VOA慢速英语2021--巴西单日新冠死亡病例首次突破4000例

Brazil reported more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths in one day for the first time this week. As the death tolls¹ rise, experts fear that the South American country could pass the United States death total from the coronavirus pandemic later this year.

The total number of deaths recorded by Brazil's health ministry² is close to 400,000. The U.S. is the only country with more deaths, at about 555,000. Brazil has two-thirds of the U.S. population.

From the start of the health crisis³, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has resisted measures to prevent the spread of the virus like wearing cloth coverings and social distancing. He once called the coronavirus a "small flu."

The country's governors and mayors are reopening parts of the economy while the healthcare system is at risk of collapsing⁴. Hospitals are overcrowded. COVID-19 patients are using more than 90 percent of hospital beds in intensive care units for the sickest patients.

Adding to the problem, Brazil also has many different COVID variants⁵. And this week, a judge ruled that schools could reopen in Rio de Janeiro.

Brazilian officials, however, are claiming life will be back to normal soon. "We think that probably two, three months from now Brazil could be back to business," said Economy Minister Paulo Guedes.

Miguel Lago is the director for the Institute for Health Policy Studies in Brazil. He said reopening is a mistake that would bring even higher death numbers. He also said local political leaders fear the president's supporters will try to stop any policies like social distancing from going into effect.

"The fact is," Lago said, "the anti-lockdown narrative⁶ of President Jair Bolsonaro has won."

While the U.S. is working to make vaccines⁷ available to all adults by April 19, Brazil has been slow to vaccinate⁸ its people. Our World in Data, an online research site, says just 3 percent of the Brazilian population has been fully⁹ vaccinated¹⁰.

Miguel Nicolelis is a Brazilian doctor and professor at Duke University. He compared the situation in Brazil to Japan's nuclear disaster.

"It's a biological Fukushima," he said.

Both Nicolelis and Christovam Barcellos, a researcher at Brazilian medical institute Fiocruz, are warning that Brazil will soon pass the U.S. in total and daily death numbers.

The respected Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation¹¹ at the University of Washington created a model to predict COVID deaths in Brazil through June. It says Brazil may even break the U.S. seven-day average for COVID-19 deaths as soon as next week.

The model also predicts Brazil to have 563,000 deaths by the start of the summer. By then, the U.S. is expected to record 600,000 deaths from the virus.

Words in This Story

toll- n. - the number of people who are killed or injured in an accident, disaster, war, etc.

biological- adj. of or relating to biology or to life and living things

lockdown- n. an emergency measure of keeping people in a secure place to avoid or prevent danger

narrative n. a story that is told or written

1 tolls   

（缓慢而有规律的）钟声( toll的名词复数 )； 通行费； 损耗； （战争、灾难等造成的）毁坏

参考例句：

• A man collected tolls at the gateway. 一个人在大门口收通行费。
• The long-distance call tolls amount to quite a sum. 长途电话费数目相当可观。

2 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。

3 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

4 collapsing   

压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The rocks were folded by collapsing into the center of the trough. 岩石由于坍陷进入凹槽的中心而发生褶皱。

5 variants   

n.变体( variant的名词复数 )；变种；变型；（词等的）变体

参考例句：

• Those variants will be preserved in the'struggle for existence". 这些变异将在“生存竞争”中被保留下来。 来自辞典例句
• Like organisms, viruses have variants, generally called strains. 与其他生物一样，病毒也有变种，一般称之为株系。 来自辞典例句

6 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

7 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

8 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

9 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。

10 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

11 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。