时间:2019-01-06 作者:英语课 分类:2007年VOA标准英语(一月)


英语课

By Jeff Swicord
Washington, DC
23 January 2007
 
watch US Poverty report


The United States is a wealthy nation, but poverty still exists here.  By the government's own measure, more than one in every eight Americans lives "below the poverty line" -- on income lower than the official estimate of what it means to be poor.  VOA's Jeff Swicord takes a deeper look at the picture of poverty in America.


 
They are a common sight in inner-city America: homeless people, living in the streets and going hungry.  To most Americans, this is the face of poverty. 


Population experts and those who work at trying to help the poor say the problem extends far beyond those who are homeless, and is often less visible to the general public. 


 
Robert Egger
Robert Egger is director of "DC Central Kitchen," which prepares free meals for the hungry in Washington.  He says, "If you ask the average American who is hungry, they are thinking it is a homeless person.  And they think that that homeless person is hungry because they are an addict 1 or a drunk. … 'It is their fault.  They are lazy.'  People need to realize that the face of hunger is a single woman, raising two kids, who has a job.  At the end of the month, she is going to come up short (of funds) because she is only making $8, $9, $10 [or] $12 an hour.  In most American cities, she is not going to make it."


The U.S. Census 2 Bureau calculates that 37 million Americans are living in poverty -- on an income of less than $20,000 a year for a family of four, for example.  The number of people living in poverty here has grown by more than five million since 2000, but overall the official measure of poverty has not changed significantly – 12.7 percent of the population (according to the latest figures available, for 2005).


 
Rev. Larry Snyder
Catholic Charities U.S.A., one of this country's largest faith-based organizations, is trying to drastically reduce poverty in America.  The Reverend Larry Snyder is Catholic Charities' president. "We are calling upon policymakers, faith-based groups [and] civic 3 leaders to make a systematic 4 effort to cut poverty in this country in half by the year 2020.  We can only do that if we make the poor a priority in policy decisions, from city hall and the courthouse, to Congress and the White House." 


The charity's "Campaign to Reduce Poverty" will try to influence Congress and the White House to keep four priorities high in their future legislative 5 plans: health care, hunger, housing and nutrition, and family economic security.  As Congress looks for ways to cut the federal government's spending, advocates for the poor say, there should be no reduction in the government's support for programs that combat poverty.


 
Julia Smith
At Washington's Central Union Mission, a shelter for the homeless, special projects manager Julia Smith says housing costs in the nation's capital have tripled over the last five years -- creating wealth for a few, but forcing many people below the poverty line. "Generally, what you are seeing is the poor being pushed out of the city.  And so you have the working poor that are holding jobs, but can no longer afford to live in the city."


Ms. Smith says drug use and other forms of substance abuse is another big factor in poverty.  Ronny Thomas suffered from drug addiction 6 for years, but with the Central Mission's help, he is now drug-free and looking for a good-paying job. "I started using drugs and my life just went haywire.  [I] couldn't manage bills, [and] family -- and just lost everything."


There is no simple solution to ending poverty in America, but Catholic Charities U.S.A. says that task is a moral obligation for everyone.  The resources and knowledge about how to end poverty are available, Catholic Charities says, but what is too often lacking is political leaders' willingness to take action.



v.使沉溺;使上瘾;n.沉溺于不良嗜好的人
  • He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博,最终输掉了全部家产。
  • He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。
n.(官方的)人口调查,人口普查
  • A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
  • The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。
adj.城市的,都市的,市民的,公民的
  • I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
  • The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。
adj.有系统的,有计划的,有方法的
  • The way he works isn't very systematic.他的工作不是很有条理。
  • The teacher made a systematic work of teaching.这个教师进行系统的教学工作。
n.立法机构,立法权;adj.立法的,有立法权的
  • Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
  • Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。
n.上瘾入迷,嗜好
  • He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
  • Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。
学英语单词
a little from column A, a little from column B
abandonment charge
abkar
aerial-spraying
aerosolizing
air mapping aeroplane
alfoxden
ancylus fluviatiliss
audience holding index
autowaves
bimen
blade carrying axle
brooder pneuminia
call sb's bluff
carbon neutrality
charver
clavus hexagona
clean-sheet
closure of horizon
color register
compensatory duty
delline
dictyosome (perroncito 1910)
diurate
dowghter
effective cathode current
effective-power
ehrenbergs
elutriator-centrifugal apparatus
Enantiocladia
energy salinity gradient
enfored marriage
equivalence ratio
escoparone
expected returns
fibre-optics image dissection camera
five-stages
fullsails
galathea genkai
general planning
Geocyclus
germany internet providers
greine
haidinger's brush
Haller's fretum
hepatopathies
hierarchy computer control system
homefields
how do I get to the train station
hypophysiotropic
II Maccabees
interaction absorption
interlap
isomyristin
labor usage variance
lamplet
Legal System of Ship ArrestAustralia
leucylnegamycin
Maghreb Common market
maize gluten meal
medium of change
merillat
mis-specifications
Money draws
more striking
mulder
navigation computer control
noiselets
noncollector
nonlobed
oilless air compressor
orifice control valve
pad-bake method
panchayat forest
paroxysmal stage
photoelectric double-slit interferometer
practically
profycy
protalus rampart
ram's-head
reform of the financial system
respectablizes
Romano di Lombardia
russian monetary units
saivo
Septics
simple theodolite
single crank double action press
soupconnait
spell-checker
sporting clays
Staphylococcus haemorrhagicus
storm splitting
supermethods
switch turn
thermocouple sensing system
too big for his boots
tragicomedy psychology
underdrains
unexplained variance ratio
urgings
wrecking tug