新奇事件簿 2亿5000万儿童不识字

A new report from the United Nations says more than 250 million children of primary school age cannot reador write. It said they could also not do basic mathematics. The report said that 120 million children havespent little or no time in school. The researchers said children not going to school means countries lose money. Each year, governments lose up to $130 billion. Vibeke Jensen, a U.N. spokeswoman, said there was aglobal "learning crisis¹". She said this was because there were not enough well-trained teachers in poor areas. She said that in a third of countries, 75 per cent of primary school teachers do not have enough training. She added: "The issue now is to put the focus on quality."

联合国一项新的研究表明有超过2亿5000万小学年龄儿童不会读写。人们称他们不会基本的算数。报道称有1亿2000万人没有或是很少上学。研究人员表明孩子不上学将对国家造成经济损失。每年，政府的损失达到了1300亿美金。联合国发言人詹森认为全球陷入了“学习危机”当中。她认为这是由于在贫困地区缺乏高素质教师所造成的。她说在三分之一的国家里，有75%的小学老师没有接受过充分的培训。她补充道：“目前的问题是要将重点放在质量上。”

The report said that most of those not going to school were girls. It said it was important that developing countries educate girls. Sending girls to school can increase a country's wealth by 25 per cent over 40 years. The report said that almost two-thirds (66%) of girls in Arab countries and sub-Saharan Africa would never go to school. In Yemen, just 36 per cent of young women are literate². The Reuters news agency said: "If current trends continue, the poorest part of the young female population in developing countries won't achieve literacy³ until 2072" There was some good news. In Laos, Rwanda and Vietnam, the number of children not going to school fell by 85 per cent in the last five years.

研究认为在不上学的孩子中，大多是女孩。人们认为让女孩在发展中国家接受教育是非常重要的。在过去的40年中，让女孩接受教育将增家国家25%的财富。报道称在阿拉伯国家和撒哈拉以南的非洲国家，将近三分之二（66%）的女孩从没有接受过教育。在也门，年轻女性的识字率只有36%。路透社称：“如果这样的趋势继续的话，2072年之前，发展中国家最贫困地区的女性仍将不会识字。但是还有好消息。过去5年中，老挝、越南和卢旺达，儿童不接受教育的人数减少了85%。

1 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

2 literate   

n.学者；adj.精通文学的，受过教育的

参考例句：

• Only a few of the nation's peasants are literate.这个国家的农民中只有少数人能识字。
• A literate person can get knowledge through reading many books.一个受过教育的人可以通过读书而获得知识。

3 literacy   

n.识字，有文化，读写能力

参考例句：

• I can't believe that he failed the literacy test.我无法相信他识字测试不及格。
• The literacy rate there is the highest in Central America.那里的识字率居中美洲之首。