VOA慢速英语2013 AS IT IS 2013-06-08 School Lunch Important for Health and Education

 

AS IT IS 2013-06-08 School Lunch Important for Health and Education

Welcome to As It Is, your daily magazine show from VOA Learning English.

I’m June Simms.

Today we hear about two studies on childhood hunger and its effects on educational development and the world economy.

We begin with a story out of Dakar, Senegal.

School Lunch Important for Health and Education 

Educators in low-income areas everywhere struggle with one of the most basic barriers to teaching children -- hungry students. The United Nations World Food Program says in its 2013 State of School Feeding Worldwide report that supplying meals and snacks to students has proven valuable. Researchers in Dakar, Senegal agree. They found that supplying free lunches to students in rural primary schools not only made them healthier, it raised their test scores. Avi Arditti has more.

During the 2009-2010 academic year, researchers in Senegal did an experiment. They selected 120 rural primary schools in four of the poorest areas of the country. Students at half the schools received free, daily lunches -- a local dish of rice with vegetables and either fish or meat, cooked in oil. Students at the other 60 schools did not receive meals.

Abdoulaye Diagne is the director of the Consortium for Social Economic Research in Dakar. He led the study.

He says students who received school meals were better able to memorize and reason. He says they learned and understood more than those students who did not receive meals.

The study found that standardized¹ test scores went up an average of 7 percentage points in French and 8.5 percentage points in math. The effect was even greater for girls and for the youngest students.

The World Food Program says that about $75 billion goes into school feeding programs each year worldwide. Most of this money comes from governments.

However, the WFP says only 18 percent of children in the poorest countries receive a daily meal at school. This compares to nearly half of children in middle-income countries.

Bettina Luescher is with the World Food Program.

“School meals are a crucially important part and play a huge role in schools around the world. It means, in practicality, kids can concentrate. They can study. They stay in school. They will send their own children to school one day. Girls will have fewer children if they have school meals and an education; they marry at a later stage. And there’s a huge impact on how they grow up to become strong, smart adults.”

Luescher says that school feeding programs also help protect children from crises² -- like droughts, war, or sudden increases in food prices.

“School meals are a way of keeping children in school. It’s often the only way that families can afford to keep their children fed. Sometimes it’s the only meal that some of these children get.”

The big problem, of course, is cost. This is especially true in low-income countries.

However, the WFP estimates that for every dollar spent on a school meal, countries will see three dollars in economic returns. Local farmers, for example, can sell their food to the school meal programs, and the country can build a smarter workforce³. I’m Avi Arditti.

And I’m June Simms. You are listening to As It Is from VOA Learning English.

Effects of Childhood Malnutrition⁴ Far Reaching and Lasting 

About one-quarter of the world's children may underperform at school because of poor nutrition. So says a new report from the Britain-based charity Save the Children.

The “Food for Thought” report says a malnourished child is almost 20 percent more likely to have trouble reading than someone of the same age who has a good diet.

David McNair is head of growth, equity⁵ and livelihoods⁶ at Save the Children UK.

“Those who are malnourished consistently⁷ have scored lower on math tests and find it more difficult to read a simple sentence at age eight. And as they go through life that affects their confidence, their career aspirations⁸ and ultimately⁹ their ability to earn money.”

The report is based on an international study of childhood poverty. Researchers from the University of Oxford¹⁰ are leading the “Young Lives” study. They are following the lives of 12,000 children in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam over a 15-year period.

The report notes that the period from when a woman becomes pregnant¹¹ until a child is two years old is an important time for brain development. But McNair says the effect of malnutrition goes beyond the biology of the brain.

“There is interesting evidence on the stimulus¹² that children receive. So because children who are malnourished look smaller, their parents and their caregivers tend to treat them as if they were younger than they are. And that means they do not get the right stimulus and their brains are not developing as a result of that stimulus.”

The report says childhood malnutrition is also a major threat to the long-term economic growth of many developing countries.

United Nations figures suggest that last year nearly 50 percent of children under five in southern Asia were stunted¹³, too short for their age because of poor nutrition. This was also the case for 40 percent of children under five in sub-Saharan Africa.

Save the Children predicts that malnourished children may, as adults, earn 20 percent less than children who were properly fed. It says this costs the global economy more than $100 billion a year.

McNair says targeting malnutrition now will have major long-term effects. But, currently¹⁴ nutrition programs get just over 0.3 percent of global development spending. Save the Children wants spending on nutrition to more than double to $1 billion a year.

Earlier this week, the British and Brazilian governments held the first-ever high-level nutrition pledging¹⁵ conference. They say it is a first step in moving malnutrition to a higher level as an important economic and social development issue.

1 standardized   

adj.标准化的

参考例句：

• We use standardized tests to measure scholastic achievement. 我们用标准化考试来衡量学生的学业成绩。
• The parts of an automobile are standardized. 汽车零件是标准化了的。

2 crises   

n. 危机；危险期

参考例句：

• Economic crises recur periodically. 经济危机周期性地发生。
• Great crises often call forth gifted leaders. 危急存亡之际常能产生天才的领袖。

3 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

4 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

5 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

6 livelihoods   

生计，谋生之道( livelihood的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• First came the earliest individualistic pioneers who depended on hunting and fishing for their livelihoods. 走在最前面的是早期的个人主义先驱者，他们靠狩猎捕鱼为生。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• With little influence over policies, their traditional livelihoods are threatened. 因为马赛族人对政策的影响力太小，他们的传统生计受到了威胁。

7 consistently   

ad.一贯地，一直

参考例句：

• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。
• The minister has consistently opposed any relaxation in the law. 部长一向反对法律上的任何放宽。

8 aspirations   

强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音

参考例句：

• I didn't realize you had political aspirations. 我没有意识到你有政治上的抱负。
• The new treaty embodies the aspirations of most nonaligned countries. 新条约体现了大多数不结盟国家的愿望。

9 ultimately   

adv.最后地，最终地，首要地，基本地

参考例句：

• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience.那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。
• Vitamin C deficiency can ultimately lead to scurvy.缺乏维生素C最终能道致坏血病。

10 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

11 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

12 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。

13 stunted   

adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的

参考例句：

• the stunted lives of children deprived of education 未受教育的孩子所过的局限生活
• But the landed oligarchy had stunted the country's democratic development for generations. 但是好几代以来土地寡头的统治阻碍了这个国家民主的发展。

14 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

15 pledging   

保证，许诺，发誓( pledge的现在分词 )； 典当； 保证给予（或做）； 以誓言约束

参考例句：

• Norway and Japan were the only industrialized countries to win applause for pledging further emission reductions. 挪威和日本是承诺进一步减少排放而博得称赞的唯一工业化国家。
• P273 Paula's cards were her way of pledging her true love and unwavering support. 宝拉的卡片是她用来表达真爱和坚定支持誓言的方式。