DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Sweden Is the Best Place for Mothers

DEVELOPMENT REPORT - Sweden Is the Best Place for Mothers
By Jill Moss¹

Broadcast: Monday, May 09, 2005

I'm Gwen Outen the VOA Special English Development Report.

 
 
Sunday was Mother's Day in the United States. People are supposed to do something special to honor their mom.

But a yearly list of the best and worst places to be a mother and child rates the United States eleventh, behind Britain. Scandinavian countries are at the top. Sweden is number one. Denmark is second. Finland is third.

Save the Children, an American-based humanitarian² organization, compared conditions in one hundred ten countries. The report came out last week.

At the bottom of the list, Mali and Burkina Faso share last place. Just above them are Ethiopia, Chad, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mauritania. Gambia and Eritrea are also in the bottom ten, along with two Asian countries: Nepal and Cambodia. Cambodia is tied with Eritrea in one hundredth place.

Save the Children based its report on six conditions related to the health and security of women. These include the risk of early death, and the rate of use of modern birth-control methods. Another measure was the percentage of births with the aid of trained medical workers. Still another was the percentage of pregnant³ women with a shortage⁴ of iron in the blood.

The study also examined reading levels among women and the involvement of women in national government. Four other conditions related to the health and education of children.

Save the Children has published a report on the "State of the World's Mothers" for six years now. This year the group included a progress report on education for girls. Researchers examined progress made over the past ten years in seventy-one developing countries.

The report says Bolivia, Kenya, Cameroon and Bangladesh have made the most progress in girls' education. Listed at the bottom are Rwanda, Iraq, Malawi and Eritrea. Worldwide, the report says, fifty-eight million girls are out of school.

Charles MacCormack is head of Save the Children. He says many children in the world are lucky just to survive the first five years of life. But Mister MacCormack calls the situation far from hopeless. He notes that world leaders have agreed on eight goals to reduce poverty, save lives and increase security by two thousand fifteen.

This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill Moss.  I'm Gwen Outen.

1 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。

2 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

3 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

4 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。