新西兰英语 309 Boat People from Indonesia

　　Australia has a problem with boat people from Indonesia trying to enter Australia illegally. Many of these people come from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. They wait in Indonesia until they can find a boat which will take them to Australia. Recently, Australia stopped a boat with 45 people on it. So far this year, their navy has turned back 75 boats from the coast of Western Australia. For more background listen to April 20th 2009.
The new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, spoke¹ to John Key about her plan to deal with this problem. She said that before long, boat people will start coming to New Zealand if they can get bigger boats. She thought that East Timor could be a good place to process boat people, with the help of UNHCR (the United Nations High Commission² for Refugees³). After they have been processed, New Zealand could take some of these people as refugees. However, John Key did not promise anything. He said New Zealand could not take more than 750 refugees each year.
East Timor is not happy about Ms Gillard’s idea. It is a very poor country and they have enough problems of their own. However, the President agreed to look at the idea again.
Australia will hold elections very soon. The problem of boat people worries many Australians. Ms Gillard knows she has to find a solution to this problem.
Questions
What do you think should happen to boat people?

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 commission   

n.委托，授权，委员会，拥金，回扣，委任状

参考例句：

• The salesman can get commission on everything he sells.这个售货员能得到所售每件货物的佣金。
• The commission is made up of five people,including two women.委员会由五人组成，其中包括两名妇女。

3 refugees   

n.避难者，难民( refugee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The UN has begun making airdrops of food to refugees. 联合国已开始向难民空投食物。
• They claimed they were political refugees and not economic migrants. 他们宣称自己是政治难民，不是经济移民。