时间:2019-02-08 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2008年(十月)


英语课
A new survey by the British Red Cross finds most Britons are unaware 1 of major conflicts in the world, besides Iraq and Afghanistan where the British military is engaged. Less than one percent of those surveyed identified the major African conflict zones of Sudan or Somalia. For VOA, Tom Rivers reports from London.
 






A fighter of the Movement for the Emancipation 2 of the Niger Delta 3 (MEND) holds his heavy machine-gun at the militia's creek 4 camp in the Niger Delta, 17 Sep 2008



When asked earlier this month by the ICM polling company, about 2,000 Britons could easily name Iraq and Afghanistan as two countries experiencing conflict, but after that it got much tougher.

Nearly 20 percent could not name five other countries currently feeling the effects of conflict.

Charles Antoine-Hofmann is with the British Red Cross, the humanitarian 5 agency that commissioned the survey.

"That is quite a striking finding as such for us because obviously there are a large number of conflicts around the world, which are not really spoken about, which are experiencing really serious situations when it comes to civilians 7 being affected 8 by conflict from both direct and indirect consequences," he said.

According to the International Rescue Committee, more people have died for instance in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the past decade than anywhere else in the world. The aid agency estimates that 5.4 million people have died from war-related hunger and disease since war first broke out there in 1998.

Despite this, Antoine-Hoffman says awareness 9 in Britain is extremely low.

"There is certainly enough evidence to show us that this is probably one of the most deadly conflicts in the world and certainly more than Afghanistan and Iraq," he noted 10. "That is not to minimize the brutality 12 and seriousness of these places of course, but I think the Democratic Republic of Congo is a striking example, and there are other examples as well."

As Antoine-Hoffman says, the survey is part of a new British Red Cross campaign to raise awareness about all conflict zones and the brutal 11 impact they are having on ordinary people.

"Obviously the whole point is not to put any blame on the public for not knowing about these places," he said. "It is a much broader and difficult problem in terms of the role of the media in talking about these situations and also us, that is part of our exercise actually when we are launching today the Civilians in Conflict month. It is really about raising awareness on these situations in these different countries and also on the effects of conflict on civilian 6 populations."

Although the survey looked at just British views on conflict, Antoine-Hoffman suspects the same kinds of findings would probably occur elsewhere in the developed world.



a.不知道的,未意识到的
  • They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
  • I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。
n.(从束缚、支配下)解放
  • We must arouse them to fight for their own emancipation. 我们必须唤起他们为其自身的解放而斗争。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • They rejoiced over their own emancipation. 他们为自己的解放感到欢欣鼓舞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.(流的)角洲
  • He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
  • The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔,形成了一个三角洲。
n.小溪,小河,小湾
  • He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
  • People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。
n.人道主义者,博爱者,基督凡人论者
  • She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业,并作了很大的贡献。
  • The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。
adj.平民的,民用的,民众的
  • There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
  • He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。
平民,百姓( civilian的名词复数 ); 老百姓
  • the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
  • At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后,至少有300名平民下落不明。
adj.不自然的,假装的
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
n.意识,觉悟,懂事,明智
  • There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
  • Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。
adj.著名的,知名的
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的
  • She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
  • They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼,骨子里却是野蛮残忍。
n.野蛮的行为,残忍,野蛮
  • The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
  • a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军
学英语单词
2'-phosphodiesterase
a cutie pie
abnormal focal length
aggregation of individual preferences
air inlet valve of dredger's deliving pipeline
air-guns
alcala de la selva
archeri
Ariquemes
assinie
Auberger blood group system
Banbayan Pt.
bar rack
be food for worms
between-class correlation
Brachypodium sylvaticum
calex
capon test
carbon steel
catch copy
Central I.
chantha
chromophobic
couchful
day disk
deformational stress
detonation point
deutscheland
drive out of
duramatral
echymose
Elephanta Island
expected yield
fadged
fermentation inhibitor
floating point unit
folded and grooved seam
go hard or go home
half titles
harker lines
hideosities
Higher bid
imperialls
insinuate
iris detachment
Jeans viscosity equation
lactocidin
lbgs
lead metasilicate
left atrium failure
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
lock cylinder
loi-cadre
M.H.R.
macromitrium ferriei
marie dolores eliza rosanna gilberts
membranogenesis
mesh side cutter
Minskian
nodes
nonitemized
normal congruence
observantially
order parameter
pachometers
papular pruritic gloves and socks syndrome
paroxysmal coliky pain
patent licence-agreement
Phulsāri
pioneering work
plain ashlar
plant ledger card
pork fillet
preconising
PSD (power spectral density)
ragtop
relish
residual valency
Santa Maria, I.
satish
scientific data processing
search and seizure
Seawater Quality Standards
sharpness of focusing
side-by-side
Simonart band
Sleepwell
smazes
spherochromatism
starch slurry
stop-and-direction-indicator-lamps
storage cathode ray tube
sweetkin
tabby-cats
teamkillers
tetracontagons
tip clearance area
Tossåsen
uppermost part
us sea
water ejection tube
you're a star