时间:2019-01-31 作者:英语课 分类:2007年VOA标准英语(五月)


英语课

By Selah Hennessy
Dakar
09 May 2007


The government of Liberia is negotiating with Firestone over a new concession 1 agreement with the rubber producer. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been pushing for a new agreement with Firestone since she came into office. The government recently signed a new contract with Dutch-based steel conglomerate 2 Arcelor Mittal, another key investor 3 in the country. Selah Hennessy reports from VOA's West Africa bureau in Dakar.


The new contract will replace a deal signed between U.S-based Firestone, a subsidiary of the Japanese tire company Bridgestone, and Liberia's transitional government in 2005.


Patrick Alley 4 of London-based watchdog group Global Witness says the 2005 agreement is one-sided and must be changed. But he is optimistic that the new government is pushing for a more balanced agreement.






Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at VOA (21 a href=


Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at VOA (21 Mar 2006)



"I think that President Sirleaf is showing more leadership in this area than almost anyone I can think of. And she said very early on she would re-negotiate deals signed during that transitional period and she is keeping to that," said Alley.


Information Minister Dr. Laurence Konmla Bropleh says the government wants to keep Firestone in Liberia, but agrees that changes will have to be made to the agreement.


"We do not mind having Firestone here but we want to make sure that Firestone's agreement, by which it operates, will conform to the norm and standards of what this government believes the country needs to go," he said.


Speaking as workers continue a strike at the rubber plantation 6 near Monrovia, he says improved rights for workers must be central to a new agreement.


Firestone has repeatedly denied it abuses its workers, and says it strives to improve their working conditions.






An unidentified worker inspects collected latex at the Firestone rubber plantation in Monrovia, Liberia, 22 Jan 2007


An unidentified worker inspects collected latex at the Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia, 22 Jan 2007



But the striking workers, whose union has been set up by management, say they have no way to establish an independent union under the current contract


Some activists 7, like Robert Nyahn of the Liberian Forest and Human Rights Campaign, say big changes are needed .


"Let them make holistic 8 change and not put in cosmetic 9 changes just to paint themselves white on the outside while their inside is very black," said Nyahn.


Firestone is Liberia's biggest private-sector employer with at least 6,000 workers.



n.让步,妥协;特许(权)
  • We can not make heavy concession to the matter.我们在这个问题上不能过于让步。
  • That is a great concession.这是很大的让步。
n.综合商社,多元化集团公司
  • The firm has been taken over by an American conglomerate.该公司已被美国一企业集团接管。
  • An American conglomerate holds a major share in the company.一家美国的大联合企业持有该公司的大部分股份。
n.投资者,投资人
  • My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
  • The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。
n.小巷,胡同;小径,小路
  • We live in the same alley.我们住在同一条小巷里。
  • The blind alley ended in a brick wall.这条死胡同的尽头是砖墙。
vt.破坏,毁坏,弄糟
  • It was not the custom for elderly people to mar the picnics with their presence.大人们照例不参加这样的野餐以免扫兴。
  • Such a marriage might mar your career.这样的婚姻说不定会毁了你的一生。
n.种植园,大农场
  • His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
  • The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。
n.(政治活动的)积极分子,活动家( activist的名词复数 )
  • His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
  • Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adj.从整体着眼的,全面的
  • There is a fundamental ambiguity in the use of word "whole" in recent holistic literature.在近代的整体主义著作中,“整体”这个词的用法极其含混。
  • In so far as historicism is technological,its approach is not piecemeal,but "holistic".仅就历史决定论是一种技术而论,它的方法不是渐进的,而是“整体主义的”。
n.化妆品;adj.化妆用的;装门面的;装饰性的
  • These changes are purely cosmetic.这些改变纯粹是装饰门面。
  • Laughter is the best cosmetic,so grin and wear it!微笑是最好的化妆品,所以请尽情微笑吧!
学英语单词
access manager
acquired immune deficiency syndromes
adiabatic curve
ailurophiles
amplified interpretation
Ant-Vireo
Antonia
atomic angular momentum
attachment flange
automatic bypass valve
babyishly
baitshops
Bembridae
bemeant
Blastocladiales
censor out
ciprofibrate
colour-serjeant
comb ... hair
concho-grass
crinkley
daemonophobia
Decaspermum esquirolii
Dryopteris fragrans
eaved
Europa, Pta.de
evaporator strip holder
farras
ferroprotoporphyrin
froth flotation
fuddling
full wave rectifier
genus Placuna
grease pits
half-height drive
have someone's guts for garters
Hawtrey, Mt.
holes in pattern
in-thing
indirect discrimination
indirect-arc furnace
istake measure
japao
katsuwonus pelamiss
keramite (mullite)
license plate
longbeards
lounge around
manual removal
marjayouns
meet sb halfway
methyl p-methyl benzoate
model following
mucopolysaccharide-N-acetylneuraminylhydrolase
none-kin
nonsonorous
odd moment
offskip
oil flinger
on my case
otelo
pancratic lens
Periyār R.
perpetuum mobile of the first kind
piledriver
pole jumps
product introduction
pronouncement of judgment
pulse-phase system
quarion
REA Rural Electrification Administration
recursive descent parser
scabricola ocellata
scheduling model
schlottmann
scurfy
sealing effect
secondary homonym
secondary metal
self-operated control valve
sociology departments
squeeze mouding machine
sridevi
standard hour system
statutory assignee
styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer
sufferances
taper thimble
thin-layer chromatogram
transmission-utilization ratio
trintignant
tubular(tracheal)sound
two-pence
underutilize
unheled
V and T
vapo(u)rizability
Vicia tenuifolia
wagon control computer
wire rope detector
year dot
zabras