VOA标准英语2010-Clinton Announces Initiatives to Benefit

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton after speaking at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, 27 Apr 2010

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has outlined several new initiatives to empower women around the world, through technology training, public-private partnerships¹ and grants, and a planned entrepreneurship summit specifically for women.

 

The morning after a major entrepreneurship conference wrapped in Washington, Clinton spoke² at a breakfast for women from around the world who attended that summit.

Clinton, one of the world's most powerful women, told the story of a woman she once met at a craft market in Nepal.  The secretary said the woman had not been allowed to leave her home after her marriage, until her husband was injured and could no longer earn a living.  With the family in a dire³ situation, the woman had to ask her husband and mother-in-law for permission to sell the tapestries⁴ and crafts she could produce.

"As a result of her talent and her skill, she now employed two other weavers⁵, and she now is sending her children to school, and they had added on to their home.  And I said, 'So what do your husband and your mother-in-law think now?' She said, 'They think it's good.'"

Clinton said the United States is making women a focus of its foreign-policy agenda.  The goal is to change attitudes about women, she said, and to address the challenges they face. 

With that in mind, she outlined several new initiatives aimed at empowering women.  One program provides mentoring⁶ and technology training to women in the Middle East and North Africa.  There is a planned women's entrepreneurship summit in Japan.  And there are public-private grants to invest in economic empowerment, combat violence against women and improve access to education and health care.

The major announcement was the launch of the "Secretary's Innovation Award for Women's and Girls' Empowerment."  Up to $500,000 each will go to two applicants⁷ who can offer pioneering solutions to empower the world's women and girls - politically, economically and socially.

"We hope to receive entries that describe how specific innovations have  improved the lives of women and girls, and proposals for how they can be scaled up and applied⁸ more broadly," Clinton added. 

The awards are funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.  Judith Rodin of the Rockefeller Foundation said finding innovative⁹ ideas and expanding them to a large scale has proven to be hugely effective.  She stressed that gender¹⁰ inequality needs to be tackled urgently.

"Women still do two-thirds of all the work in the world, but earn only about five percent of the income," said Rodin.  "They harvest 90 percent of the world's food, yet they own only one percent of the world's land.  And women are three times as likely as men to work in informal economies, and therefore abuse, sex trafficking and the absence of legal rights and protections for women are still unacceptably commonplace in so many places around the world."

Rodin said the first two awards will be given out this year.  More information about the submission¹¹ and selection process can be found on the State Department's Web site, on its Office of Global Women's Issues page.

The State Department says programs that include men and boys also are eligible¹² for the awards program, because educating men can be an important part of empowering women and girls.
 

1 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

4 tapestries   

n.挂毯( tapestry的名词复数 )；绣帷，织锦v.用挂毯（或绣帷）装饰( tapestry的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The wall of the banqueting hall were hung with tapestries. 宴会厅的墙上挂有壁毯。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rooms were hung with tapestries. 房间里都装饰着挂毯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 weavers   

织工，编织者( weaver的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Navajo are noted as stockbreeders and skilled weavers, potters, and silversmiths. 纳瓦霍人以豢养家禽，技术熟练的纺织者，制陶者和银匠而著名。
• They made out they were weavers. 他们假装是织布工人。

6 mentoring   

n.mentoring是一种工作关系。mentor通常是处在比mentee更高工作职位上的有影响力的人。他/她有比‘mentee’更丰富的工作经验和知识，并用心支持mentee的职业（发展）。v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• One of the most effective instruments for coaching and mentoring is the "role rehearsal" . 辅导和教学的最有效的手段之一是“角色排练。” 来自辞典例句
• Bell Canada called their mentoring system a buddy-buddy system. 加拿大贝尔公司称他们的训导系统是伙伴—伙伴系统。 来自互联网

7 applicants   

申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
• He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。

8 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

9 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

10 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

11 submission   

n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出

参考例句：

• The defeated general showed his submission by giving up his sword.战败将军缴剑表示投降。
• No enemy can frighten us into submission.任何敌人的恐吓都不能使我们屈服。

12 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。