VOA慢速英语2009-Development Report - Service Organizations Help

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Almost forty years ago, a community service organization started providing eye care in Gujarat State, in western India.

The Rotary¹ Club of Navsari operates an eye hospital and nine area eye centers in and around the Navsari District. Rotary says its services are for the poorest people. The group opened the hospital, the Rotary Eye Institute of Navsari, in nineteen seventy. Institute officials say India has only about one ophthalmologist for every one hundred twenty thousand people. The Institute, however, has ten such specially² trained eye doctors.

The Rotary Eye Institute of Navsari has restored or improved the eyesight of thousands of patients. Many people with eye problems cannot easily get to a big city for examinations and treatment. They live in villages far away and have no transportation.

The Rotary Eye Institute established eye centers called camps in places far from the city. Teams from the institute travel as far as one hundred fifty kilometers to see patients. People go to their nearest camp, where medical workers examine their eyes. The workers look for conditions including glaucoma, night blindness and other problems.

Some people are found to have cataracts⁴, abnormal⁵ growths on the eye that can lead to loss of eyesight. Hospital officials say India has about thirteen million people with the condition. Cataract³ patients get free operations to correct the problem. Doctors also examine them for other medical conditions. Rotary groups also operate eye banks.

Doctors at these centers replace damaged eyes with the healthy eyes of donors⁶ who have just died. One such center is the Rotary Rajan Eye Bank. It operates in cooperation with the Rajan Eye Care Hospital in Chennai. The Eye Bank opened in nineteen ninety-six. Hundreds of patients have received new corneas from donors since then. The cornea is the clear front part of the eye that transmits light.

Hospital officials say two million people in India are blind because of problems of the cornea. The Rotary Rajan Eye Bank holds continuing eye donation campaigns. It urges people to leave the gift of sight to others when they die.

And that’s the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts⁷, MP3s and podcasts of our programs are at voaspecialenglish.com.

1 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。

2 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

3 cataract   

n.大瀑布，奔流，洪水，白内障

参考例句：

• He is an elderly gentleman who had had a cataract operation.他是一位曾经动过白内障手术的老人。
• The way is blocked by the tall cataract.高悬的大瀑布挡住了去路。

4 cataracts   

n.大瀑布( cataract的名词复数 )；白内障

参考例句：

• The rotor cataracts water over the top of the machines. 回转轮将水从机器顶上注入。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Cataracts of rain flooded the streets. 倾盆大雨弄得街道淹水。 来自辞典例句

5 abnormal   

adj.反常的，不正常的，不规则的

参考例句：

• This warm weather is abnormal for February.二月里这种温暖的天气不太正常。
• That is simply abnormal.那简直是反常的。

6 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句