国家地理:China's Lost Girls 被抛弃的女孩 -4

"Why is a boy so important? A girl is a person, too. " I was angry. I told him, "If you want to send me back to Hubei, I can't stop you. You think boys are so important, you can just stay here alone." That's what I told him then. '"If I have a girl, I'll take her with me.'"

Ya Qing had a boy. Her sister-in-law wasn't so lucky.

"My sister-in-law, her first child was a girl, and her second was also a girl. And she gave her away. She wanted to have a son. Feudal¹, it's very feudal. They all want to have sons. It's this way in the countryside. They want sons."

Ya Qing tells me that shortly before our visit, a girl had been abandoned in this area.

"In the town right outside here, there was a baby girl left in the box. There was no note with her birth date. They put some new clothes inside, packed her in a box and left her in the market. When people got there in the morning, they could hear the child crying. "

"Being adopted, it's OK. But sometimes you can get annoyed and sometimes, it, it feels like you are different from other people. And sometimes you feel like, well, you don't feel, you feel different from everybody else because they are probably, they probably, they are probably born from their mom and they indeed sometimes you feel like you don't, you don't feel like you did that you were born from a mom. You feel like, you were just born."

The growing imbalance of boys to girls in China is becoming a serious problem. And it's only expected to get worse.

The growing gender² imbalance can best be seen in schools across China. Here at this primary school, we are told that every classroom averages about 39 kids, 28 of whom are boys.

Already Chinese official statistics³ show that there are nearly 13 million more young boys than girls. And what happens when there aren't enough girls? Chen Shengli is an official in China's Population and Family Planning Commission⁴.

"The disparity between boy and girl is already quite large and growing even more, so, do you see it as a problem and if so, what are you, what are you trying to do about it?"

"In 10 years, or even 20, when this generation just born reaches marriageble age and goes to find a mate⁵, they will not be able to match up evenly. With this shortage⁶ of over 10%, this percentage of males may not be able to find a woman to marry and will not be able to establish a family. This, we have to acknowledge⁷, is going to be a very serious social problem. "

By the year 2020, there are expected to be up to 40 million marriage age men who'll have no one to marry. Experts warn this could cause outbreaks of violence in China and even war for the region⁸.

1 feudal   

adj.封建的，封地的，领地的

参考例句：

• Feudal rulers ruled over the country several thousand years.封建统治者统治这个国家几千年。
• The feudal system lasted for two thousand years in China.封建制度在中国延续了两千年之久。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 statistics   

n.统计，统计数字，统计学

参考例句：

• We have statistics for the last year.我们有去年的统计资料。
• Statistics is taught in many colleges.许多大学都教授统计学。

4 commission   

n.委托，授权，委员会，拥金，回扣，委任状

参考例句：

• The salesman can get commission on everything he sells.这个售货员能得到所售每件货物的佣金。
• The commission is made up of five people,including two women.委员会由五人组成，其中包括两名妇女。

5 mate   

n.伙伴，同事；配偶；大副；v.(使)交配

参考例句：

• Where is the mate to this glove?这副手套的另一只在哪儿？
• She has been a faithful mate to him.她一直是他忠实的配偶。

6 shortage   

n.缺少，缺乏，不足

参考例句：

• The city is suffering a desperate shortage of water.这个城市严重缺水。
• The heart of the problem is a shortage of funds.问题的关键是缺乏经费。

7 acknowledge   

vt.承认...的权威，告知，收到，报偿

参考例句：

• With so much evidence against him he had to acknowledge his error.在这么多的证据面前，他不得不承认错误。
• It is ungracious of me not to acknowledge your help.你大力帮助而我尚未表示谢意，十分失礼。

8 region   

n.地区，地带，区域；范围，幅度

参考例句：

• The students went to study the geology of that region.学生们去研究那个地区的地质情况。
• It is unusual to see snow in this region.这个地区难得见到雪。