VOA常速英语2008年-For Zimbabweans, No Cause to Celebrate Independ

By Tendai Maphosa
London
18 April 2008

Zimbabwe's economy is a shambles¹.  Not long ago, Zimbabweans learned that their country's inflation rate, already the highest in the world, hit a new high of 165,000 percent. 

A Zimbabwean woman who gave her name only as Netsai and who lives in Harare says an essentially² worthless currency is just one of the reasons why there will be few, if any, Independence Day celebrations this year.

"It's easier to find such things like eggs and toilet paper at street corners than it is to find them in the shops," she said.  "What people are doing to cope with that, is most individuals are selling products in U.S. dollars and [South African] Rands, because those are more stable currencies and you are assured that when you wake up tomorrow it wouldn't have lost its value."

But the problem is that most Zimbabweans do not have access to foreign currency.

To compound matters, only two in ten Zimbabweans have a job.  Netsai says most of the unemployed⁴ have joined the informal sector⁵.  Some are so-called cross-border traders who go into neighboring countries and buy basics - fuel, power generators⁶, car parts and even machine spares for factories - and whatever is scarce and sell them at a profit.

Critics say Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's policies, and his quest to hold on to power, are at the root of the country's economic and political problems.

Before the current economic crisis, Zimbabwe was considered the breadbasket of the region. But successive droughts and an ill-conceived government program that re-distributed land from white farmers to landless blacks caused food production to plummet⁷.

President Mugabe's critics accuse him of handing over most of the land to supporters who lack farming experience or the money for farming equipment.

On March 29, Zimbabweans voted in national elections. They are still waiting for the result of the presidential contest.  Rejoice Ngwenya is a Harare-based writer who hoped that by now he would be celebrating a new dawn for Zimbabwe. He says the delay announcing the election results is troubling.

"I have never at any one time in these 28 years seen so much paralysis⁸, so much profound anxiety and anger," he said.  "The rules of the game in a democracy, is that you accept defeat or winning graciously so even if there is going to be a presidential runoff it is possible that somebody else is going to refuse to accept defeat."

What is happening in Zimbabwe has led many to ask where it all went wrong.  Alex Magaisa, a Zimbabwean lecturer at the University of Kent, says it was never right. He says the massacres⁹ in Matabeleland soon after independence is an example of Mr. Mugabe's abuse of power.

"As we all know it didn't take very long for the Zimbabwe government led by Mr. Mugabe to turn against some people," he said.  "Unfortunately, it was a minority of people in the southern districts of the country where a lot of atrocities¹⁰ were committed by the government. So with the benefit of hindsight it was always wrong from the beginning."

Economist¹¹ Tony Hawkins of the University of Zimbabwe Business School says even if Mr. Mugabe succeeds in holding on to political power, his inability to reign³ in the galloping¹² inflation rate may be his undoing¹³.

"We'll hit half a million [percent inflation] by May/June if not sooner," he said.  "My feeling is even if President Mugabe does manage to cling on to power in a second round or by some other subterfuge¹⁴, I think the economic pressures will wear him down very quickly after that."

Despite their difficult circumstances, the Zimbabweans VOA spoke¹⁵ to are unanimous in their belief that the current crisis will end and they can one day celebrate Independence Day in a free Zimbabwe.

1 shambles   

n.混乱之处；废墟

参考例句：

• My room is a shambles.我房间里乱七八糟。
• The fighting reduced the city to a shambles.这场战斗使这座城市成了一片废墟。

2 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

3 reign   

n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势

参考例句：

• The reign of Queen Elizabeth lapped over into the seventeenth century.伊丽莎白王朝延至17世纪。
• The reign of Zhu Yuanzhang lasted about 31 years.朱元璋统治了大约三十一年。

4 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

5 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

6 generators   

n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司

参考例句：

• The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
• Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 plummet   

vi.(价格、水平等)骤然下跌；n.铅坠；重压物

参考例句：

• Mengniu and Yili have seen their shares plummet since the incident broke.自事件发生以来，蒙牛和伊利的股票大幅下跌。
• Even if rice prices were to plummet,other brakes on poverty alleviation remain.就算大米价格下跌，其它阻止导致贫困的因素仍然存在。

8 paralysis   

n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症)

参考例句：

• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。
• The paralysis affects his right leg and he can only walk with difficulty.他右腿瘫痪步履维艰。

9 massacres   

大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 )； 惨败

参考例句：

• The time is past for guns and killings and massacres. 动不动就用枪、动不动就杀、大规模屠杀的时代已经过去了。 来自教父部分
• Numberless recent massacres were still vivid in their recollection. 近来那些不可胜数的屠杀，在他们的头脑中记忆犹新。

10 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

12 galloping   

adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The horse started galloping the moment I gave it a good dig. 我猛戳了马一下，它就奔驰起来了。
• Japan is galloping ahead in the race to develop new technology. 日本在发展新技术的竞争中进展迅速，日新月异。

13 undoing   

n.毁灭的原因，祸根；破坏，毁灭

参考例句：

• That one mistake was his undoing. 他一失足即成千古恨。
• This hard attitude may have led to his undoing. 可能就是这种强硬的态度导致了他的垮台。

14 subterfuge   

n.诡计；藉口

参考例句：

• European carping over the phraseology represented a mixture of hypocrisy and subterfuge.欧洲在措词上找岔子的做法既虚伪又狡诈。
• The Independents tried hard to swallow the wretched subterfuge.独立党的党员们硬着头皮想把这一拙劣的托词信以为真。

15 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。