2006年VOA标准英语-Drug Addiction Rates Soar in War-Torn Afghanist
时间:2019-02-02 作者:英语课 分类:2006年VOA标准英语(八月)
By Benjamin Sand
Kabul
08 August 2006
A reporter record sounds from burning of sacks of narcotic 1 drugs during the biggest destruction of drugs in the history of Afghanistan on the outskirt of Kabul, July 5, 2006
The United Nations says addiction 3 rates in war-torn Afghanistan have doubled in the past two years, to the point that nearly a million people are now using illegal drugs.
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The lyrics 4 are a prayer. A drug counselor 5 is asking God to help end drug addiction in Afghanistan.
As he sings, about 25 men sit on cushions scattered 6 across the floor of the drug treatment center, nodding their heads as they listen. Several of the men are in their 50s or 60s and silently stroke their beards in time to the music.
The clinic is an old two-story building with a small central courtyard. From the street the building is anonymous 7, just one more dilapidated house on a dusty street outside Kabul. But inside, the men are taking their first steps toward ending their addiction. Most are still using drugs but have promised to cut back. Within a week, they will try to stop entirely 8.
Upstairs, 43-year-old Abdul Jalil is in the second stage of recovery. He stopped taking drugs several days ago, and is going through the painful process of withdrawal 9. As he speaks, he wraps his arms around his stomach and leans forward slowly until he is almost doubled over.
He says he started abusing drugs more than 20 years ago, during the Soviet 10 Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
Like so many other men here at the clinic, he says he began smoking hashish after he lost his job and could not find new work. Soon he was experimenting with tiny bits of opium 11. Within months, he says, he was a heroin 12 addict 2, injecting himself with the opium derivative 13 several times a day.
According to a recent United Nations survey, there are nearly a million drug abusers in Afghanistan today. Almost 200,000 of them are hard-core opium and heroin addicts 14.
Dr. Tariq Suliman runs the Nejat Center in Kabul, where Jalil is recovering. He says addiction rates throughout the country are higher now than ever before.
He says the number of female addicts, in particular, is on the rise. More than 100,000 women addicts were identified in the U.N. survey, but he says the real number could be several times higher.
Like the men, many of the women started taking drugs while living in refugee camps in neighboring Pakistan or Iran during the war against the Soviet Union, or the subsequent civil war. For thousands of these refugees, he says, drugs were one of the only ways to relieve the pain and frustration 15 of camp life.
Today, Suliman says, Afghanistan's grinding poverty and massive illegal drug trade are creating a new generation of addicts, male and female.
The country produces an estimated 90 percent of the world's illegal opium, and the drug is readily available in almost every town and city throughout the country.
When the strict Islamist Taleban group controlled the country in the late 1990s, it used draconian 16 measures to cut the opium crop sharply. But since the Taleban's overthrow 17 in 2001, impoverished 18 farmers have returned to growing the lucrative 19 opium.
The international community has committed millions of dollars to help Afghanistan fight opium production. But Suliman says funding to help drug addicts like Jalil is almost non-existent.
He says his clinic only has room for 20 live-in patients. Another 20 take part in an out-patient program. In the entire country, he says, there are only three other drug centers, with fewer than 100 beds among them.
For women the situation is even worse. The clinics are all reserved for men out of deference 20 to Afghanistan's conservative social customs.
Female addicts can only receive treatment in their own homes, and without the benefit of support groups.
The Afghan government says it plans to build at least five new clinics around the country. But so far, funding is short, and construction has yet to begin. For now the focus is on prevention. The U.N. is helping 21 train local health workers and funds public awareness 22 campaigns in an effort to limit the number of new addicts.
Back at the Nejat Center, the patients say they know just how lucky they are to have at least a chance of recovery.
As the day patients play music to pass the time, several of the men jump to their feet and start dancing.
Upstairs, Abdul Jalil says he can feel the drugs leaving his body. He says that in a few days, he should be healthy enough to go home and see his family. If he is lucky, he says, he will find a job.
- Opium is classed under the head of narcotic.鸦片是归入麻醉剂一类的东西。
- No medical worker is allowed to prescribe any narcotic drug for herself.医务人员不得为自己开处方使用麻醉药品。
- He became gambling addict,and lost all his possessions.他习染上了赌博,最终输掉了全部家产。
- He assisted a drug addict to escape from drug but failed firstly.一开始他帮助一个吸毒者戒毒但失败了。
- He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
- Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。
- music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
- The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。
- The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
- Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。
- Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来,塞进文件夹里。
- Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
- The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。
- The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
- His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
- The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
- They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。
- Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
- Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
- That man gave her a dose of opium.那男人给了她一剂鸦片。
- Opium is classed under the head of narcotic.鸦片是归入麻醉剂一类的东西。
- Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
- Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。
- His paintings are really quite derivative.他的画实在没有创意。
- Derivative works are far more complicated.派生作品更加复杂。
- a unit for rehabilitating drug addicts 帮助吸毒者恢复正常生活的机构
- There is counseling to help Internet addicts?even online. 有咨询机构帮助网络沉迷者。 来自超越目标英语 第3册
- 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。
- You can't expect the people to obey such draconian regulations.你不能指望人民服从如此严苛的规定。
- The city needs a draconian way of dealing with robbers.这个城市需要一个严苛的办法来对付强盗。
- After the overthrow of the government,the country was in chaos.政府被推翻后,这个国家处于混乱中。
- The overthrow of his plans left him much discouraged.他的计划的失败使得他很气馁。
- 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》
- He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
- It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。
- Do you treat your parents and teachers with deference?你对父母师长尊敬吗?
- The major defect of their work was deference to authority.他们的主要缺陷是趋从权威。
- The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
- By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。