VOA慢速英语2010年-Health Report - Marking the 20th Anniv

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Twenty years ago this week, President George H. W. Bush signed a civil rights law that Americans call the ADA.

GEORGE H. W. BUSH: "I now lift this pen to sign this Americans with [Disabilities] Act and say let the shameful¹ wall of exclusion² finally come tumbling down."

Congress passed the law to bar discrimination against people with physical or mental disabilities. The ADA governs employers, transportation systems and public places, including hotels and other businesses.

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In New York, the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities co-hosted a celebration Monday to mark the anniversary.

Hip-hop artist Rick Fire says conditions are far better than they were twenty years ago. But he says being in a wheelchair is still often a problem in his neighborhood in the Bronx area of the city.

RICK FIRE: "There's a lot of hills and there's a lot of places where I can't go. There's still buildings where I can't go because they've got steps. But overall, it's good. Thanks to the ADA, we are being more accepted, like having a disability. People still look at you weird³, but it's like, 'All right, he's disabled now, but it's kind of OK now.'"

Bobbi Wailes contracted polio as a child. Today she runs the Lincoln Center programs for disability in New York.

Matthew Sapolin is commissioner⁴ of the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, and he is blind. His job is to try to improve life for disabled New Yorkers.

MATTHEW SAPOLIN: "If we are going to build something -- how we build it, how we construct it, so that it would be accessible to people of all types of disabilities. Whether we talk about a ramp⁵ or whether we talk about a doorway⁶ or a handrail, things like Braille on elevators and signage and things like that."

Bobbi Wailes developed polio before a vaccine⁷ became available in the nineteen fifties. She was twelve years old. Schools then were not designed for wheelchairs. She had to be tutored at home three days a week.

After high school, she got a job in one of the few workplaces with wheelchair-accessible bathrooms. She worked at a hospital for thirty years, mostly as an administrator⁸.

Bobbi Wailes also fought for passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

BOBBI WAILES: "Let me tell you something, disability doesn't care if you're young, old, rich, poor, black, white, green or purple. Disability will always be here, unfortunately. So it behooves⁹ all of us to make it a world that everybody can live in."

Even with the ADA, a lot of work remains¹⁰ to reach the goal of equality for the disabled -- and not just in America.

Marca Bristo heads a group called the United States International Council on Disabilities. She was paralyzed at the age of twenty-three. She broke her neck diving into a lake.

MARCA BRISTO: "People with disabilities are living in the streets in some countries. It's deemed you have been possessed¹¹ by the devil, or put out on the street, a shame to your family and really left to live very subhuman lives."

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, with reporting by Adam Phillips and Laurel Bowman. To watch a TV report on the twentieth anniversary of the ADA, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember
 

1 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。

2 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。

3 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

4 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

5 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。

6 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

7 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

8 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

9 behooves   

n.利益，好处( behoof的名词复数 )v.适宜( behoove的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• It behooves us to help the needy. 我们应当帮助贫困者。 来自辞典例句
• It behooves a child to obey his parents. 子女应当服从父母。 来自辞典例句

10 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

11 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。