时间:2019-01-02 作者:英语课 分类:2006年慢速英语(一)月


英语课


ECONOMICS REPORT - Maryland Law Could Force Wal-Mart to Spend More on Health CareBy Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Friday, January 27, 2006

I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report.

A new state law in Maryland says large companies must spend at least eight percent of their total wages on health care. If not, then they will have to pay the difference to the state to help provide health care to the poor. The amount for non-profit employers is six percent.


Wal mart store front

The new law is called the Fair Share Health Care Fund Act. It will affect only companies with ten thousand or more employees in Maryland. At least four companies are that big. But only one is known not to meet the new requirement: Wal-Mart Stores. The legislation became known as the Wal-Mart Bill.

Wal-Mart employs about seventeen thousand workers in Maryland, and more than a million nationwide. It has faced a lot of criticism about its employment policies.

The Maryland law is the first of its kind in the fifty states. Labor 1 activists 2 say they will try to get more than thirty other states to pass similar legislation.

America's biggest labor group, the AF.L.-C.I.O., says fewer employers offer health coverage 3 than five years ago. It notes that many workers in low-paying jobs, including some at Wal-Mart, have to be covered by Medicaid. Medicaid is a state and federal program that provides health care for the poor.

Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich vetoed the legislation last May. He called it bad policy. He said it sends an anti-business message and does little to deal with the national problem of limited health care for the poor. But earlier this month Maryland's Democratic-controlled legislature voted to cancel the veto by the Republican governor.

Wal-Mart strongly opposed the law. The company told Maryland lawmakers that it spends between 7 and 8 percent on health care. It says less than one-half of one percent of Maryland workers without health insurance work at Wal-Mart.

It says more than three-fourths of its employees have health insurance. And it says every Wal-Mart employee in Maryland can gain health coverage for as little as twenty-three dollars a month.

Wal-Mart and business groups like the United States Chamber 4 of Commerce say the law will hurt companies that create jobs.

Wal-Mart could try to stop the new law in court. It says Maryland lawmakers, in its words, placed the special interests of Washington, D.C., union leaders ahead of the well-being 5 of the people they serve.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. Read and listen to our reports at www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.




n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦
  • We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
  • He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后,他已经疲惫不堪了。
n.(政治活动的)积极分子,活动家( activist的名词复数 )
  • His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
  • Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.报导,保险范围,保险额,范围,覆盖
  • There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
  • This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所
  • For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说,牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
  • The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。
n.安康,安乐,幸福
  • He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
  • My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福,却被误解为多管闲事。
标签: 慢速英语 voa
学英语单词
.lr
7-nitroindazole
acicular tempered martensite
adjustment of circulation
advance in technology
aerosol concentration
agate spatula
age-darkened
alternating magnetization
angle dozer
appying
back pressure evaporator
Bekovicha, Bukhta
beslime
besocked
Boardman
bridge stacker
caecostomy
Cerorthite
churia ghati (siwalik ra.)
CliffsNotes
color center laser
computerized seat reservation service
cony-burrow
cormous
custom-tailor
Dazkiri
dextriferron
dictateth
digital gradient
dosimetrists
dry cargo time charter freight rate
durous
fast radiochemical separation
fervent
fritillariae bulbus
fully parallel associative processor
fungal meningitis
galactoxyloglucan
Ganle
genus Pyrethrum
governances
halophility
hillsales
hypamnion
ignition interlock
infinity bug
internal sort phase
intraspecific cooperation
isabnormal
La Pampa
leachfield
Littlehampton
manyogana
meson telescope
method of force
mica glass-ceramic
micaceous shale
micro-opaque
missend
moroseness
moscow' saint paul
multipurpose cargo ship
mythemes
nil link
nonaneurysmal
operation characteristic
pest control
pitch slip
pressure unloading
property owner
Quicama
radar axis
receiver protective device (reprod)
retort(ed) food
reuse pattern
Rybnovsk
saturatedness
self-welding of structural materials in liquid sodium
semilunar hiatus
shafting-grounding device
solid-state imaging and biomedical applications
spherical concave and convex mirrors
suck tits
swinging base
take my word
template moulding
Tertry
Tho Vuc
thyrsoidea macrurus
toll pass ticket
True gold does not fear fire
tunnel invert
two-hander
umw (ultra micro waves)
unilateral report
usable flow
used computers
vasomotor tumentia
viewer's role
waxing machine
zandler