VOA标准英语2011--Former Prostitute Rescues Girls from Sex

Former Prostitute Rescues Girls from Sex Trade

Rachel Lloyd understands why and how young girls become prostitutes. She was once once herself.
"I grew up with a lot of trauma¹ and dysfunction in my family," she says. "So by the time I was like 13, I dropped out of school. I was working full time in factories and restaurants. I began to model, a kind of nude² modeling, so I was already on the periphery³ of the sex industry."
Looking for a new start, Lloyd left her home in Britain for Germany. She ended up working as a hostess in a Munich sex club at the age of 17. After three suicide attempts and one effort by her boyfriend/pimp to kill her, she found shelter in a local American church. She eventually immigrated⁴ to the United States and vowed⁵ to not only change her life, but also to help young women in need.
Lloyd recounts her story in "Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale; An Activist⁶ Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself." Lloyd began that healing process by going back to school when she was 23.
"Once I started getting my formal education, my confidence increased and I began to learn stuff. I got my undergrad in psychology⁷ and my grad degree in applied⁸ urban anthropology," says Lloyd. "I knew I needed that to have a level of credibility. Otherwise, I would have always been seen as ‘former prostitute Rachel Lloyd who has a story.'"
GEMS⁹
In 1998, Lloyd decided¹⁰ to take action against the problem that had almost destroyed her life.
She founded Girls Educational & Mentoring¹¹ Services (GEMS) in New York City. The nonprofit has grown from her small apartment to two offices and 25 full-time¹² staff. A 2008 documentary called "Very Young Girls," highlights her work.
"The core of our work is the direct services to young girls and women," Lloyd says. "That looks like street outreach, outreach into detention¹³ centers, group homes, anywhere we know that there are young people at risk."
GEMS offers these young people not only a safe refuge and hot meals, but also job training, education and unconditional¹⁴ support. Raising public awareness¹⁵ about the plight¹⁶ of teen prostitutes and changing social attitudes, Lloyd says, are critical to ending the problem.
"If you feel like your family, your community, your place of employment is always going to look at you as a prostitute and you're scorned and ashamed for that, then you might as well stay because what's the point of trying to move forward, if people are always going to look down at you?"
GEMS representatives - young women who've made the transition from the street to a new life - go to conferences, detention centers, local high schools and churches to talk about their experiences.
"They are the best advocates, the best peer mentors¹⁷ for girls who may be nervous about speaking up or ashamed or feel like they can never tell anyone," says Lloyd.
Making changes
GEMS also advocates for legislative¹⁸ change. In 2008, the organization played a key role in successfully lobbying New York legislators.
"We actually passed the first law in the country - The Safe Harbor for Exploited Youth Act - which means that young people under the age of 16 can't be charged with an act of prostitution," Lloyd says. "It becomes a child protective issue as opposed to a juvenile¹⁹ detention issue."
Lloyd would like to see every state in the country pass similar legislation.
Kudos²⁰
In recognition of her efforts, Lloyd has received numerous honors, including the Reebok Human Rights Award.
"This award is actually recognizing probably for the very first time publically that the commercial sexual exploitation is a human rights issue," she said.
For Lloyd, what's more rewarding than any recognition she receives are the success stories of those young girls, when they leave the streets, get an education, find a job and start a new life.

1 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

2 nude   

adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品

参考例句：

• It's a painting of the Duchess of Alba in the nude.这是一幅阿尔巴公爵夫人的裸体肖像画。
• She doesn't like nude swimming.她不喜欢裸泳。

3 periphery   

n.(圆体的)外面；周围

参考例句：

• Geographically, the UK is on the periphery of Europe.从地理位置上讲，英国处于欧洲边缘。
• The periphery of the retina is very sensitive to motion.视网膜的外围对运动非常敏感。

4 immigrated   

v.移入( immigrate的过去式和过去分词 )；移民

参考例句：

• He immigrated from Ulster in 1848. 他1848年从阿尔斯特移民到这里。 来自辞典例句
• Many Pakistanis have immigrated to Britain. 许多巴基斯坦人移居到了英国。 来自辞典例句

5 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

6 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

7 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

8 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

9 gems   

growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长

参考例句：

• a crown studded with gems 镶有宝石的皇冠
• The apt citations and poetic gems have adorned his speeches. 贴切的引语和珠玑般的诗句为他的演说词增添文采。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 mentoring   

n.mentoring是一种工作关系。mentor通常是处在比mentee更高工作职位上的有影响力的人。他/她有比‘mentee’更丰富的工作经验和知识，并用心支持mentee的职业（发展）。v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• One of the most effective instruments for coaching and mentoring is the "role rehearsal" . 辅导和教学的最有效的手段之一是“角色排练。” 来自辞典例句
• Bell Canada called their mentoring system a buddy-buddy system. 加拿大贝尔公司称他们的训导系统是伙伴—伙伴系统。 来自互联网

12 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

13 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

14 unconditional   

adj.无条件的，无限制的，绝对的

参考例句：

• The victorious army demanded unconditional surrender.胜方要求敌人无条件投降。
• My love for all my children is unconditional.我对自己所有孩子的爱都是无条件的。

15 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

16 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

17 mentors   

n.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的名词复数 )v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Beacham and McNamara, my two mentors, had both warned me. 我的两位忠实朋友，比彻姆和麦克纳马拉都曾经警告过我。 来自辞典例句
• These are the kinds of contacts that could evolve into mentors. 这些人是可能会成为你导师。 来自互联网

18 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

19 juvenile   

n.青少年，少年读物；adj.青少年的，幼稚的

参考例句：

• For a grown man he acted in a very juvenile manner.身为成年人，他的行为举止显得十分幼稚。
• Juvenile crime is increasing at a terrifying rate.青少年犯罪正在以惊人的速度增长。

20 kudos   

n.荣誉，名声

参考例句：

• He received kudos from everyone on his performance.他的表演受到大家的称赞。
• It will acquire no kudos for translating its inner doubts into hesitation.如果由于内心疑虑不安而在行动上举棋不定，是得不到荣誉的。