VOA常速英语--非洲遭遇饥饿年

非洲遭遇饥饿年

Hunger hit Africa hard this year as climate change, conflict and enduring poverty ravaged¹ multiple countries and left tens of millions of people in dire² straits.

今年，气候变化、武装冲突、持续饥饿袭扰非洲多国，人口饥饿状况泛滥，数千万人处在水深火热之中。

Countries as diverse as South Sudan, Malawi and the Central African Republic have sounded the alarm in recent months. The U.N. World Food Program says sub-Saharan Africa already has the world’s highest prevalence of hunger; one person in four is undernourished. Every day in Africa, 23 million children go to school hungry.

最近数月，南苏丹、马拉维以及中非共和国均敲响警报。据联合国世界粮食计划署报道，撒哈拉以南非洲的饥饿程度全球最高；四分之一人口营养不良。在非洲，2300万儿童每天饿着肚子上学。

The agency's David Orr said that in the lower half of Africa, where weather is the main culprit, 2015 has been an unusually difficult year.

计划署工作人员大卫·奥尔认为在撒哈拉以南地区，气候是罪魁祸首，2015年对于他们来说异常艰难。

I think what makes things different this year is the combination of drought and then an El Nino weather event coming right after that, so that people are effectively being hit by two consecutive³ years of reduced rainfall. It's particularly difficult on a region where 70 percent of the population are subsistence farmers.

我认为导致今年异常困难的原因是干旱以及随之到来的厄尔尼诺现象，降雨量连续两年不足，人民深受其害。对于自给自足人口占70%的地区尤为艰难。

But African governments say they, too, they have an important role to play, and that the hunger crisis is their failure as well. Malawi's minister of finance earlier this year described his nation’s hunger situation as “a scandal”.

非洲政府表示他们责无旁贷，人口饥饿危机是政府的失职。今年稍早时，马拉维财政部长认为本国的饥饿危机为政府“丑闻”。

We have to be doubling our efforts to ensure that where is possible for us to excel. We must excel.

政府需要加倍努力，克服困难。

In Ethiopia, the government has committed a record sum, $192 million dollars amid news that as many as 10 million people will face critical food shortages next year because of a crippling drought.

埃塞俄比亚政府决定拨款创纪录的1.92亿美金，有报道称因干旱危机每况愈下，明年因食物短缺而受灾人数将达到1000万人。

Elsewhere on the continent, such as in South Sudan, the problems are trickier⁴. There, two years of brutal⁵ conflict have played a huge role in pushing hundreds of thousands of people to starvation.

例如南苏丹等其它非洲国家，问题更加严重。两年战乱致数十万人挨饿。

Aid officials say aid agencies can only do so much on their own.

援助官员表示救助组织所能做的非常多。

We and the other humanitarian⁶ agencies are there to support the governments. And that's more and more what we’re doing not just providing lean-season relief programs, and other forms of food assistance, but actually giving technical support and institutional capacity to really increase the ability of governments to solve these problems for themselves.

我们和一些其它人道组织向政府提供支持，帮助政府渡过难关。我们不仅会在贫瘠季节开展救助计划，以及其它形式的食品救济，我们还为政府提供技术支持，培养政府的机构能力，真正提高政府解决问题的能力。

Ultimately, they say the solution cannot come from abroad.

他们认为从根本上说，这样的解决办法不会来自国外。

 

If African is certain to combat the hunger crisis in 2016, African governments will have to take the lead.

如果非洲想要在来年解决饥饿危机，那么非洲政府将一马当先。

1 ravaged   

毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫

参考例句：

• a country ravaged by civil war 遭受内战重创的国家
• The whole area was ravaged by forest fires. 森林火灾使整个地区荒废了。

2 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

3 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

4 trickier   

adj.狡猾的( tricky的比较级 )；（形势、工作等）复杂的；机警的；微妙的

参考例句：

• This is the general rule, but some cases are trickier than others. 以上是一般规则，但某些案例会比别的案例更为棘手。 来自互联网
• The lower the numbers go, the trickier the problems get. 武器的数量越低，问题就越复杂。 来自互联网

5 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

6 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。