VOA慢速英语2012 Education Report - Rescuing Masai Girls From Early Marriage

 

Education Report - Rescuing Masai Girls From Early Marriage

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Priscilla Nangurai of Kajiado, Kenya, retired¹ as a teacher in two thousand five. Today, at the age of sixty-two, she could be living a quiet life in retirement². Instead, she leads an organization at her home called GRACE³ -- the Girls' Rights, Attention, Care and Rescue Center. She tries to rescue Masai girls from early marriage and make sure they get an education.

She has rescued more than seven hundred girls since nineteen eighty-six. She now has fifteen girls at her center, and she is building a dormitory to house up to eighty girls.

In the traditional culture of the Masai people, fathers often promise their young daughters in marriage to older men. Most girls are between the ages of twelve and fourteen, with some even younger. Their bodies are not ready for sex and childbirth. But that is not the only problem. Most of them must also leave school.

Priscilla Nangurai's older sister was forced into marriage at a young age, but demanded that Priscilla receive an education. She says the problem begins when a girl gets "booked" when she is very young, or not even born yet.

PRISCILLA NANGURAI: "Booking is when a parent or a man wants to marry from a certain family. So he can go to the family, and if there are little girls there, he will book. If one of the wives is expectant, he will say, 'I want something from this womb.' And he's allowed to do that."

A fourteen-year-old girl named Roseline has been at the rescue center since two thousand eight. At the age of four she was booked to a man who she thinks was about sixty to seventy years old.

ROSELINE: "Yes, I was booked. But when I knew the person that they booked me, I just talked to Ms. Nangurai. I told her the whole story."

Masai culture calls for the man who wants to marry a girl to start paying the girl's father once the booking has been made. Traditionally the payment⁴ is made with cows, but today money can also be exchanged.

When the marriage will soon take place, the girl must undergo⁵ a custom that some call female⁶ circumcision. Others denounce⁷ this practice followed in Masai and other cultures as female genital mutilation.

A thirteen-year-old girl also named Priscilla was brought to the center at the age of five. Her mother wanted her to be educated. The girl says she is thankful especially for health reasons that she did not have her sex organs cut. She worries that she could have gotten AIDS from unclean tools.

PRISCILLA: "They don't circumcise one person with one razor blade⁸. Maybe when we are two girls, they can use this one to the first girl and then they use it again to another one. So that's why I don't want that."

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. Our website now has a weekly Words in the News Quiz. Test your vocabulary at www.voanews.cn. I'm Jim Tedder⁹.

1 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。

2 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

3 grace   

n.优雅，雅致，魅力，恩惠，慈悲

参考例句：

• She is a beautiful girl with the grace and poise.她是一位仪态优雅的佳丽。
• I hope the grace of God would descend on me.我期望上帝的恩惠。

4 payment   

n.付款，支付，偿还，偿还，报应

参考例句：

• I gave ten pounds in payment for the goods I bought.我买那些东西付了10英镑。
• This last payment will wipe out your debt to me.这最后一笔付款将了结你欠我的债务。

5 undergo   

vt.经历，经受，忍受

参考例句：

• The planes have to undergo rigorous safety checks.飞机必须经过严密的安全检查。
• The explorers had to undergo much suffering.探险者不得不忍受很多困苦。

6 female   

adj.雌的，女(性)的；n.雌性的动物，女子

参考例句：

• We only employ female workers.我们只雇用女工。
• The animal in the picture was a female elephant.照片上的动物是头母象。

7 denounce   

vt.谴责，声讨，告发

参考例句：

• We should denounce a heresy.我们应该公开指责异端邪说。
• He had thought to denounce or even assault this man.他本来想要申斥，甚至痛打这个人一顿。

8 blade   

n.刀刃，刀片；叶片

参考例句：

• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。
• He is a good blade.他剑术高明。

9 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网