VOA慢速英语 2008 0107a

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Sometimes it takes an engineer to help a village. In poor communities, that help may come from volunteers with a group called Engineers Without Borders.

A civil engineering professor in the United States, Bernard Amadei, launched the group in two thousand. He did it with the help of his students and friends at the University of Colorado at Boulder¹.

Professor Amadei took a group of students to Belize to help build a water project. Since then, Engineers Without Borders has grown into an international nonprofit organization. Its budget last year was four million dollars. The group currently has about three hundred projects in forty-five countries.

Engineers Without Borders works on low-technology projects in mostly developing countries. In the Himalayan mountains of Nepal, for example, the group set up a sun-powered computer to communicate with a school in Kathmandu.

In Guatemala, volunteers have built ten bridges for communities cut off from nearby populations by seasonal² rains. The group has built windmills in Kenya to improve crop production. And in Rwanda, Engineers Without Borders is rebuilding areas destroyed during the nineteen ninety-four genocide.

Cathy Leslie is the executive director of Engineers Without Borders. She tells us that many of the group’s eight thousand members are students who volunteer as part of their college or university studies. Working professionals and retired³ engineers also have formed local chapters throughout the United States.

In the next five years, organizers hope more than ten percent of the members will be non-engineers. Cathy Leslie says community development involves not only engineering but many professions. She says it is equally important to help villages develop business plans and ways to finance and supervise projects.

Engineers Without Borders goes where it is invited. Communities can propose a project or seek assistance through one of its partners, such as Rotary⁴ International. Once a proposal is approved, student or professional chapters will compete for ownership of the project.

Local chapters are urged to work with a community for five to ten years. Individual chapters raise their own money for their projects.

And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss⁵.

1 boulder   

n.巨砾；卵石，圆石

参考例句：

• We all heaved together and removed the boulder.大家一齐用劲，把大石头搬开了。
• He stepped clear of the boulder.他从大石头后面走了出来。

2 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。

3 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

4 rotary   

adj.(运动等)旋转的；轮转的；转动的

参考例句：

• The central unit is a rotary drum.核心设备是一个旋转的滚筒。
• A rotary table helps to optimize the beam incidence angle.一张旋转的桌子有助于将光线影响之方式角最佳化。

5 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。