VOA标准英语2012--Romney, Santorum Court Republican Voters Ahead of Illinois Primary

 Romney, Santorum Court Republican Voters Ahead of Illinois Primary

In his small shop on one of the main streets in downtown Pontiac, Illinois, Jon Sear is hard at work fixing computers.

He says he runs his business by following a basic principle.

“You can’t have [a] deficit¹. You take in what you get, you spend what you have, other than that you don’t spend it. It’s common sense,” Sear said.

Sear says that common sense is lacking in the state government of Illinois, where the estimated budget shortfall is over $11 billion.

As Republican presidential candidates campaign throughout the state, Illinois budget woes², and federal government spending are on the minds of many voters like Sear and his wife Amy.

“You worry because you don’t understand how spending more money will make things better when that seems like the total opposite. You have to pay your bills as citizens, so you want the government to do the same thing I guess,” Sear said.

Polling shows former Massachusetts governor Mitt³ Romney is ahead of former U.S. senator Rick Santorum in Illinois. While Romney might easily win the support of Chicago’s large group of moderate Republican voters, Santorum is positioned to do well in places outside the city, like Pontiac, Illinois, population 12,000.

In previous contests, Santorum has emphasized social issues, such as his stand against legalized abortion⁴, to help him win more conservative voters over Romney.

But Jon Sear says that’s not how it’s playing out in Illinois.

“They’re important, but I think the budgetary issues are more important,” Sear said.

“I don’t think we have time for social issues,” said Jim McConoughey, the CEO of the Heartland Partnership⁵, an organization working to stimulate⁶ economic development in Central Illinois. “I think social issues are tie breakers for a lot of folks, but everyone wants to get their neighbors back to work and wants to get places for their kids to work.”

Which is the biggest reason Amy and Jon Sear are so concerned about the future.

“When you have a child, you start to worry about those things. What will life be when they reach adulthood⁷? How bad could it be by then? Will they live in a country like we grew up in and be able to raise a family of their own?,” Amy Sear said.

Jon and Amy Sear think Rick Santorum has the best answers to those questions, and want him to fix the country’s economic problems so Sear can continue to fix the computers that keep his town, and his family, in business. It remains⁸ to be seen whether enough Illinois Republicans agree or whether they think Romney is the better choice to fix the nation's economic woes. 

1 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

2 woes   

困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉

参考例句：

• Thanks for listening to my woes. 谢谢您听我诉说不幸的遭遇。
• She has cried the blues about its financial woes. 对于经济的困难她叫苦不迭。

3 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

4 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

5 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。

6 stimulate   

vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋

参考例句：

• Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
• Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。

7 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。