2006年VOA标准英语-India Starts Rural Employment Project
时间：2019-01-07 作者：英语课 分类：2006年VOA标准英语（二月）
By Anjana Pasricha
New Delhi
02 February 2006
India has kicked off an ambitious project aimed at alleviating 1 rural poverty. The country has witnessed high economic growth in recent years, but large parts of the countryside, where a majority of the people live, are still impoverished 2.
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Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh introduced his "Employment Guarantee Scheme" Thursday in a poor, drought-prone village in southern Andhra Pradesh state.
Under the project, the government will provide 100 days of work each year to one member of about 60 million poor rural households. The workers will earn $1.5 a day working on projects such as building roads.
In addition to providing families with a steady income, the project also aims to stem the migration 3 of rural people into cities in search of work. Prime Minister Singh says the program will focus on what he called "the poorest of the poor."
"It provides a safety net to those who are in need of livelihood 4 and employment security," he said. "It will come to the help of those who maybe under the pressure to migrate elsewhere, thereby 5 reducing distress 6 migration. It will help us get rid of the scourge 7 of poverty, disease, and indebtedness."
The Congress-led government announced the project shortly after sweeping 8 to power nearly two years ago on promises of improving conditions for poor people.
India's runaway 9 economic growth in recent years has created a huge middle class, but the boom is not reflected across the sprawling 10 countryside where millions of farmers grapple with problems such as drought and debt. In Andhra Pradesh state, where the project is being started, scores of farmers have committed suicide in recent years after being driven into debt.
Independent political observer Mahesh Rangarajan says a lack of jobs is one of India's most serious problems. But he questions whether the government will be able to implement 11 the project effectively.
"The famine of work is a very serious phenomenon in India…. Yes, it [the project] is the need of the hour," said Rangarajan. "But it is a very big challenge. Will they be able to do it and do it well? Government in India, particularly rural India, is not very good at getting delivery to the poor."
Skeptics point out that red tape and corruption 12 have riddled 13 similar projects in the past, preventing benefits from reaching those in need.
- If it's alleviating pain,who knows what else it's doing? 如果它减轻了疼痛，天知道还影响什么？
- Measuring poverty is not the same as alleviating it, of course. 当然，衡量贫困和减轻贫困是截然不同的。
- the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
- They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
- He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。
- Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
- My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。
- I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市，因此对它不怎么熟悉。
- He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民，因而得到了投票权。
- Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
- Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。
- Smallpox was once the scourge of the world.天花曾是世界的大患。
- The new boss was the scourge of the inefficient.新老板来了以后，不称职的人就遭殃了。
- The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
- Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？
- The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
- He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。
- He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
- a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇
- Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
- The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。
- The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
- The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。