英语听力精选进阶版 13908

Nursery offers time for making babies

Summary

14 September 2012

Denmark has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. Now, a group of nurseries near Copenhagen are offering free nursery supervision¹ to children in the hope that their parents will be encouraged to spend more time together and make more babies.

Reporter:

Malcolm Brabant

Report

This is Malcolm Brabant in Denmark, where a group of nursery workers have made the children's parents an offer that's hard to refuse: 'we'll look after your children for an extra two hours for free, so that you can go to bed and make more babies.' This once-off service is designed to draw attention to the dwindling² number of births and to do something about it. 

In terms of birth rate, Denmark languishes³ at number 185 out of 221 countries in the world. If the increasingly older population continues to expand, Denmark will not be able to support pensioners⁴ and others dependent on state benefits. 

The nurseries offering free babysitting are in the district of North Fyn, to the west of Copenhagen, where 200 fewer babies were born last year. Dorthe Nyman, the head of the Grasshopper⁵ nursery, described it as a serious problem. 

Fifty percent of parents have accepted their offer, but there'll be no time for a romantic dinner and slow seduction because couples only have two hours to perform in the national interest. Ms Nyman said if their offer was successful, they'd be happy to do it all over again.

1 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

2 dwindling   

adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The number of wild animals on the earth is dwindling. 地球上野生动物的数量正日渐减少。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is struggling to come to terms with his dwindling authority. 他正努力适应自己权力被削弱这一局面。 来自辞典例句

3 languishes   

长期受苦( languish的第三人称单数 )； 受折磨； 变得（越来越）衰弱； 因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐

参考例句：

• I cant tell why this heart languishes in silence. 我不知道，为什麽这颗心在寂静中憔悴。
• For the purpose of this device is qiangxinli ve now languishes. 为了这个设备我现在已经是心力憔悴了。

4 pensioners   

n.领取退休、养老金或抚恤金的人( pensioner的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He intends to redistribute income from the middle class to poorer paid employees and pensioners. 他意图把中产阶级到低薪雇员和退休人员的收入做重新分配。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I am myself one of the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. 我自己就是一个我们的高贵的施主遗留基金的养老金领取者。 来自辞典例句

5 grasshopper   

n.蚱蜢，蝗虫，蚂蚱

参考例句：

• He thought he had made an end of the little grasshopper.他以为把那个小蚱蜢干掉了。
• The grasshopper could not find anything to eat.蚱蜢找不到任何吃的东西。