VOA慢速英语2016--残奥会在巴西开幕

AS IT IS 2016-09-08 Paralympic Games Begin in Brazil 残奥会在巴西开幕

This is What’s Trending Today…

Rio de Janeiro is home for the next 11 days to thousands of athletes competing in the 2016 Paralympic Games. The Paralympics are an international sporting event for athletes with physical or intellectual impairments.

The 4,300 athletes come from more than 160 countries.

As the opening ceremony took place Wednesday night, organizers were dealing¹ with budget concerns. They blame slow ticket and sponsorship sales.

The president of the International Paralympic Committee told the Associated Press, “This is the worst situation that we’ve ever found ourselves in at the Paralympic movement.”

Organizers are hoping to sell more than 2 million tickets to the sporting events. A total of 2.5 million tickets are available.

In Britain, Prince Harry² is helping³ them reach that goal. He provided a personal donation to the #FilltheSeats movement. It is seeking to raise ticket money so that 10,000 Brazilian children can attend the Games. #FilltheSeats was started by Greg Nugent, who served as a marketing⁴ director for the London 2012 Games.

Nugent told The Canadian Press in August, “the idea that the seats in Rio might be empty saddened me, so instead of moaning, I thought we should try and do something about it.”

The #FilltheSeats movement announced earlier this week that it had raised a little more than $200,000. That is about two-thirds of its goal amount of $300,000.

Prince Harry and the #FilltheSeats movement trended on social media.

One Twitter user called Prince Harry’s act inspiring.

Another tweeted, “If we didn’t like Prince Harry enough already…”

In 2014, Prince Harry established the Invictus Games, a competition for wounded British service members.

Earlier this week, he tweeted good luck to all the Invictus athletes getting ready for the Rio Paralympic Games.

Words in This Story

intellectual - adj. of or relating to the ability to think in a logical way

impairment - n. of or relating to the ability to think in a logical way

moan - v. to express unhappiness about something; to complain

1 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

2 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。