VOA慢速英语20061127a

DEVELOPMENT REPORT - For World AIDS Day, Leaders Are Urged to Keep Their PromisesBy Jill Moss¹

Broadcast: Monday, November 27, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

World AIDS Day is December first. The message that the World AIDS Campaign has chosen for the two thousand five through two thousand ten observances is Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise. The promise is a goal world leaders set in two thousand to halt the spread of AIDS by two thousand fifteen.

This year is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first recognized cases of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

The United Nations reported last week that the AIDS epidemic² continues to grow. It says there will be almost three million AIDS-related deaths this year and more than four million new infections.

There were signs of reduced infection rates in some countries, but also evidence of renewed increases in others.


Mark Dybul at a recent briefing for VOA reporters

Mark Dybul was sworn in last month to lead the Bush administration program known as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Ambassador Dybul says the administration is on target for keeping its promises to fight AIDS.

President Bush announced the five-year, fifteen-thousand-million-dollar plan during his State of the Union speech in two thousand three. Efforts have centered on fifteen nations in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia. They represent about half of the world's estimated forty million H.I.V. infections.

American officials say that last year, more than eighty percent of groups working with the United States against H.I.V./AIDS were local. U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator³ Mark Dybul says these partnerships⁴ should not be considered donor-recipient relationships.

He described them at a recent meeting with VOA reporters as a chance for unified⁵ equal involvement. He says the United States can help. But to win the war against H.I.V./AIDS, he says, each country must take ownership of its individual fight.

The United States says it will spend about three hundred eighty million dollars this year on prevention programs in targeted countries. Officials say four hundred eighty million will go to care programs. And more than eight hundred sixty million will go to support treatment with antiretroviral drugs.

Critics have accused the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief of being slow to provide money to support its programs. Mark Dybul says this criticism is baseless. President Bush has asked Congress for more than four thousand million dollars in AIDS spending for two thousand seven.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. You can learn more about AIDS and other issues facing developing countries at www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

2 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

3 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• 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？

4 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

5 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。