时间:2019-01-13 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2008年(十月)


英语课
Pyongyang-based senior U.N. officials are visiting the South Korean capital, to report on North Korea's ongoing 1 food shortage. They say international food donations are up, and Pyongyang officials are being cooperative. But, as VOA Seoul Correspondent Kurt Achin reports, millions of North Koreans still risk serious malnutrition 2 as they await a questionable 3 harvest.

Pyongyang-based program directors of major U.N. relief agencies painted a mixed picture of North Korea's ongoing food shortage but maintained the situation remains 4 very serious.
 






Jean-Pierre de Margerie delivers a speech during a conference in Seoul, South Korea, 23 Oct 2008



World Food Program country director in the North Korean capital, Jean-Pierre de Margerie, says rising world prices for rice and basic grains, compounded with flooding last year, put many at risk in North Korea - or, as it is known, the DPRK.

"Most of the regions in the DPRK have been sliding downwards 5 towards acute food and livelihood 6 crisis," he said. "And some areas - those most affected 7 by the crisis - are sliding to level four, which is a level of humanitarian 8 emergency."

About a million North Koreans are believed to have died from hunger-related causes in the mid 9 1990s during a famine brought about by North Korea's self-imposed isolation 10 and economic mismanagement. Periodic flooding takes a much worse toll 11 on farmland in the North than in South Korea, because rainwater flows faster down mountains stripped bare by impoverished 12 North Koreans.

De Margerie says unusually heavy floods last year, and the severe shortages that followed, appear to have made North Korea more cooperative with the United Nations.

He says the WFP has expanded its North Korea operations fivefold. North Korea has allowed 59 WFP staff members into the country this year, including, for the first time, native Korean speakers. He says the organization has a much easier time monitoring food distribution than in previous years.

"We are reaching conditions, which allow us to say that we have random 13 access in the field, allowing us to increase tremendously our level of confidence in terms of confirming that the food is reaching the intended beneficiary," said de Margerie.

De Margerie says unlike previous years, food shortages are affecting what he calls the North's "cereal belt", farming areas in the country's Southeast.
 






North Korean farmers work the fields near Pyongyang, 22 Oct 2008




U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization North Korea program coordinator 14 John O'Dae says North Korean agriculture is not working near capacity because its equipment and infrastructure 15 are too dilapidated.

"A lot of equipment - tractors, trailers - is quite old," he said. "It is in a state of poor repair. There is a lack of spare parts and tires."

More crucially, O'Dae says North Korea lacks the fuel to run its equipment, and chemical fertilizer to use in its fields. The shortages are adding to worries the North will have a poor harvest this Fall.

South Korea has not provided any direct food or fertilizer aid to the North this year due to a chill in inter-Korean relations. The U.N. aid directors are scheduled to meet with South Korean officials this week.



adj.进行中的,前进的
  • The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
  • The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。
n.营养不良
  • In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
  • It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。
adj.可疑的,有问题的
  • There are still a few questionable points in the case.这个案件还有几个疑点。
  • Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions.你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
adj./adv.向下的(地),下行的(地)
  • He lay face downwards on his bed.他脸向下伏在床上。
  • As the river flows downwards,it widens.这条河愈到下游愈宽。
n.生计,谋生之道
  • 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。
adj.不自然的,假装的
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
n.人道主义者,博爱者,基督凡人论者
  • She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业,并作了很大的贡献。
  • The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。
adj.中央的,中间的
  • Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
  • He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。
n.隔离,孤立,分解,分离
  • The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
  • He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后,生活比较孤寂。
n.过路(桥)费;损失,伤亡人数;v.敲(钟)
  • The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
  • The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。
adj.穷困的,无力的,用尽了的v.使(某人)贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 );使(某物)贫瘠或恶化
  • 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》
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动
  • The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
  • On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查,发现肉变质了。
n.协调人
  • The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下,负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
  • How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室?
n.下部构造,下部组织,基础结构,基础设施
  • We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
  • We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设,发展各类群众文化。
学英语单词
5-flurocytosine
a-tishoo
aeroaspiration
Appenweier
Asprimox
astronomical coordinate measuring instrument
atom shell
azzle-tooth
bofore bottom dead center
bowl
bracemate
chairholders
chilling rolls
Chinese gall aphid
colour comparator pyrometer
continued development
contractile fiber cells
creosote carbonate
daunsel
diametrical curve
do you have a girlfriend
East Berliners
embedded part of coil
euro-asian
excision of lipoma
fancy skip twill
friction unemployment
frontiers
gamma aminobutyric acids
gas discharge colour method
gateses
Gilson's solution
graphophones
grooved roll
high tide elevation
holding cooler
hydrogen system
hymens
inverting parametric device
irreversible magnetization
Kapala Batas
Katusa
keep one's promise
kelston
lay of cloth
libertyman
lluminated rocket
machine function
make you
maremusset
Masticho, Akra
memoirs of a geisha
merwomen
metho-
monomphalus
mud logging
Naro, Fiume
non-judgmental
nut mill
occidentality
off-line stroage
off-settings
Pediculus capitis
pentops
Phenaloin
plan development
polshe
Pordim
preferred shares
pseudoselerema
quasistatically
reflective materials
relentless
reload module
remercying
rodhocetus
safe investment rule
safe low power critical experiment reactor
sanidal
scabbardless
sea parrots
secondary air ratio
settelmier
shadow picture
slow-neutron chain reaction
spelter pot
stain sync
strata behaviors
subdiscipline
tender deadline
Thalictircine
thread take up lever stroke
tragulus javanicuss
valdivieso
Very pleased to meet you
what's popping?
wild dogs
wonderfest
working viscosity of fluid
xerophthalmia
zapato
zymology