VOA标准英语2009年-More Than One Billion People Going Hungry

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
14 October 2009

United Nations food agencies report more than one billion people, or one sixth of the world's population, are going hungry. This report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program is being released in advance of World Food Day, which falls on October 15. The report warns the number of undernourished people will continue to grow unless the world's fragile food system is reformed. 

 
An Indonesian child who suffers from malnutrition¹ is carried by his mother during a medical examination at a clinic in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia (File)
 
The report finds the combined food and economic crises have pushed the number of hungry people worldwide to historic levels. It says poor people everywhere are going without food, but nearly all the world's undernourished live in developing countries.

World Food Program spokeswoman, Emilia Casella, describes the situation as alarming.

"Really, we should be calling this world hunger day, not world food day," said Casella. "Right now at a time when there are more hungry people in the world than ever before, there is less food aid than we have seen in living memory and this is extremely alarming to the World Food Program because we are the ones on the front lines trying to help the most hungry out of the one billion people who are going to bed every night without enough food."

The report pinpoints² several factors, which make the current crisis particularly devastating³. It says the economic crisis has cut the amount of foreign aid and investment going to poor countries. It also has reduced remittances⁴ from people working abroad.

It says high food prices are causing families to fall deeper into destitution⁵ and the hunger-poverty trap. It says an across-the-board drop in trade and financial inflows has resulted in lower earnings⁶ from exports.

The report finds an estimated 642 million people are suffering from chronic⁷ hunger in Asia and the Pacific. In sub-Saharan Africa, 265 million people are going hungry and in Latin America and the Caribbean 53 million people are undernourished.

WFP's Casella tells VOA all this hunger translates into some grim statistics.

"14,000 children a day are dying from hunger-related causes. And hunger is killing⁸ more people every year than AIDS, malaria⁹ and tuberculosis¹⁰ combined," she added.

She calls this situation intolerable especially as the economic and technical means to make hunger disappear exist. 
Casella
"The world does have enough capacity to grow enough food to feed everybody who is on the planet," Casella said. "That is the most frustrating¹¹ thing about what we are talking about. Let me use Darfur as an example. In south Darfur right now, they are only cultivating about a third of the arable¹² land that they could be cultivating. And, that is due to many factors including conflict and lack of development. But, the point is if the conditions were right and if farmers could get to their fields and if food could get to markets, people all over the world would have enough food to eat and today they do not." 

The UN Food agencies are appealing to the richer countries to increase their foreign development aid and to invest in agriculture and economic safety nets in poorer countries. They say these interventions¹³ will help to save lives and families. 

1 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

2 pinpoints   

准确地找出或描述( pinpoint的第三人称单数 )； 为…准确定位

参考例句：

• The bombs hit the pinpoints at which they were aimed. 炸弹精确地击中了目标。
• There's really no point in arguing about pinpoints. 为芝麻绿豆般的小事争论实在毫无意义。

3 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

4 remittances   

n.汇寄( remittance的名词复数 )；汇款，汇款额

参考例句：

• He sends regular remittances to his parents. 他定期汇款给他父母。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Remittances sometimes account for as much as 20% of GDP. 在这些国家中，此类汇款有时会占到GDP的20%之多。 来自互联网

5 destitution   

n.穷困，缺乏，贫穷

参考例句：

• The people lived in destitution. 民生凋敝。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His drinking led him to a life of destitution. 酗酒导致他生活贫穷。 来自辞典例句

6 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

7 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

8 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

9 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

10 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

11 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 arable   

adj.可耕的，适合种植的

参考例句：

• The terrain changed quickly from arable land to desert.那个地带很快就从耕地变成了沙漠。
• Do you know how much arable land has been desolated?你知道什么每年有多少土地荒漠化吗？

13 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网