时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2011年(十一月)


英语课

Aid Agencies Reassess Somali Operations


 


Sixteen aid agencies say they face new challenges in Somalia, after the al Shabab militant 1 group banned their activities in the southern and central parts of the country. Al Shabab accuses the agencies of bias 2 and misconduct.



One of the organizations affected 3 by the ban is the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR.



“Like a lot of the other agencies, we’re assessing the situation both in terms of implications on the ground and the implications for our operations,” said Andy Needham, spokesman for the Somalia office.



Bad to worse?



This year southern and central Somalia were hit hard by drought and famine, along with conflict. Now, there’s another problem.



“There have been heavy rains of late, which is I guess ironic 4 for maybe some people to comprehend in the wake of all this talk about drought and famine. But these are seasonal 5 rains. So what this has done is it has compounded the difficulties for the IDPs living in settlements, for example, in Mogadishu. So what we’ve actually seen is that we have entire settlements, where people are in tents and shelters, have been kind of washed out. And the heavy rains are flowing through the places where people are living,” he said.









Fighters of the al Shabab militant group.




And Needham says there’s not much that can be done about it.



“Because they’re living cheek by jowl, so close that it’s impossible even to dig channels so that the water can get out. So there have been pretty miserable 6 conditions when the rains come. When the temperature drops and the rains come, we saw in previous years that that had a bad effect in terms of increased numbers of deaths through hypothermia, especially among children,” said Needham.



Can’t get there



Even before al Shabab banned many aid groups, the rains had already brought their humanitarian 7 efforts to a standstill. Many roads are impassable in southern and central Somalia.



“What we’re hearing from people on the ground is that some certain towns and villages are actually effectively completely cut off for food deliveries. And even people, if they have means, if they have some small amounts of money, they actually can’t buy anything because people cannot travel to these towns because of the roads and perhaps fear of being caught up in some sort of ongoing 8 clash,” he said.



Al Shabab has allowed some aid groups to remain, namely Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross.



In neighboring Kenya, insecurity continues to disrupt UNHCR operations at the Dadaab refugee camp. Hundreds of thousands of Somalis find shelter there. However, the insecurity has brought a halt to the registration 9 and health check of new arrivals.



And in Ethiopia, at the Dollo Ado refugee camps, the U.N. agency reports high rates of severe acute malnutrition 10 among children under age five.



1 militant
adj.激进的,好斗的;n.激进分子,斗士
  • Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
  • He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。
2 bias
n.偏见,偏心,偏袒;vt.使有偏见
  • They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
  • He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。
3 affected
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。
4 ironic
adj.讽刺的,有讽刺意味的,出乎意料的
  • That is a summary and ironic end.那是一个具有概括性和讽刺意味的结局。
  • People used to call me Mr Popularity at high school,but they were being ironic.人们中学时常把我称作“万人迷先生”,但他们是在挖苦我。
5 seasonal
adj.季节的,季节性的
  • The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
  • The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。
6 miserable
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的
  • It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他,这是可耻的。
  • Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。
7 humanitarian
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。
8 ongoing
adj.进行中的,前进的
  • The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
  • The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。
9 registration
n.登记,注册,挂号
  • Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
  • What's your registration number?你挂的是几号?
10 malnutrition
n.营养不良
  • In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
  • It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。
学英语单词
abab
acrylonitrile-styrene resin
aerial observation
alternating current oscillopolarography
AMPN
angle of the vertical
antistasis
aryl cation
atom-splitting
banksias
bendlet
Bodzentyn
bufferings
cavern water cushion
chef's knife
crystal lattice asymmetry
cutting burr test
demand per period
dismissal of a case
drip moulds
engagement system
equipment funds
etka
extinctic
fabric measuring apparatus
familiarity
field curvature corrector
glassfiber board
gravidness
head-drum
heel on steady turning
Heraclius
HFT lysate
horizontal Shemens diffractometer
horse fiddle
independent feed mechanism
inhibition test
insulating adhesive paper
into circulation
inverse magnetostriction effect
istope intracavitary
Janbon
kahnweilers
labour in process
lattner
low sulphur coal
manned anti-submarine troop-carrying helicopter (match)
microbeads
misexpresses
mispelt
Moorship
multiple output logic function
myceliolysis
natural weathering
non-adaptive
Olympic flame
on the drink
Optional System
orangeado
orientated polymer
outer orbit
Parasenecio forrestii
pars descendens ventriculi
partial boundary operator
passive participial
Pentagen
phantasmatography
pitot-tube anemometer
place cell
play-act
plot files
post-petroleum
principle of equipartition
protoconid
recapitulation of semi-finished products issued
Reichmannshausen
rocker box
role change
rollercoasters
Saenger's macula
self-violence
senatorship
sensitivity to heat
sine shaped
single button microphone
spectral bandwidth at half maximum
spherized
spielmeyer-vogt diseases
stallation
super low temperature store element
three - quarter time
thymocyst
trabal
transhumanistic
tripleheaders
unequal error protection
wages in money
water spray extinguishing system
wetumpka
work life
wrengths
Zealandic