VOA慢速英语2010年-Development Report - Hunger Rates Fall

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The latest Global Hunger Index report says the number of hungry people worldwide has fallen twenty-five percent since ninety ninety.

Last year the estimate topped one billion for the first time. But this year's report says the number of people not getting enough to eat has fallen to nine hundred twenty-five million.

Still, many experts worry that hunger rates are not falling fast enough to meet United Nations goals. One of the first of the Millennium¹ Development Goals is to reduce the hunger rate by fifty percent between ninety ninety and twenty fifteen.

Caroline Hurford at the U.N. World Food Program says the reduction in hunger rates has slowed in recent years.

CAROLINE HURFORD: "There has been a slight dropping off in the number of hungry people in the late nineteen nineties. But then it rose again, of course, during the financial crisis of two thousand seven-two thousand eight. And then the very high food prices, together with the high fuel prices, really knocked everything off track again. And then, of course, climate change has come in and that's made it more difficult to grow food."

The Global Hunger Index is prepared by three private organizations based in Germany, the United States and Ireland. The latest report says twenty-nine countries have levels of hunger that are considered "alarming."

Indian street children eat food at a shanty² town in Hyderabad

The biggest increases were found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The report says hunger has risen by more than sixty-five percent since nineteen ninety because of conflict and political insecurity.

And Caroline Hurford says Congo is not alone.

CAROLINE HURFORD: "Clearly conflict is a huge problem as far as the actual growing of produce and crops is concerned. People can't necessarily tend their fields if they are always being chased away by armed rebels."

A separate report says twenty-two countries have suffered from a hunger and food crisis for at least eight years. Twenty percent of the world's hungry live in these countries, most of which are in Africa.

That report is from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program. They say new policies are needed to deal with these long-term crises. Peter Smerdon at the World Food Program says emergency aid must include development assistance.

PETER SMERDON: "You have to do both things. You have to do both development and emergency assistance to keep people alive to reverse the situation. Otherwise, you're just going to be stuck in a protracted³ crisis, and have to keep trying to put out the fire. But you're not actually changing the structure of the crisis at all."

Both reports were released ahead of World Food Day this past Saturday.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by June Simms. Transcripts⁴, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Mario Ritter.
 

1 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

2 shanty   

n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子

参考例句：

• His childhood was spent in a shanty.他的童年是在一个简陋小屋里度过的。
• I want to quit this shanty.我想离开这烂房子。

3 protracted   

adj.拖延的；延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The war was protracted for four years. 战争拖延了四年。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We won victory through protracted struggle. 经过长期的斗争，我们取得了胜利。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 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