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(单词翻译)
By Nico Colombant
Dakar
29 November 2006
Entrepreneurs are making money from Africans dreaming of migration1. These include businessmen who have set up tents to facilitate the application process for the yearly United States "green card" lottery2. VOA's Nico Colombant reports from Dakar in this third report in a five-part series on migration-related issues.
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Access to technology helps applicants4 file their forms for US green card lottery
A generator5 next to a roadside tent churns throughout the day in a busy part of Dakar, amid this year's recurrent power outages.
The generator powers up laptops, printers and the Internet for passersby6 waiting in line to apply for the U.S. green card lottery.
Togolese national Magloire Assih explains how his business is run.
"When someone comes, we make them fill a form and we take a digital photography that we put in a specific format," he said. "We have software here that does all that very fast. If everything is correct, automatically, we have confirmation7 the application is received."
Business is brisk at 'green card' tents
Business is brisk. The tent is open seven days a week, teeming8 with dozens of people waiting in line, morning to night.
The cost to get this help to apply is about $6, equivalent to a week's wage for many Senegalese. But Assih says his service is very valuable.
"We say that this can be hope for them," said Assih. "At least they know there is something legal and easy that they can do to immigrate9. That is why we want to bring this to them."
Momodou Camara already has family in the United States. He has already applied10 and now he is helping11 his wife do the same.
"My wife came to play the lottery," he said. "I am an engineer, a civil engineer. It is not my objective to go and stay definitely in the United States. But, if I get approved, I will be there to see if possible I can stay there."
Another applicant3, Fatou Ndiaye, says she is trying the lottery for her children.
She says, if ever her children could go to university in the United States, their diplomas would be so much better than elsewhere and they could choose where they want to live.
Other women tell stories of their brothers and cousins getting a green card and immediately enlisting12 into the U.S Army. Some were sent to Iraq. They say it is dangerous, initially13, but that, if they survive the war, then they can get an assisted education afterward14 and a better life.
Adama Kaneh, a grandmother in her 50's, also hopes to go to the United States, even though she says, if she does, she knows there will be culture shock and hard work ahead.
Some applicants say they have applied many times before. They say, even if they win the lottery, it is no guarantee they will go because of the stringent15 screening process that blocks many lottery winners at the U.S embassy in Dakar.
But, they say they will try and try again, even if it costs time and money and creates many disappointments.
1 migration | |
n.迁移,移居,(鸟类等的)迁徙 | |
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2 lottery | |
n.抽彩;碰运气的事,难于算计的事 | |
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3 applicant | |
n.申请人,求职者,请求者 | |
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4 applicants | |
申请人,求职人( applicant的名词复数 ) | |
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5 generator | |
n.发电机,发生器 | |
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6 passersby | |
n. 过路人(行人,经过者) | |
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7 confirmation | |
n.证实,确认,批准 | |
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8 teeming | |
adj.丰富的v.充满( teem的现在分词 );到处都是;(指水、雨等)暴降;倾注 | |
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9 immigrate | |
v.(从外国)移来,移居入境 | |
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10 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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11 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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12 enlisting | |
v.(使)入伍, (使)参军( enlist的现在分词 );获得(帮助或支持) | |
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13 initially | |
adv.最初,开始 | |
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14 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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15 stringent | |
adj.严厉的;令人信服的;银根紧的 | |
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