VOA标准英语2014--棋盘游戏为对抗埃博拉筹集资金

 

Board Game Helps Fight Real World Ebola 棋盘游戏为对抗埃博拉筹集资金

LOS ANGELES—

As doctors and scientists continue to try and contain the Ebola epidemic¹ in West Africa and find a cure, a global community of board gamers is also helping² to fight this disease.  The goal is to raise money to help stop the spread of Ebola.

It's a doctor’s nightmare: four disease outbreaks are exploding across the globe and spreading.  Medical personnel are racing³ to control the epidemics⁴ and find a cure.

Fortunately, this scenario⁵ is just a board game called Pandemic.  Players at GameH?us Café in the Los Angeles area are playing this game to help in the fight against Ebola.

“Despite the fact that we are enjoying ourselves and having fun playing board games, it has a connection to real world events and it is possible to make a difference doing something that you love," said Terry Chiu, one of the cafe's owners.

Pandemic game designer Matt Leacock is trying to raise $100,000 to help the international humanitarian⁶ group Doctors Without Borders fight against Ebola.  One way to do this is to have “Pandemic Parties” where people get together, play the game and make a donation.

These parties are happening around the world, says Leacock in a Skype interview.

“Indonesia, Philippines, a number of them happening in Japan, South Africa, Finland.  They’re just all over the place," said Leacock.

Leacock and other gamers such as Sharon Laubach have been looking for a way to help fight Ebola.

“I’ve been hearing, of course, over the summer about the devastation⁷ that Ebola has been wreaking⁸ in Africa and I think it’s really important that the board gaming community, which I know is a very generous community, to band together for this important issue," said Laubach.

These players like Pandemic because it is a cooperative game, where players take on roles, such as scientists, medics and dispatchers and work together. 

Actor and gamer Rich Sommer says it is a hard game to beat.

“It’s meant to sort of remind you of the fact that people who are out there waging these real wars against disease are fighting an uphill battle. I mean it is a game and it’s abstracted, but it does, certainly gives you pause," said Sommer.

Player John Houser says this game gives him a deeper appreciation⁹ for the complexities¹⁰ of fighting an epidemic.

“If you play the game, you get an idea of how much… it’s more than just medical…everybody is involved," said Houser.

The four diseases in the game have no names.  Game designer Leacock says in the real world, outbreaks of different diseases seem to appear every few years.

“Unfortunately it’s sort of an evergreen¹¹ topic. I didn’t name the diseases in the game because you know this is something that we’re going to be fighting for some time now as a human population," he said.

The event at GameH?us Café raised more than $1,000 for Doctors Without Borders.

1 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

4 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。

5 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

6 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。

7 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 wreaking   

诉诸（武力），施行（暴力），发（脾气）( wreak的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Coal mining is a messy business, often wreaking terrible environmental damage nearby. 采矿是肮脏的行业，往往会严重破坏周边环境。
• The floods are wreaking havoc in low-lying areas. 洪水正在地势低洼地区肆虐。

9 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

10 complexities   

复杂性(complexity的名词复数)； 复杂的事物

参考例句：

• The complexities of life bothered him. 生活的复杂使他困惑。
• The complexities of life bothered me. 生活的杂乱事儿使我心烦。

11 evergreen   

n.常青树；adj.四季常青的

参考例句：

• Some trees are evergreen;they are called evergreen.有的树是常青的，被叫做常青树。
• There is a small evergreen shrub on the hillside.山腰上有一小块常绿灌木丛。