VOA慢速英语 2007 0205a

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The traditional definition of an entrepreneur¹ is a person who organizes and accepts the risks of a new business. Entrepreneurs² may have a new product or service to offer. Or they may have ideas for new ways to do business.

But an entrepreneurial³ spirit does not have to be limited to the business world. Lately we hear more and more about social entrepreneurs. What they do is similar; they might even act like business entrepreneurs. They might invest money in projects or get others to support them.

But social entrepreneurs say they are not guided by a desire for profits. Their most important goal, they say, is to create social value. They organize and support programs that aim to improve conditions in communities.

Social entrepreneurs say they look for solutions to needs without leaving them to government or industry to solve. And they say they try to spread the solution. In other words, to change the system, they try to get whole societies to change.

There are many historical examples of people who might be called social entrepreneurs. Susan B. Anthony, for example, fought for women's rights in the United States. Vinoba Bhave created the Land Gift Movement to help India's poor and landless.

Britain's Florence Nightingale, the mother of modern nursing, established a school for nurses and fought for better hospital conditions. And Mary Montessori of Italy improved teaching methods for early childhood education.




These are some of the examples given by Ashoka, a nonprofit group in the United States.

Over the past twenty years, there has been extraordinary growth in social entrepreneurship⁴. Some students coming out of the best business schools now seriously consider it as a career. And one organization that has helped fuel this growth is Ashoka.

Bill Drayton started the group in nineteen eighty. Ashoka says it works on three levels. It supports individual social entrepreneurs, both financially and professionally. It also helps them connect with others around the world, so they can spread their ideas and build long-term support. And, thirdly, Ashoka says it helps build the financial systems needed to support the growth of social entrepreneurship.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss⁵. You can find a link to the Ashoka Web site at www.unsv.com, along with transcripts⁶ and audio files of our reports. I'm Steve Ember.

1 entrepreneur   

n.企业家，主办人

参考例句：

• The entrepreneur has become a news figure.这位企业家变成了新闻人物。
• The entrepreneur takes business risks in the hope of making a profit.企业家为追求利润而冒险。

2 entrepreneurs   

企业家( entrepreneur的名词复数 )； 主办人

参考例句：

• He is one of the entrepreneurs of the concert. 他是这场音乐会的主办人之一。
• Entrepreneurs are free to develop their businesses. 企业家们可以任意发展自己的企业。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

3 entrepreneurial   

adj.企业家的；企业性质的

参考例句：

• Supply-side economics was supposed to promote savings, investment, and entrepreneurial creativity. 供应经济学政策的经济应该能够提高存款，刺激投资和企业创造力。
• How developing countries should enlarge their ranks of entrepreneurial organizers is very much an open question. 发展中国家应该怎样扩大其企业组织者的队伍是一个很有争论的问题。

4 entrepreneurship   

企业家身份

参考例句：

• Spawr indeed personified American ingenuity, self-reliance, initiative and entrepreneurship. 斯帕尔看不上机构重叠和清规戒律，表现出美国人的机敏，有着独立、首创精神和企业家的风度。
• He provides evidence that n-achievement is highly correlated with entrepreneurship. 他提供的材料表明“n--成就”与企业家精神高度相关。

5 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

6 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句