在线英语听力室

VOA慢速英语2013 AS IT IS 2013-07-04 Famous South Sudan Athlete Returns Home

时间:2013-07-11 02:46:30

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

 

AS IT IS 2013-07-04 Famous South Sudan Athlete Returns Home

Hello and welcome to another day in our world “As It Is.”  I’m Jim Tedder1 in Washington.  Today we have two stories that should make you happy.  First, a young man returns to his African home to help his family and others.  He left an unknown, but now he is famous.  Then, you won’t believe what someone is building in his back yard in Kampala, Uganda. Ten minutes together is such a short time.  Let’s get started.

South Sudan’s most famous athlete, runner Guor Marial, has returned home for the first time in 20 years to be with his family.  He is bringing attention to other refugees of the world’s newest country. He returned after a civil war that killed two million people.

Twenty years ago, bomber2 planes and soldiers came to Guor Marial’s village at the height of Africa’s longest-lasting civil war. He was kidnapped as a child and taken to Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.  Later he fled to Egypt, and after a time, sought refuge in the United States, a country he says he loves. He used his abilities to become a competitor in marathon races.  He was the only South Sudanese competitor in the Olympic Games last year.

As Marial was winning races, his homeland sought peace with the north of Sudan before winning independence two years ago.  Now the young runner is an ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency.  As part of that job, he was brought home to raise the spirits of other refugees and help them pull themselves out of poverty.

He recently visited camps holding more than 260,000 refugees from new conflicts in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states. Guor Marial says that, during the time, he re-lived his own experiences as people told him of always being on the run.

He says many young refugees are being pushed into early adulthood3 because of war and military service.  Or they are being left with nowhere to go and nothing to do.

“Girls are facing early marriage and boys as well are facing early marriage, and also recruitment from outsiders in terms of taking them back to the military.  And some of them are just sitting there (with) no education.  They came from Arabic-speaking and came from Arabic schools.  But here it’s very hard for them as they want to change to English.”

Marial lost 28 family members to war and neglect.  He says his heroes are Ethiopian runner Gabriel Selassie and Kenyan Peter Target.  But he says his own ability to run came from his father.  Even in his old age, the father still walks 100 kilometers between villages.

Guor Marial was taken from his family at age eight.  He says returning to his home village and to his parents was an especially emotional experience.

“My dad was jumping around. My dad was singing, my mum, my other sibling4, and just very happy in the end.”

He hopes other refugees will share similar reunions with their loved ones. His rural village in South Sudan’s Unity5 State still bears the evidence of so much war in a poorly developed nation.  The nearest place to get water is more than 10 kilometers away, and the houses are made of mud and bricks.

Now that Guor Marial has seen his homeland and family, he is awaiting another great event.  He is looking forward to the sight of other South Sudanese athletes at the 2016 Olympics.

This past May, Ghana launched its first, tiny satellite. Thousands of kilometers to the east, in Uganda, a 28-year-old scientist is working hard to get his country into the space race. Caty Weaver6 has our story.

Chris Nsamba's neighbor, Lawrence Okello, could tell that something unusual was happening. But when he first visited Mr. Nsamba's backyard in Kampala, it was hard to believe what he saw.

“I was so shocked.  I couldn’t believe that, in Uganda, we can have a kind of achievement so impressive”.

Chris Nsamba is head of an organization called the African Space Research Program. He established it in 2009 after studying astronomy in the United States.  Now he is working with a team of student volunteers in his mother’s backyard. They are trying to build and launch Uganda’s first space observer.   Neighbors like Lawrence Okello have been watching the space probe take shape.

“There is a small project I saw him making.  He called it a space observer.  I heard him saying it’s going to capture a picture of Uganda from space.  He showed me that it’s going to work.  They are just preparing to launch it.  But I know it will fly.  It will fly.”

The probe is about the size and shape of a beach ball. Its equipment includes a camera and solar panels.  Mr. Nsamba also plans to send a passenger on the first trip – a rat.

He says the reason the probe is called an observer is because it has a camera on it for sending live pictures and video back to the control center. The rat, he says, is for testing skills at keeping something alive in space.

Chris Nsamba and his team have received a financial grant from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. But except for that, they have had to depend on private donations from supporters.

Chris Nsamba says he does not have a technical team to assist with the finer points of aerospace7 engineering. In fact, he says he developed the project all by himself. The other people helping8 him are his students. He says he is training them how to develop such projects.

The launch itself would involve a helium weather balloon. The plan is for the balloon to carry the observer up more than 36 kilometers. At that point, thruster rockets would fire.

Chris Nsamba says he and his team have been working up to 18 hours a day on the project. He says the thrusters have been tested and the rocket fuel is ready. He says the president has given permission to launch the observer, but wants to inspect it himself first.

The project may be small compared to space programs in other countries. But the head of the physics department at Makarere University in Kampala thinks Chris Nsamba’s efforts should not be dismissed. Professor Florence D’ujanga says, for science to develop, you have to start somewhere.  I’m Caty Weaver.

And I’m Jim Tedder in Washington.  It’s a very special day here in the States …because …it’s our birthday!  We became an independent nation on this date in 1776.  Small towns and large all across the country are celebrating this national holiday with parades, food, music, and fireworks.


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 tedder 2833afc4f8252d8dc9f8cd73b24db55d     
n.(干草)翻晒者,翻晒机
参考例句:
  • Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆?特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
  • Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆?泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网
2 bomber vWwz7     
n.轰炸机,投弹手,投掷炸弹者
参考例句:
  • He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
  • Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。
3 adulthood vKsyr     
n.成年,成人期
参考例句:
  • Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
  • Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。
4 sibling TEszc     
n.同胞手足(指兄、弟、姐或妹)
参考例句:
  • Many of us hate living in the shadows of a more successful sibling.我们很多人都讨厌活在更为成功的手足的阴影下。
  • Sibling ravalry has been common in this family.这个家里,兄弟姊妹之间的矛盾很平常。
5 unity 4kQwT     
n.团结,联合,统一;和睦,协调
参考例句:
  • When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结,并非一团和气。
  • We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前,我们必须加强团结。
6 weaver LgWwd     
n.织布工;编织者
参考例句:
  • She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快,而且布的质量很好。
  • The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。
7 aerospace CK2yf     
adj.航空的,宇宙航行的
参考例句:
  • The world's entire aerospace industry is feeling the chill winds of recession.全世界的航空航天工业都感受到了经济衰退的寒意。
  • Edward Murphy was an aerospace engineer for the US Army.爱德华·墨菲是一名美军的航宇工程师。
8 helping 2rGzDc     
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。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。