VOA慢速英语2017--:2017年:以灾难、暴力为标志的一年

2017: A Year Marked by Disaster, Violence

The year 2017 has been a good year for bad news.

Media personality Marian Salzman called it a year of “disruption, despair and dumpster fires.” In other words, it has been a difficult year, marked by violence, natural disasters and political disagreement.

Gun violence, attacks claim lives around the world

The year started off with bad news; a gunman attacked a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, during a New Year’s celebration. Thirty-nine people were killed and many more were injured.

Vehicles were used as weapons in several major attacks this year.

A truck bombing in the Somali capital, Mogadishu claimed hundreds of lives. In June, a truck was also used in an attack in Westminster and London Bridge in London, killing¹ eight people. Similar attacks took place in Stockholm, Sweden, Barcelona, Spain and New York City.

In each case, extremists were blamed.

Terrorists targeted Egyptian Coptic Christians² in two attacks in April. Then, in November over 300 people were killed in an attack on a Muslim place of worship in continuing religious violence in Egypt.

In Britain, a suicide attack killed 22 people in a bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

Shooting violence again left a mark of tragedy in the United States. In November, a man opened fire in a church in rural Texas, killing 25 people.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, a gunman aimed at a nearby music concert from a tall hotel building, killing 58 people. The attack was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Storms, fires, quakes leave costly³ damage

Natural disasters were also notable. Three powerful storms struck the Caribbean Sea and the southern United States in a short period of time.

Hurricane Harvey struck the city of Houston, Texas, in August, causing widespread flooding and damage. Two other hurricanes, Irma and Maria, struck Caribbean islands, the state of Florida and the southern U.S. More than three months later, tens of thousands remain without power on the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

Powerful storms also struck the Philippines and Vietnam, bringing with them damage and heavy loss of life.

Wildfires proved to be costly and dangerous events. Fires burned large areas in Portugal as well as in the central and southern parts of the state of California.

Paths of danger for civilians⁴, refugees

Migration⁵ and refugees fleeing violence remained a major problem in 2017. Amnesty International estimates that 73,000 refugees from Africa and the Middle East tried to cross the Mediterranean⁶ Sea to reach Europe. Two thousand refugees are believed to have died along the way.

News stories brought attention to the situation of ethnic⁷ Rohingya people in Myanmar. It is believed that 626,000 people have fled to Bangladesh to escape ethnic violence involving the military in Myanmar.

Civil war in Yemen has brought hunger, disease and poor conditions to millions in the country. Saudi Arabia put in place -- and then promised to ease -- a blockade on the country’s seaports⁸ and airports. The blockade prevents humanitarian⁹ aid from getting to Yemen.

Political crisis and change

The political crisis in Venezuela continues, as those opposed to President Nicolas Maduro have taken to the streets in protest. Large numbers have fled South America’s most troubled economy in search of jobs in other countries, including neighboring Brazil.

In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe was ousted¹⁰ in November after leading one of Africa’s most economically troubled nations for 37 years.

In Spain, efforts by Catalonians to seek independence led to new elections and the ouster of the autonomous¹¹ area’s president. Pro-independence groups gained a narrow majority in the latest elections.

A similar vote for independence by the Kurdish area of Iraq resulted in the central government seizing oil producing areas. The Kurdish president resigned and the area government withdrew the results of the vote.

Sharp changes in policies

The election of Donald Trump¹² in 2016 brought with it many policy changes for the United States.

Trump ordered strong restrictions¹³ on immigration from several Muslim-majority countries. He pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership¹⁴ free trade agreement with Pacific area nations. And in June, he said the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, a non-binding deal to limit the rise in world temperatures.

Japan has sought to change its pacifist constitution to permit an expanded military. And South Korea permitted the deployment¹⁵ of the THAD anti-missile system over China’s objection.

North Korea has raised tensions on the Korean Peninsula to a new level, with several long-range missile tests and a suspected hydrogen bomb underground explosion. In late November, North Korea tested a missile that is believed to be able to reach any part of the U.S.

Sexual wrongdoing accusations¹⁶ top AP’s 2017 news list

The Associated Press says the biggest story of 2017 was the wave of well-known and powerful men accused of sexual wrongdoing.

The New York Times published sexual abuse allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein in October. In the weeks since, women and some men have publicly accused others in Hollywood, news media executives, politicians and more of sexual assault or harassment¹⁷. Among the accused were Kevin Spacey, Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer.

Millions of people around the world also used the hashtag #MeToo to tell of their sexual abuse experiences.

Minnesota Senator Al Franken and Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore were accused of wrongdoing, each by many women. Franken announced his resignation from the Senate while Moore lost the election. Other U.S. congressmen were also accused; some decided¹⁸ not to seek reelection.

And some good news too…

There was cause to celebrate this year in Nigeria, when more than 80 of the young women known as the Chibok girls were released. They had been held for more than three years by the country’s Boko Haram Islamic extremist group.

Many of them have renewed their studies by attending the American University of Nigeria. The girls are said to be under the care of the Nigerian government.

Other positive developments include the collapse¹⁹ of the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

And the U.S. economy continued to grow more quickly than expected. Joblessness fell to its lowest level in many years.

The good news has many people hoping for a better 2018.

You heard from Lucija Milonig, Jill Robbins, Jonathan Evans and Dorothy Gundy.

I’m Mario Ritter.

Words in This Story

disruption –n. something that prevents some activity from going on in the normal way

dumpster fires –idiom a very bad situation

migration –n. to move from one country or place to another to live without intending to return

blockade –n. the act of militarily blocking off a place, city or country to prevent people or supplies from entering or leaving

autonomous –adj. having the right to self-government

non-binding –adj. not required by law

pacifist –adj. not accepting war as a possible solution

hydrogen bomb –n. an atomic bomb that uses hydrogen to increase the power of the explosion

assault –n. the crime of trying to or threatening to harm someone physically²⁰

harassment –n. to annoy or bother in a repeated way

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

3 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

4 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

5 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

6 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

7 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

8 seaports   

n.海港( seaport的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Airports have joined seaports as ports of entry for the visiting foreigner. 机场和海港一样成为来访的外国人的入境关口。 来自互联网
• Sanya has 16 seaports, 10 islands and 180km of coastline. 三亚有16个港口、10个海岛和180公里的海岸线。 来自互联网

9 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

10 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

11 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

12 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

13 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

14 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

15 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

16 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

17 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

18 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

19 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

20 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。