VOA标准英语2016--在肯尼亚的难民将参加里约奥运会

Refugees² in Kenya Vie to Compete in Rio Olympics 在肯尼亚的难民将参加里约奥运会

NGONG, KENYA—

In Kenya, refugees from other African nations are training at a special camp and competing for a limited number of slots in this year's Rio Olympics under the flag of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).  It is a first in Olympic history.

Twenty kilometers from Kenya’s capital Nairobi sits Ngong - where a select group of athletes is training for a chance to run in the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this August.

The athletes, who number around 30, are all refugees from various war-torn countries in Africa.  They're training at the Tegla Lorupe Training Center for Refugee¹ Athletes.

Twenty-year-old Rose Nathike from South Sudan runs the 800- and 1500-meters. For the last 16 years she has been living at the Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya along with her siblings³. 

The huge camp hosts about 200,000 refugees from Eritrea, Congo, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda.

Nathike says life in the camp is hard.

“Before we came here we had been facing a lot of challenges due to the hot weather in Kakuma and the place is too dry that we cannot [be] able to stay but we adopt the situation where you are,” she said.

Now, she and the other athletes in Ngong train twice a day - beginning each session⁴ with 45-minutes of warm-up exercises before starting their workouts.

Dawood Abubakar fled Somalia in 1998 and has been training at the camp for the last five months. He hopes to run in the Olympics' 5,000- and 10,000-meter races.

Abubaker says the chance to compete under the Olympic flag - and the training camp itself - have improved his prospects⁵.

“When we were in the camps we don’t get time, but now most of us we are improving time, we have got good time, you have got good coaches, you know when you are training in the [refugee] camps you can’t train the way that you want - you go and come back, but here you get the coach,” he said.

With the help of national Olympic committees, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is identifying a select few refugee athletes for the games.

Kip Keino, a two-time Olympic gold medalist himself, chairs the Kenyan Olympic Committee.   He tlold VOA there will be high standards for qualification.

“The training is going to be very hard, you’ll find some training with our athletes in some of our training camps, and this is the most important," he said. "We want to encourage them, those talented, to be able to perform well.”

In a few months, some of these athletes may make history by running in Rio under the flag of the IOC.

1 refugee   

n.难民，流亡者

参考例句：

• The refugee was condemned to a life of wandering.这个难民注定要过流浪的生活。
• The refugee is suffering for want of food and medical supplies.难民苦于缺少食物和医药用品。

2 refugees   

n.避难者，难民( refugee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The UN has begun making airdrops of food to refugees. 联合国已开始向难民空投食物。
• They claimed they were political refugees and not economic migrants. 他们宣称自己是政治难民，不是经济移民。

3 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

4 session   

n.会议，开庭期，市盘，学期；adj.短期的

参考例句：

• This matter will go over until the next session.这件事将留待下次会议讨论。
• Congress is now in session.国会现在正在开会。

5 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。