VOA慢速英语 2007 0312a

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

 
A fisherman in India speaking on his mobile phone
Wireless¹ phones are connecting the developing world at a rate of about one million new phones each day. And with them come important new uses for the technology.

Some of the ideas are being developed by a company in Washington, D.C. Paul Meyer is one of three people who started Voxiva, V-O-X-I-V-A, in two thousand one. They began with a simple question, he says. How can technology help countries deal with health problems or other issues?

Some leading social investors² including the Acumen³ Fund helped launch Voxiva. The World Bank, the United States government and others helped the company expand.

Voxiva has been working with the government of Rwanda for about three years. The company created an information technology system for health workers to collect and share information about HIV/AIDS.

All health centers in Rwanda that provide care for HIV/AIDS report into the system every week. They can use different forms of technology, including the Internet, to connect to the system. But Paul Meyer says most of the centers use mobile phones. They report numbers of new patients and the treatments provided. They also report on the supplies of drugs available at each center.

The system cuts dependence⁴ on paper-driven communication. It gives health officials the ability to make decisions based on real-time information. In other words, the information is from right now, not weeks or months ago. With the system, health centers around the country can also receive information without any delay.

Paul Meyer says the Rwandan government spent about one million dollars to have the TRACnet system developed and put into place. TRACnet has since been expanded to other parts of Rwanda’s health care system.

Rural health centers in the Amazon Basin of Peru have been using a Voxiva system for more than five years. They use it to report cases of cholera⁵, measles⁶ and other diseases. Indonesia is using Voxiva technology to follow cases of bird flu.

Disease surveillance systems have also been deployed⁷ in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, India.

Paul Meyer says the technology is basic enough to have many uses. In some Peruvian cities, for example, citizens use Voxiva technology to report crimes and to interact with local government services.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report.  A link to Voxiva's Web site can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Jill Moss⁸.

1 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

2 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

3 acumen   

n.敏锐，聪明

参考例句：

• She has considerable business acumen.她的经营能力绝非一般。
• His business acumen has made his very successful.他的商业头脑使他很成功。

4 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

5 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。

6 measles   

n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子

参考例句：

• The doctor is quite definite about Tom having measles.医生十分肯定汤姆得了麻疹。
• The doctor told her to watch out for symptoms of measles.医生叫她注意麻疹出现的症状。

7 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

8 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。