英语听力—环球英语 593 Bead for Life

　　Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight¹. I'm Liz Waid.
Voice 2
And I'm Joshua Leo. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier to understand no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
In a house in Chicago, United States, a group of women sits looking at colorful jewellery. They put the jewellery on their necks and wrists. It is made of small, round, paper beads³. One of the women talks about the people who made this jewellery. She tells the women that buying this jewellery helps poor families in Uganda. This is a bead² party. It is part of the work of a very special organization. Today's Spotlight is on the group Bead for Life.
Voice 2
Achan Grace sits working in her home in Mukono, Uganda. She smiles. She seems very far from the women in Chicago, but they are actually closely connected. Only a few years ago, Achan Grace was asking people on the streets for money. She did not have a job. She had no way to feed her five children. But then she met a woman from Bead for Life. The woman asked Achan Grace to work with her, making beads. People would wear these colorful beads around their necks and wrists. And Achan Grace would be paid for her work.
Voice 1
Bead for Life started with four women. Torkin Wakefield, Ginny Jordan, and Devin Hibbard were walking down a street near the city of Kampala, Uganda. They saw a woman named Millie rolling pieces of paper to make beads. But the women learned that Millie had no place to sell her beads. She worked in a rock quarry⁴ breaking large rocks into smaller pieces. This was very hard work. And Millie only earned one dollar a day. So the women bought Millie's beads.
Voice 2
When the women returned home, their friends liked Millie's beads very much. So the women got an idea. Torkin returned to Uganda. The other two women developed a way to sell beads. Torkin asked local Ugandan women to teach and attend bead-making classes. They developed different kinds of beads and improved their skills. And in 2004, the women started the organization Bead for Life.
Voice 1
All around Kampala, women sit and roll old paper into small round beads. The women sell these beads to Bead for Life. Bead for Life then sells these beads to people in North America. And this money goes back to the women in Uganda.
Voice 2
Before Bead for Life existed, no one was selling paper beads in Uganda. Women knew how to make them, but there were no places to sell them. Three years later, paper beads are everywhere. Stores and other aid groups are selling paper beads. Many poor women are finding a new way to make money for their families. Bead for Life helped to create a new business in Uganda!
Voice 1
Bead for Life does more than buy beads. After a woman works making beads for six months, she is able to take more classes. She attends business classes. Bead for Life teaches the women about saving money, about getting loans, and how to run a successful business. Bead for Life wants these women to do more than make beads. It wants them to become business owners.
Voice 2
When the women are finished with the class, they create business plans. They can also request business grants, or gifts of money to start a new business. 67 percent of the bead makers⁵ have started their own businesses. Bead for Life wants these business women to be able to support themselves without the help of any aid organization.
Voice 1
But Bead for Life also works with people who do not make beads. The organization offers job training for young people. There are classes about computers, medicine, car repair, food service, and even hair cutting.
Voice 2
Bead for life also works on health issues in Uganda. Bead makers can get tested for diseases. Bead for Life gives out mosquito insect nets for people to sleep under. They give condoms to prevent sexual diseases, and eye glasses for reading. But people do not pay for these medical services with money. Instead, they can pay with paper beads.
Voice 1
And finally, Bead for Life also helps poor people get low-cost housing. One of the ways the organization does this is with Friendship Village.
Voice 2
Bead for Life bought eighteen acres of land near the city of Mukono, near Kampala. They then started building houses. The houses were built in groups of six to ten. And there were six different designs of houses. Near the houses, the organization dug wells. They created areas to grow food. And in the center of the houses there was a large building for people to gather together for church or other events.
Voice 1
Members of the community build these groups of houses. When one person wants to build a house, the nearby people come to help. Women and men save money by making paper beads. They then pay a down-payment to buy the house. After that first payment, they must make monthly payments until they have fully⁶ purchased the house. But these people can make their payments in beads instead of money. It only takes about two years to fully purchase a house and land in Friendship village.
Voice 2
This is how Achan Grace bought her house in Friendship Village. She spoke⁷ with Vicky Collins from Teletrends-TV about owning a house.
Voice 3
"Owning a house is very important, especially if you have a good house. Because your kids can live in a better environment. If it rains, you are sleeping inside your house. Even if you have not eaten, no one knows you have not eaten. A house covers a lot. If I die now, my children have a place to stay there."
Voice 1
Before, Achan Grace did not how she would provide for her children. Today, she feels happy about her future. She knows her life will be good. She has even decided⁸ to raise a baby that was left by his parents. Achan Grace knows that she can care for her own children and this new baby. And it is all because of beads!
Voice 2
Torkin Wakefield, one of the creators of Bead for Life walks through the streets of Friendship Village. She speaks about Achan Grace.
Voice 4
"She built this house with beads. Beads became bricks. Bricks became a house, and the house became a door away from poverty. She has come from the danger of dying to self-support. She has a house. She will have the land as soon as her mortgage is paid. Her children are all in school. She is growing food. So when you think about ending poverty, this is what the goal is. Someone standing⁹ on their own feet, free of an organization, and able to move her life forward."
 

1 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

2 bead   

n.念珠；(pl.)珠子项链；水珠

参考例句：

• She accidentally swallowed a glass bead.她不小心吞下了一颗玻璃珠。
• She has a beautiful glass bead and a bracelet in the box.盒子里有一颗美丽的玻璃珠和手镯。

3 beads   

n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链

参考例句：

• a necklace of wooden beads 一条木珠项链
• Beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead. 他的前额上挂着汗珠。

4 quarry   

n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找

参考例句：

• Michelangelo obtained his marble from a quarry.米开朗基罗从采石场获得他的大理石。
• This mountain was the site for a quarry.这座山曾经有一个采石场。

5 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 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。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。