时间:2018-12-08 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2018年(一月)


英语课

Technology Crucial to Women's Empowerment


The Administration of President Donald Trump 1 has placed a focus on women's economic opportunities, empowerment and entrepreneurship.


That's because even though there is no better way to strengthen the economy than to boost women's participation 2 in the workforce 3, still, too often women face barriers to success. One persistent 4 problem is women's lack of access to digital technology, said USAID's Senior Coordinator 5 for Gender 6 Equality and Women's Empowerment, Michelle Bekkering.


“In developing countries it is estimated that 70 percent of women-owned small and medium size businesses are still denied access to the capital they need. Nearly one in two women are shut off from the internet.”


“In all of our conversations we're recognizing that technology is ... the great equalizer. Technology is offering us... an acceleration 7 of impact in areas where change had been taking a very long time,” said Ms. Bekkering.


Unfortunately, even as the world becomes ever more digital, women and girls lag far behind boys and men in access to technology, particularly the internet. “If you look right now at the gap around the world, 1.7 billion women in the developing world are still unconnected to the internet. And so if you look at the figures – [the] Intel[Corporation] has predicted that if you could even bring 600 million women online, that could add an average of between 13 to 18 billion dollars in GDP to 144 developing countries,” said Ms. Bekkering.


Although this is a common problem globally, the reasons for the digital gender gap vary. A recurrent one is high costs of mobile phones and service. In the developing world, some 200 million fewer women than men own a mobile phone, the most common means of Internet access there.


USAID is looking at solutions to bring down the costs, such as offering two SIM cards for the price of one, and using-solar powered charging stations in off-the electric grid 8 regions. We are also working with people who live under these conditions who have a lot of great ideas for improvements.


“USAID,” said Senior Coordinator Bekkering, “is working to break down these barriers to allow women the opportunity to achieve their full potential.”



1 trump
n.王牌,法宝;v.打出王牌,吹喇叭
  • He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
  • The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手,作为他的王牌。
2 participation
n.参与,参加,分享
  • Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
  • The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。
3 workforce
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。
4 persistent
adj.坚持不懈的,执意的;持续的
  • Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
  • She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤,使她很难为情。
5 coordinator
n.协调人
  • The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下,负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
  • How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室?
6 gender
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。
7 acceleration
n.加速,加速度
  • All spacemen must be able to bear acceleration.所有太空人都应能承受加速度。
  • He has also called for an acceleration of political reforms.他同时呼吁加快政治改革的步伐。
8 grid
n.高压输电线路网;地图坐标方格;格栅
  • In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下,要用载体把格栅密封起来。
  • Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。
学英语单词
acid proteases
aerial cable line
air handling equipment
ambient-temperature compensation
assenter
autoinhibiting
automatic chute
beat sb hollow
boron p-tolyl difluoride
buttterworthing
calson
canacids
capsuler
carrier suppression system
cast urea-formaldehyde plastic
cattaro (kotor)
celadon with brown mottles
ckii
classlessly
conical net
conjugate depth
consolidated slow test
constant-volume thermometer
currentest
determination of patentability
digital data transmission system
directrix of conic
El Jadida, Wilaya
El Saucejo
electro-therapeutic display of blunt needle
eohippus
Ethatab
flappier
free from disease
fruit gardening
fuel mineral
geometric solution
glacier buttercup
Glycerol-1-phosphatase
goksel
governance
Green Line
Haemopis sanguisuga
half-tone information
Hardyan
hay varieties
hip-cat
Homochloreyclizine
intensity of wave pressure
interpretatio
knowledge engineer
Languas speciosa
leave function
lightbox
loading berm
magazine tool holder
main reasons
Make directory
Mary Of Orange
masked off
moment of precession
oil proof test
oneironaut
oversend
painted frog
Pardew
pass fish eyes for pearls
Peflate
physical system time
PID tuning
production control function
Prosiphneus
Putyatina, Ostrov
Pyrogelite
raisin pudding
reche
recovery characteristic
Robinson's disease
RQLIQ
Ruoti
scale error card
scavia
second-hand witness
semicarbazide hydrochloride
small hole electrospark grinding
static classes
statistiquement
stirrest
Styphnolobium japonicum
sulphide barrier
synchondroses petrooccipitalis
Temangan
threepeated
tittler
unemploy
velocity-focussing mass-spectrograph
virtual pair
visualisings
wide-angle photograph
zipless