时间:2019-01-14 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2012年(十月)


英语课

 



Initiative Empowers Rural Women


October 15th is International Day of Rural Women. The United Nations says rural women play a critical role in development, food security and eradicating 1 poverty.


Four U.N. agencies recently launched a five year initiative to speed economic empowerment and gender 2 equality of rural women. Initially 3, the program will be implemented 4 in seven countries: Ethiopia, Liberia, Niger, Rwanda, Guatemala, Nepal and Kyrgyzstan.


“When women are empowered, things change, not only for her, but also for the other members of the household and then also for the economy,” said Clare Bishop 5 Sambrook, senior advisor 6 on gender for IFAD, the International Fund for Agricultural Development.


Sambrook described a typical day for a rural woman in East Africa.


“Basically, she’d be getting up in the dark and going to bed in the dark. And she’d start off by cleaning the compound; doing a little bit of cooking of a snack that she and her husband would take to the fields. And then she and her husband would take the agricultural tools, perhaps a hoe, perhaps some draft animals and a plough off to the fields, which might be half an hour away, an hour away. Work there for two or three hours, but then on the way back she’s collecting bits of vegetation and things she could use for adding to the basic diet for lunch,” she said.


But that’s only half the day.


“When she gets home then she’d be bathing the children and preparing the food. And then in the afternoon perhaps spending two or three hours going off collecting the water and coming back and collecting firewood on the way. So she’d be carrying the water on her head and the firewood on her back. And perhaps accompanied by one or two little children. Then she gets home and then does more food preparation, which might be by hand, using a local means of crushing the maize 7. And then cooking the food and then perhaps caring for other household members. And then, eventually, retiring to bed at about nine o’clock,” she said.


Besides IFAD, the rural women’s empowerment initiative is sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program and UN Women.


The agencies say rural women make up 43 percent of the agricultural workforce 8 worldwide. In some countries they may be more than 70 percent of the agricultural laborers 9.


Sambrook says the U.N. initiative is designed to help households to “work together as a unit.”


“Rather than the men and the women having different agendas – the women working a lot, but not having much say in how the money’s spent -- we’re now getting households to do household planning and household visioning, where together they sit down to look to what they might want to do in the future,” she said.


That can include such things as getting a new roof, a better home, a mobile phone or a solar energy panel.


The U.N. agencies also help to “reduce the daily burden of living,” such as creating a community water system or providing fuel efficient stoves that need much less firewood.


“Now it’s not just within the farming community that they look for new lives, but also in off-farm activities. So we also work with developing tailoring or fisheries or complementary rurally based activities,” she said.


The IFAD gender advisor said in India, for example, rural women opened very small businesses to sell tea, cooking oil or soap. The women were able to save some money and in one community formed a federation 10.


“Just to give you an idea of the scale, one group was describing to us that they had a meeting with the local bank, who wanted to provide improved services to rural women. And the bank manager had said I’ll meet with a group of you. And much to his amazement 11 over a thousand women from this one apex 12 organization turned up to talk to him, both to hear what he was going to talk about, but also to demand the types of services that meet their needs,” she said.


The first International Day of Rural Women was observed on October 15th, 2008. 




摧毁,完全根除( eradicate的现在分词 )
  • Objective: To study the acute and chronic toxicity of Ten-flavor-acne eradicating-capsule. 目的:探讨复方中药合剂十味平痤胶囊的急性及慢性毒性。
  • We are on the verge of eradicating polio in the world. 我们已在世界消除小儿?痹症的边缘了。
n.(生理上的)性,(名词、代词等的)性
  • French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语,所有的名词都有性。
  • Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。
adv.最初,开始
  • The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
  • Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。
v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 );执行;贯彻;使生效
  • This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革,经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句
n.主教,(国际象棋)象
  • He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
  • Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。
n.顾问,指导老师,劝告者
  • They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
  • The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。
n.玉米
  • There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
  • We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。
n.劳动大军,劳动力
  • 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。
n.体力劳动者,工人( laborer的名词复数 );(熟练工人的)辅助工
  • Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
  • Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言
n.同盟,联邦,联合,联盟,联合会
  • It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
  • Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。
n.惊奇,惊讶
  • All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
  • He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。
n.顶点,最高点
  • He reached the apex of power in the early 1930s.他在三十年代初达到了权力的顶峰。
  • His election to the presidency was the apex of his career.当选总统是他一生事业的顶峰。
学英语单词
abdominal cavities
accelerator ZDMC
agrip
alginic acid
anacanthus
anti-bottom quark
arrested failure
associated emission
banderol, banderole
basic separating
basosexine
Belling saccharimeter
bepitying
Biassini
bitterweeds
cammaron
capital of Oklahoma
change-over channel steamer
charge-storage diode
chloralkaline
chlorobenzyl chloride
cholecystokinin (cck)
complemeent (darlington 1932)
correlation analysis method
countervailing
deformation loss
detectable effect
dimethyldihydroresorcinol
direct-current grid bias
distributed feedback
dyadic array
electronic shower
Elsholtzia hunanensis
filter editor
food and beverage expenses
footlongs
glass reinforced concrete glass
grant woods
harangue
heading per steering compass
herringbone pipe
hewsons
hinchleys
Holter system
incipient incision
incipient scorch
Incomati (Komati)
internal strapped block
isoolivil
laser-Raman spectrometry
laxogenin
leakage and drip
Lisfranc's tubercle
lobes
macgregor hatch cover
maximum colour acuity
medium irrigated emulsion
metachromatic bodies
Molatón
Morinville
nabzenil
negotiated meaning
nitrogen-to-protein conversion factor
non-americans
offspringless
organizatory
Otego
Over-allotment option
OWRS
Panax schin-seng Nees
Passengers Ships in Inland Waters
pastoral stage
pentetate
petersen sir elutriator
phase interchange rate
Polygonum patulum
pteroxygonum giraldii dammer et diels
rabelo
relieve stress
schwalb
scratch resistance
seat cover for vehicle
security option
seen with half an eye
self starter
sequential data structure
setting-out work
shapiro-wilk test
side by side display
superimposed preeclampsia
sweated joint
telocollinites
tendon lengthening
thermal radiation destruction distance
topological relation
total equity
ultraviolet dwarf
uredinology
Vilyuy
virtual volume
volumetrics
xanthohumol