英国新闻听力 对英国帮瓦努阿图对付飓风的思考

Good morning. As we have been hearing, the monster Cyclone¹ Pam has devastated² the islands of Vanuatu. President Lonsdale has appealed for a helping³ hand, and I'm so pleased that Britain, along with a number of others, has responded by pledging up to two million pounds in aid.

The Vanuatu disaster came at the end of a week in which Parliament passed a bill which made the aid spend of naught⁴ point seven percent of gross national product a legal requirement and became the first G7 country to meet the UN's 45-year-old target. Despite arguments for such aid contributing to stability and security, some opponents have called it absurd and foolish, not least in the light of needs at home.

A different kind of foolishness was on display on Friday when Comic Relief raised a record seventy eight million pounds to take its thirty year total to one billion. As Billy Connolly said, 'All the silly nonsense of Red Nose Day is about the serious business of helping people change their lives'. It's a remarkable⁵ achievement to raise money out of Dermot O'Leary's dancing and David Walliams' kissing - and a remarkable testimony⁶ to the generosity⁷ of the British people.

When it comes to asking for a helping hand, you can preach it as a moral imperative⁸ or you can celebrate a common humanity through a combination of stories of need and shared laughter. Indeed, foolishness is not a bad way to change the world. In his recent book, 'Blueprint⁹ for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men and Other Non-Violent Techniques to Galvanise Communities, Overthrow¹⁰ Dictators or Simply Change the World', Srdja Popovic one of the founders¹¹ of the Otpor movement which played a key part in seeing off Milosevic in Serbia, argues that change happens as a result of careful planning, enthusiasm and importantly humour. The foolish and the absurd can subvert¹² the status quo and give a different picture of the world.

This was in fact part of the ministry¹³ of Jesus. He used the image of a camel trying to squeeze itself through the eye of a needle to subvert the assumption that the rich could easily get into the Kingdom of God. At a deeper level, God's non-violent self-giving love embodied¹⁴ in the life and death of Jesus can be dismissed as foolish but I and others see it at the very heart of being fully¹⁵ human.

In 2006 Vanuatu was classified as the happiest place on earth, not least because of the welcome, hospitality and care for the outsider, despite the poverty of its people. Perhaps as we give so we can learn.

早上好，我们听说飓风帕姆袭击了瓦努阿图群岛。总统朗斯代尔呼吁获得援助，我很高兴看到英国等多个国家已经作出回应，承诺提供200万英镑的援助。

瓦努阿图群岛灾难是在周末来临的，当时议会刚通过一项法案，法律规定援助开支占国民生产总值0.7%，并使英国成为七国集团中第一个满足这个联合国规定了45年的目标。尽管此类援助对稳定和安全的帮助仍在争议中，一些反对者称这是荒唐和愚蠢的，尤其是没有考虑到国内的需要。

周五发生了另一种不同的蠢事，喜剧救济基金会筹集了创纪录的7900万英镑，这样该基金会30年来筹集的资金总额达到10亿英镑。正如比利·康诺利所说，“红鼻子慈善日里所做的所有蠢事就是帮助人们改变生活状况的正经事。”德莫特奥利里通过跳舞、大卫·威廉姆斯只需亲吻就可筹集到资金，这是一件了不起的成就，这是英国人慷慨的绝妙例证。

在请求帮助这件事上，你可以将之宣传为道德义务，或者通过讲需要帮助者的故事或分享欢笑就可以体现人性。确实，在改变世界这个问题上，蠢事并不是糟糕的办法。Otpor运动的发起人之一、曾在塞尔维亚为米洛舍维奇道别的斯尔加·波波维奇最近推出新书《蓝图的革命：如果用米饭布丁、乐高人偶和其他非暴力技术激励社会，推翻独裁者或只是改变世界?》,他在书中说，改变是精心策划、热心和幽默的结果，其中幽默很重要。愚蠢和荒谬能颠覆现状，让世界展现全新的面貌。

耶稣在传教中也经过类似情况，他使用试图钻进针眼骆驼的形象来颠覆这样的看法，即富人可以轻易地进入天国。从深层次来看，上帝非暴力且无私的爱体现在耶稣的生死之中，而这也会被一些人认为是愚蠢的，但我和其他人从这里看到有人性的心灵。

2006年瓦努阿图被评为全世界最幸福的地方，不仅是因为当地人对外来者的热情、好客和关心，尽管当地人还很穷。可能当我们给予的时候我们就能从中领悟学习。

1 cyclone   

n.旋风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• An exceptionally violent cyclone hit the town last night.昨晚异常猛烈的旋风吹袭了那个小镇。
• The cyclone brought misery to thousands of people.旋风给成千上万的人带来苦难。

2 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 naught   

n.无，零 [=nought]

参考例句：

• He sets at naught every convention of society.他轻视所有的社会习俗。
• I hope that all your efforts won't go for naught.我希望你的努力不会毫无结果。

5 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

6 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

7 generosity   

n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为

参考例句：

• We should match their generosity with our own.我们应该像他们一样慷慨大方。
• We adore them for their generosity.我们钦佩他们的慷慨。

8 imperative   

n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的

参考例句：

• He always speaks in an imperative tone of voice.他老是用命令的口吻讲话。
• The events of the past few days make it imperative for her to act.过去这几天发生的事迫使她不得不立即行动。

9 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

10 overthrow   

v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆

参考例句：

• After the overthrow of the government,the country was in chaos.政府被推翻后，这个国家处于混乱中。
• The overthrow of his plans left him much discouraged.他的计划的失败使得他很气馁。

11 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

12 subvert   

v.推翻；暗中破坏；搅乱

参考例句：

• The rebel army is attempting to subvert the government.反叛军队企图颠覆政府统治。
• They tried to subvert our state and our Party. This is the crux of the matter.他们是要颠覆我们的国家，颠覆我们的党，这是问题的实质。

13 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

14 embodied   

v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含

参考例句：

• a politician who embodied the hopes of black youth 代表黑人青年希望的政治家
• The heroic deeds of him embodied the glorious tradition of the troops. 他的英雄事迹体现了军队的光荣传统。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 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。