英国新闻听力 日本出台巨额经济激励措施

India and Nepal have agreed to work together to deal with the worst flooding in 50 years that has forced millions of people from their homes on both sides of their border. In India, bad weather is hampering¹ a huge relief operation in Bihar state. Chris Morris reports.

The Kosi river known in Bihar as the river of sorrow has changed course completely, inundating² hundreds of thousands of houses. Entire villages have been submerged, and food and medicines have been air dropped to people who've been cut off by the rising waters. More than 50 deaths have been reported so far, but there are fears the number of dead could be much higher. The army has now evacuated³ more than a-hundred-thousand people, but at least 2 million have been made homeless.

The Japanese government has announced a package of measures to stimulate⁴ the economy. It is described as being worth over $100 billion. Our economics correspondent Andrew Walker reports.

The headline figure for the size of the package is large by some measures larger than the stimulus⁵ provided by the US government earlier this year. And there is a promise in the Japanese initiative of temporary tax cuts to come. There are no details for the scale. But only a small proportion of the overall package is additional spending, much of it takes the form of loan guarantees for small businesses. Some may welcome that, and it certainly true that economic growth has slowed sharply. But critics say the plans are unlikely to have much impact and are in any case they say motivated by a desire to improve the government's popularity.

1 hampering   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• So fraud on cows and development aid is seriously hampering growth. 因此在牛问题上和发展补助上的诈骗严重阻碍了发展。
• Short-termism, carbon-trading, disputing the science-are hampering the implementation of direct economically-led objectives. 短效主义，出售二氧化碳，进行科学辩论，这些都不利于实现以经济为主导的直接目标。

2 inundating   

v.淹没( inundate的现在分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付

参考例句：

• Floodwaters are inundating states up and down the Eastern Seaboard. 洪水淹没了东部沿海各州。 来自互联网
• Their invasion of the city effecttidal wave inundating first the immigrant colonies. 他们的涌入城市，象潮头一样首先淹没了移民地带。 来自互联网

3 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

4 stimulate   

vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋

参考例句：

• Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
• Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。

5 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。