VOA标准英语2012--S. Africa Shooting Exposes Miners' Living Conditions
时间：2019-01-13 作者：英语课 分类：VOA标准英语2012年(八月)
S. Africa Shooting Exposes Miners' Living Conditions
The sound of machines at the mine can be heard from the miners' shacks 2, in the what is called the platinum 3 belt. It is here, 100 kilometers west of South Africa's capital city Pretoria, that 80 percent of the world's platinum is dug out.
Walking back home after eight hours of work, Nicolas is tired. Since last year, the 26-year-old miner spends his days in the dark, hundreds of meters underground. He says accidents can happen very fast.
"Down there, there is a lot of injuries," he said. "Even the hanging walls, sometimes, the rocks falling, something like that."
Ten-thousand people live in Ikemeneng township. Miners, like Nicolas, earn around $500 a month working for nearby mining companies, such as AngloAmerican. They also get a living allowance of around $200 a month, not enough to find a decent accommodation close to the mine and avoid transportation costs. So the vast majority of them prefer sending money to their families and live in nearby shacks.
Norman Thobeli has been working here for eight years. He says despite the frustration 4 many miners feel, companies will always find a ready workforce 5.
"The conditions sometimes, you find workers, you find yourself sometimes working in unsafe place, and there is no way that you can deny sometimes, because you need to work there," he said.
His shack 1 has no electricity, no running water, and the outside toilet is shared with two other families.
The platinum industry has been here for long a long time, but it was only after white minority rule ended that the miners got the right to protest and started to talk about their woes 6, which also include the impact of the industry on the environment.
Since 2006, the Johannesburg-based Bench Marks Foundation has been monitoring and studying the work and living condition of the miners. Executive Director John Capel says the poverty of the miners has consequences for South Africa's welfare.
"Those worker become a burden on the community, on local health facilities, on clinics, on everything else," he said. "So the government needs to to be looking at this and say, 'What is needed, around the mining industry for workers, for communities? How can we improve the lives of or working conditions, how can we implement 7 laws?"
But its easier said than done when the lawmakers face a conflict of interest. Some ruling-party ANC officials are also trustees or stakeholders in some of these mining companies, making reform a difficult balancing act.
- He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
- The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。
- They live in shacks which they made out of wood. 他们住在用木头搭成的简陋的小屋里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Most people in Port au-Prince live in tin shacks. 太子港的大多数居民居住在铁皮棚里。 来自互联网
- I'll give her a platinum ring.我打算送给她一枚白金戒指。
- Platinum exceeds gold in value.白金的价值高于黄金。
- He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
- He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
- A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
- A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。
- Thanks for listening to my woes. 谢谢您听我诉说不幸的遭遇。
- She has cried the blues about its financial woes. 对于经济的困难她叫苦不迭。