5.1 million more in 2013 and still a further 3 million in 2014. So the trends are very much in the wrong direction."The ILO report says the labor market is especially difficult for young people. It says almost 74 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed worldwide. That represents anunemployment rate of 12.6 percent.The report says more and more young people who experience long-term unemployment stop looking for work. It says this prevents young people from gaining on-the-job experience.Guy Ryder says the ILO has been warning about the risks of what it calls a "lost generation." He has called on policy makers to support youth employment.Mr. Ryder says all countries, especially developed ones, must provide more predictable policies. He says these policies must include measures to increase wages and support stronger consumption. And he says countries should enact reforms to strengthen the banking industry, so banks can support investment and provide credit.While the I.L.O. believes there is reason to be concerned about the world economy, the International Monetary Fund expects the international economy to grow slowly this year. A new IMF report predicts that international growth will reach 3.5 percent in 2013. That would be three tenths of a percent better than the rate last year.11.waste plasticFrom VOA Learning English, this is the Technology Report in Special English.这里是美国之音慢速英语科技报道。