VOA标准英语2011--Stimulus Spending Creates Green Jobs in

Stimulus Spending Creates Green Jobs in US Rust Belt Town

As President Obama works to build support for his new jobs plan, Congress prepares to debate his bill. One portion of the bill proposes spending to create jobs, much like an earlier stimulus¹ plan put into effect in 2009. While there are differences of opinion about how effective that first round of stimulus spending was, One company and one family are now thriving because of it.
Like many Americans, Christopher Ziegelhofer is trying to raise his young family in uncertain economic times.
The chemical industry worker has lost a series of jobs over the past seven years, as factories closed due to hard times, or outsourced their workforces². But at the height of the recession, he was faced with extreme challenges in finding work.
"[I was] working part-time at a job, collecting unemployment, and just trying to get back in the industry," Ziegelhofer said.
Ziegelhofer was unemployed³ for months and says he began to worry about how he would care for his family.
But his luck changed when AE Polysilicon opened a production plant in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, the economically-depressed steel town that Ziegelhofer calls home.
"I actually got the job," recalled Ziegelhofer. "Getting that job was like hitting the lottery⁴. It sounds a little crazy to say that I hit the lottery getting a job, but when you think of how the world's going right now, to be able to get a job that has an endless future, you couldn't ask for anything more."
In his new job, Ziegelhofer supervises the manufacturing of highly-refined materials for solar panels.
The company says its unique process produces higher-efficiency solar panels at increasingly lower costs.
AE Polysilicone got $44 million in federal tax credits as part of the 2009 Recovery Act, under a program aimed at creating "green collar" jobs.
This allowed the company to hire Ziegelhofer and 13 of his fellow laid off co-workers, along with dozens of others.
It's at companies like AE Polysilicon where America's economic growth and clean energy goals come together. Economic stimulus grants created 450 jobs here, with more expected in the future.
Leo Tsuo, the company's development manager, says the whole community came out a winner.
"What we bring to this community, is we bring jobs - of all different levels," said Tsuo. "We have manufacturing jobs, we have engineering jobs, we have business jobs and these are sustainable, high-paying jobs in an industry that is growing."
And there is another benefit. Tsuo says that once the plant is fully⁵ operational, there will be a domestic energy boost as well.
It's exactly these type of dual-impact jobs that President Obama hopes to create with his new $447 billion Jobs act.
"Do we keep tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or should we invest in education and technology and in infrastructure⁶ -- all the things that are going to help us out innovate⁷ and out educate and out build other countries in the future," said Obama.
But not everyone agrees the jobs bill is good medicine for the economy.
Economist⁸ John Makin, with the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, says the president's ideas are not new, and not effective.
"Everybody wants people to get jobs, but we've done all these things," said Makin. "The operational question here is if we simply do more of it, will it work. If it had produced a higher growth rate, if growth had continued as people expected it would, we wouldn't be looking at this program.
Nevertheless, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, that first stimulus program created or saved jobs for as many as 3.2 million Americans.
For Christopher Ziegelhofer, who is one of those workers, investing in jobs sounds like the right thing to do.
"If you can give a person an honest living and a chance to work every day, and you want a stimulus that way, it's the best thing you can have," said Ziegelhofer.
Having a chance to work, for Ziegelhofer, at least, means literally⁹ powering a new economy.

1 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。

2 workforces   

全体员工( workforce的名词复数 )； （国家或行业等）劳动力； 劳动大军； 劳动人口

参考例句：

• The Web has allowed companies to become more distributed and workforces to become more flexible. 网站已允许各公司更加分散，工作队伍也变得更加灵活。
• They are large centres of business in their own with skilled workforces and business-friendly environments. 从自身条件来说，它们都是大型商业中心，拥有大批技能型劳动力和友好的商业运作环境。

3 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

4 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

7 innovate   

v.革新，变革，创始

参考例句：

• We must innovate in order to make progress.我们必须改革以便取得进步。
• It is necessary to innovate and develop military theories.创新和发展军事理论是必要的。

8 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。