VOA慢速英语2017 美国男童军将开始接收女孩（在线收听）

Boy Scouts of America to Welcome Girls

This is What’s Trending Today….

欢迎收听今日热点节目。

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has made a lot of change in recent years.

美国童子军(美国童子军一般就指男童军)近些年发些年发生了诸多变化。

The youth organization, which formed in 1910, agreed in 2015 to accept openly gay members, as well as gay adult volunteers.

这个青年组织，成立于1910年，之后于2015年公开同意接受同性恋成员以及同性恋的成人志愿者。

It also now lets transgender boys join.

现在该组织也允许变性男生加入。

And this week, it announced that girls will soon be permitted to join the traditionally male organization.

而就在本周，该组织宣布很快就会允许女孩加入这个传统意义上的男性组织。

The BSA says it will admit girls into the Cub Scouts starting in 2018. That group is for younger children. It also announced plans to create a new program for older girls based on the Boy Scout curriculum.

美国童子军称将从2018年开始接受女孩加入为儿童服务的幼童军。该组织还宣布计划根据男童军课程表为年龄更大的女孩创建新的课程。

The Girl Scouts of the USA is another of the country's major scouting organizations. It had tried to dissuade the Boy Scouts from making the changes.

美国女童军是该国另一家主要的童军组织。该组织尝试劝阻美国男童军做出上述改变。

"Girl Scouts is, and will remain, the scouting program that truly benefits U.S. girls by providing a safe space for them to learn and lead," the Girl Scouts said in a statement.

女童军在一份声明中表示：”女童军将会为美国女孩提供学习和领导的安全空间，从而使她们真正受益。”

Girl Scouts officials have also suggested the move was driven partly by the BSA's need to raise more money. They say some of the group's financial problems come from past settlements it had to pay in sex-abuse cases.

女童军官员也表示，美国男童军的这一举动部分是由于筹措资金需求。她们表示，男童军的财务问题来自于需要解决过去性侵案的赔偿问题。

Membership numbers for both groups have been falling in recent years.

近年来这两家组织的会员人数都一直在下降。

Under the new plan, smaller Cub Scout groups will be either all-boys or all-girls. Larger Cub Scout groups will have the choice to remain single gender or welcome both boys and girls.

根据新计划，较小的幼童军将全部是男孩或者女孩。大一点的幼童军将能选择维持单一性别或者同时接受男孩和女孩。

The new program for older girls is expected to start in 2019. It will let girls earn the same Eagle Scout rank that has been reached by young men who have gone on to be astronauts, senators and admirals. It is the highest level of scouting in the Boy Scouts.

为大一点的女孩提供的课程有望在2019年开始。它将允许女孩获得跟男青年同样的鹰级童军级别，这些男年轻后来都成为了宇航员、参议员和海军上将。这是男童军中最高级别的童军。

The announcement made the Boy Scouts a trending topic on Twitter, Facebook and Google.

该声明使得美国男童军成为了推特、脸谱和谷歌上的热门话题。

Zach Wahls is an Eagle Scout. He played an active role in pressuring the BSA to end its ban on gay members.

Zach Wahls是一名鹰级童军。他在推动美国男童军解除同性恋成员禁令方面发挥了积极作用。

Wahls wrote on Twitter about the BSA's most recent move. "So proud of this organization for doing the right thing. Yet another step forward for [this] American icon."

Wahls在推特上发文谈到了美国男童军最近的这一举动。他说：“太骄傲了，这个组织做出了正确选择。美国男童军这一美国标志又向前迈进了一步。”

But, many on social media did not support the move, including another Eagle Scout, Charlie Kirk. He tweeted, "I am an Eagle Scout. Only boys should be in Boy Scouts. Only girls should be in Girl Scouts. Don't change things that work."

但是社交媒体上很多人都不支持这一举动，包括另一位鹰级童军Charlie Kirk。他发推文表示：“我是一位鹰级童军。只有男孩才能加入男童军，只有女孩才能加入女童军。不要改变这些。”

Many scouting organizations in other countries already permit both girls and boys. They use gender-free names, such as Scouts Canada. But for now, the Boy Scout name will remain unchanged, BSA officials say.

其它国家的很多童军组织已经同时接受女孩和男孩。他们使用了中性名称，例如加拿大童子军。但是美国男童军官员表示，目前男童军的名字将会保持不变。

Public opinion studies carried out by the Boy Scouts showed strong support for the changes among parents not currently connected to the Scouts, including Hispanic and Asian families that the group has been trying to attract.

男童军进行的民意调查显示，目前跟童军毫无关联的家长强制支持这一变革，包括该组织一直尝试吸引的西班牙和亚洲家庭。

Unlike the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts have kept its girls-only status for all its programs. The empowerment of girls remains at the center of its mission.

跟男童军不同的是，女童军所有课程维持只接受女孩的状态。女童赋权仍然是该组织的核心使命。

Andrea Bastiani Archibald is a psychologist who helps with the development of the Girl Scouts' programming.

Andrea Bastiani Archibald是一位心理学家，她帮助开发了女童军的课程。

She said, "We know that girls learn [best] in an all-girl, girl-led environment."

她说：“我们知道，女孩在一个全部是女孩，并由女孩主导的环境中学得最好。”

Words in This Story

transgender - adj. of or relating to people who feel that their true nature does not match their sex at birth

curriculum - n. the courses that are taught by a school, college, etc.

gender - n. the state of being male or female

status - n. the position or rank of someone or something when compared to others in a society, organization, group, etc.