VOA标准英语2012--American Brothers Make a Difference in Ghana
时间：2019-01-13 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2012年(八月)
American Brothers Make a Difference in Ghana
A street vendor 1 in Ghana lights a kerosene 2 lamp in order to stay open a few more hours. A child in rural Kenya studies by a kerosene lamp at home.
In Africa, 600 million people live without electricity. Some say it doesn’t have to be this way.
Whit 3 Alexander and his brother Max moved to Ghana four years ago and opened a business called Burro.
“It’s a rechargeable battery service," said Whit. "You pay a small deposit for every battery you take and then every time your battery falls [dies] you just bring it to your reseller and pay a small fee.”
His batteries charge just about anything, including lamps.
“This takes three of the Burro battery and has four different brightnesses," said White. "You can get 200 hours on the super saver mode we call it. And this we call bright with 20 hours, you might want to close your eyes. And super bright. This lights up a room, gives you 5 or 6 hours.”
But charged cell phones are crucial, he says.
“If you are in a cocoa farm in Sekenya [eastern Ghana], 80 percent of Ghanaians own a cell phone but only 50 percent live on the electric grid 4. Keeping that phone charged is a major issue," he said.
For Whit’s brother, Max, chronicling their journey on what he calls "bad roads, with a weird 5 business plan" was inspiring.
“Ghana is near the equator. It gets dark very quickly after six o’clock every day," said Max. "That's when the flashlights come out. Americans might equate 6 it to a camping trip but it’s every day of your life.”
He says he’s learned that the challenges his brother faced are common and require patience, flexibility 7, and skill in training employees to do a good job. He hopes his book inspires people who want to help.
“A lot of Americans feel like they want to make a difference in the world and maybe have a feeling that just going to a 'Save Africa' concert is not really doing all that much. I think the inspiration is that my brother just went over and did it," he said.
Whit says the people he works with every day inspire him.
“These guys in the face of adversity, when things go wrong and me this crazy American executive going oh my God, the vehicle broke down, we're gonna be late for the village meeting, what are we going to do? Neal will say “Whit calm down. We’ll get out. We’ll call ahead, we’ll get a taxi," he said.
He says his business hasn't made a profit yet but he believes he's on the right track.
- She looked at the vendor who cheated her the other day with distaste.她厌恶地望着那个前几天曾经欺骗过她的小贩。
- He must inform the vendor immediately.他必须立即通知卖方。
- It is like putting out a fire with kerosene.这就像用煤油灭火。
- Instead of electricity,there were kerosene lanterns.没有电，有煤油灯。
- There's not a whit of truth in the statement.这声明里没有丝毫的真实性。
- He did not seem a whit concerned.他看来毫不在乎。
- In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
- Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。
- From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
- His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
- You can't equate passing examination and being intelligent.你不能把考试及格看成是聪明。
- You cannot equate his poems with his plays.你不可以把他的诗歌和他的剧本相提并论。
- Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
- The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。