VOA慢速英语2014 加纳的竹制自行车亮瞎街头

 

AS IT IS 2014-10-31 Ghana's Bamboo Bikes Hit the Streets 加纳的竹制自行车亮瞎街头

Bamboo does not get much respect in Ghana. Farmers think of bamboo as an unwanted plant that needs to be cleared from their land. Construction workers use it to support buildings while they are being built.

But Kwabena Danso thinks bamboo is much more valuable. He operates a business called Booomers International. His company makes bicycle frames¹ out of bamboo. The wooden bike parts are sent from Mr. Danso’s village to other countries, including Germany, the Netherlands and Australia.

Kwabena Danso says bamboo can help a country like Ghana in many ways. He says he wants to, in his words, “get the people to know that there’s a great advantage to bamboo.”

Young men from nearby villages come to work at Booomers International. They sand, glue and connect the bamboo frames. The company makes about 50 of the bicycle frames each month. The bamboo is grown locally. The glue to hold the parts together is made of flour from the cassava plant.

Mr. Danso says Booomers International provides good jobs to young men like Abdul Razak. He serves as a foreman or supervisor² for the company. Mr. Razak says that without this job, he would still be living at home with his parents. He adds that the job helps him a lot.

Kwabena Danso has sold only a few of his bamboo bicycle frames within Ghana. Walter Kudzodzi is one of his customers. He bought a bicycle earlier this year. Mr. Kudzodzi says his bike gets a lot of attention when he rides around his neighborhood.

“For example on Saturday, I rode about five kilometers around my neighborhood and everywhere I went, people were just looking at me. And once and a while you hear the exclamation³, ‘Hey, it’s made out of bamboo, hey, that’s the bamboo bicycle,’ yeah know, and anytime I stopped to take a breather, people come close to me and say, ‘Wow, we heard about this, but this is the first time we’ve seen it.  Is it functional⁴?’ Does it work?  I say yeah, try it.”

Mr. Danso’s business has received lots of orders for his bicycles. He says Booomers is ready for expansion⁵. He hopes to have more of his bamboo frames not just in foreign countries, but also on the roads of Ghana.

Words in This Story

bamboo – n. a tall plant with hard hollow⁶ stems⁷ that are used for building and to make furniture, tools, etc.

beneficial⁸ – adj. producing good or helpful results or effects: producing benefits⁹

exclamation – n. a sharp or sudden¹⁰ cry: a word, phrase¹¹, or sound that expresses a strong emotion

expansion – n. the act of becoming bigger or of making something bigger

1 frames   

n.框架( frame的名词复数 )；眼镜框；组织；边框

参考例句：

• roughly hewn timber frames 粗劈成的木架子
• The window frames had begun to warp. 窗框已经开始变形。

2 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

3 exclamation   

n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词

参考例句：

• He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
• The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号，以引起读者的注意。

4 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

5 expansion   

n.扩张，扩充；扩大；扩充物；扩展部

参考例句：

• The company has promised wide consultation on its expansion plans.该公司允诺就其扩展计划广泛征求意见。
• The plan will give an impulse to industrial expansion.这个计划将促进工业的扩展。

6 hollow   

adj.空的，中空的，空心的；空洞的，无价值的

参考例句：

• The boys scraped out a hollow place for planting trees.那些孩子挖了个坑准备栽树。
• Bamboo is a sort of hollow plant.竹子是一种中空的植物。

7 stems   

n.（花草的）茎( stem的名词复数 )；词干；（高脚酒杯的）脚；烟斗柄v.遏制[阻止]（液体的流动等）( stem的第三人称单数 )；封堵；遏止

参考例句：

• The present wave of strikes stems from discontent among the lower-paid. 当前的罢工浪潮起因于低工资雇员们的不满情绪。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Her interest in flowers stems from her childhood in the country. 她对花卉的兴趣产生于她在乡下度过的童年时代。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 beneficial   

adj.有益的，有帮助的

参考例句：

• I hope your holiday will be beneficial to you.我希望你的假期会对你有益。
• Sunshine is beneficial to plants.阳光对植物有益。

9 benefits   

n.津贴费；利益( benefit的名词复数 )；（给职工的）奖金；救济金；益处

参考例句：

• economic benefits accruing to the country from tourism 旅游业为该国带来的经济效益
• The article enthused about the benefits that the new system would bring. 本文热情赞扬了新制度将带来的好处。

10 sudden   

n.突然，忽然；adj.突然的，意外的，快速的

参考例句：

• All of a sudden he turned about and saw me.他突然转过身来看见了我。
• The horse was badly frightened by the sudden noise.那匹马被突然而来的嘈杂声吓坏了。

11 phrase   

n.短语，词组；成语，习语

参考例句：

• The phrase was caught on and immediately became popular.这个短语被采用后很快就流行了。
• That's exactly the phrase I was looking for.这就是我一直找的那个短语。