万花筒 Kaleidoscope2007-10-11&10-13, 靠彩票支援教育事业？

Lotteries¹ are designed on a simple premise². Scratch off the card, pick a few numbers and if you are lucky, a jackpot. Just buy more tickets and spend more money and you can recapture that initial thrill of the bouncing ball. It’s so easy that most people don’t realize that the numbers don’t always add up. And even state governors can find themselves tempted³.

It takes revenue. And I’m not talking about pocket change we find under the seats of the couches. Trust me, I’ve been there, and I’ve gotten all that.

In 2001, in his first term in office, North Carolina governor Mike Easley pitched the lottery⁴ as a quick fix for its cash-starved public schools.

And if anyone here, or anyone in the whole wild world has better idea another way to find four , five hundred million dollars for education, then I'm open to it, show me the money.

At the time, North Carolina was one of the last states in the Bible Belt without a lottery. And governor Easley made that the centerpiece of his administration to the point where it became a running joke in his second state of the state address in 2005

So where do we get those resources? Is there something, some source of revenue that we are overlooking? Something that 42 other states have and we don’t have?

For 30 years, US politicians have used lotteries to pay for public programs like education to avoid increasing taxes. Governor Easley didn’t wanna be the exception.

Since I delivered the first state of the state address, hundreds of millions of dollars have gone in education to South Carolina , Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee. Our people are playing the lottery, we just need to decide which schools we wanna fund. Other states', or ours, I'm for funding our schools.

But there was massive political resistance from conservative lawmakers opposed to state-sponsored gambling⁶. My personal feeling was that it was just not the sort of thing that North Carolina ought to be doing. State senator, Phil Berger led the republican opposition⁷ against the lottery bill. The thought that though the government was promoting a way that people could be quick" successful "by not working hard, by not taking care of themselves, by not being frugal⁸ , seems to me, to be all the wrong massages⁹ for the government to be sending.

For more than a decade, a unique coalition¹⁰ of religious conservatives and progressive activists¹¹ defeated numerous attempts to bring a lottery to the Tar⁵ Heel state. But in August 2005, after intense political wrangling¹², the governor got his wish. By the margin¹³ of a single vote, The North Carolina education lottery was created. But governor Easley would find that the lottery was not the simple answer he was looking for. And a unique examination of documents from state lotteries across the country, the New York Times has discovered that lotteries are not a windfall for schools, while lotteries do contribute millions to public programs. State lotteries have largely failed to yield the huge financial returns initially¹⁴ promised for these programs. On average, states recoup only about 30 cents out of every dollar spent on lottery tickets, the rest, goes to overhead and prizes. Still, North Carolina had high hopes for its new education lottery.

Any, most of us felt that the lottery would bring in 400 million plus dollars a year that could be allocated¹⁵ among various educational programs.

1 lotteries   

n.抽彩给奖法( lottery的名词复数 )；碰运气的事；彩票；彩券

参考例句：

• Next to bullfights and soccer, lotteries are Spain's biggest sport. 除了斗牛和足球以外，彩票是西班牙最热门的玩意儿。 来自辞典例句
• Next to bullfight and soccer, lotteries are Spain's biggest sport. 发行彩票在西班牙是仅次于斗牛和足球的最大娱乐活动。 来自辞典例句

2 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

3 tempted   

v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词）

参考例句：

• I was sorely tempted to complain, but I didn't. 我极想发牢骚，但还是没开口。
• I was tempted by the dessert menu. 甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。

4 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

5 tar   

n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于

参考例句：

• The roof was covered with tar.屋顶涂抹了一层沥青。
• We use tar to make roads.我们用沥青铺路。

6 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

7 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

8 frugal   

adj.节俭的，节约的，少量的，微量的

参考例句：

• He was a VIP,but he had a frugal life.他是位要人，但生活俭朴。
• The old woman is frugal to the extreme.那老妇人节约到了极点。

9 massages   

按摩，推拿( massage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At present the doctor is giving him daily massages to help restore the function of his limbs. 目前医生每天在给他按摩，帮助他恢复腿臂的功能。
• His father massages his nose and chin. 他爸爸揉了揉鼻子和下巴。

10 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

11 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 wrangling   

v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The two sides have spent most of their time wrangling over procedural problems. 双方大部分时间都在围绕程序问题争论不休。 来自辞典例句
• The children were wrangling (with each other) over the new toy. 孩子为新玩具（互相）争吵。 来自辞典例句

13 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

14 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

15 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。