VOA常速英语2014--全球饥饿人口呈现下降趋势

 

Chronically¹ Hungry Numbers Decline 全球饥饿人口呈现下降趋势

Global hunger continues to decline. About 805-million people are reported to be chronically undernourished. That's down 209-million since the early 1990s.

全球饥饿人口继续呈现下降趋势。有报道称大约有8.05亿人长期营养不良。自二十世纪九十年代初以来这个数字已经减少了2.09亿人。

Three U.N. agencies have released the new hunger report known as SOFI or State of Food Security in the World. It provides the latest information on the number and proportion of chronically undernourished people.

联合国3家机构联合公布了《世界粮食不安全状况》报告。它提供的是长期营养不良人口的数量和比例的最新信息。

Jose Graziano da Silva, Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General.“Chronic undernourishment is a technical euphemism² for being chronically hungry. This basically refers to inadequate³ dietary energy-in layman's terms-carbohydrates. The absence of sufficient dietary energy basically deprives people of the ability to work and function and to have decent healthy lives.”

联合国粮食农业组织总干事何塞·加拉西亚诺·达席尔瓦说道。“慢性营养不良是一种专业上讲被长期处于饥饿状态的委婉说法。主要是指膳食能量未达标准—外行人说法就是碳水化合物。缺乏足够的膳食能量基本上会使个体丧失工作能力及身体功能，还有良好健康生活的能力。”

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Of the 805-million listed as chronically undernourished, 791-million are in developing countries.

8.05亿人被列为长期营养不良,其中发展中国家有7.91亿人。

U.N. officials said the declining numbers still fall short of the first Millennium⁴ Development Goal of eradicating⁵ extreme poverty and hunger. It called for reducing by half the proportion of undernourished people in developing countries by 2015.

联合国官员表示尽管数字呈现下降趋势，但仍然远未达到第一个千禧年消除极端贫困和饥饿计划的发展目标。该计划号召截至2015年将发展中国家营养不良的人口比例减少一半。

The SOFI report said the “prevalence of undernourishment has fallen from 23.4 to 15.5-percent for developing countries.”

《世界粮食不安全状况》报告中称“发展中国家人口的营养不良患病率已从23.4降到15.5。”

“We basically have 15 more months to achieve the target. But the actual measurement of this will be completed in about two year's time. The only way we can achieve this target is essentially⁶ by stepping up efforts in order to have sufficient acceleration⁷ of progress in order to achieve the MDG target.”

“我们基本上还有15个多月时间来实现这一目标。但实际我们考虑将要花大约2年的时间才能达成。唯一方法本质上是通过加大努力加速进程的实现千禧年的目标。”

The FAO chief said progress in reducing hunger has been “very, very uneven⁸ in the developing world.”

联合国粮食与农业组织首席执行官表示减少发展中国家的饥饿人口一直进行的非常不顺利。

“Progress has been greatest in Latin America, as well as in Southeast Asia. And unfortunately there has been a regression in West Asia. There has been progress in different parts of the world, but not sufficient to merit achievement of the MDG target.”

“拉丁美洲取得的进展最为明显,还有东南亚地区。然而不幸的是亚洲西部呈现倒退迹象。世界各地都已经有所进展,但还不足以实现千年发展目标。”

Da Silva said there's been a change in the distribution of hungry people.

达席尔瓦表示饥饿人口的分布也发生了变化。

“If you look at the situation today you will find that sub-Saharan Africa accounts for about a quarter of the hungry people in the world. And southern Asia accounts for an even higher proportion. The number of people in South Asia, who are hungry, is in excess of half a billion people.”

“如果你注意到今天的局势,你就会发现,撒哈拉以南非洲地区占世界饥饿人口的四分之一。而南亚则占更高比例。南亚地区饿肚子的人数超过5亿人。”

There are four dimensions to food security: availability, adequate supply, people's ability to access sufficient food and stability in food prices, weather patterns and harvests.

食品安全的有四种标准:存在性，足够的供给,人民获得充足食物的能力和稳定的食品价格,天气因素还有作物收成。

The U.N. report said that “sustained political commitment at the highest level-with food security and nutrition as top priorities-is a prerequisite⁹ for hunger eradication¹⁰.” It called for an integrated approach that includes public and private investments to boost agriculture productivity-better access to technology and markets-and social protections for the most vulnerable, especially by building resilience to conflict and natural disasters.

联合国的这份报告显示“政治所做出不间断的食品安全和营养为第一要务的最高承诺是消除饥饿的先决条件。它提倡的是一种综合方法,包括提高农业生产率的公共和私人投资,更好地获取技术和市场和社会，保护最弱势群体,特别是通过建立弹性抵御冲突和自然灾害。

The State of Food Security in the World report is a joint¹¹ effort by the FAO, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Program. It's been released ahead of the Second International Conference on Nutrition to be held in Rome this November.

《世界粮食不安全状况》报告是由联合国粮食与农业组织,国际农业发展基金会及世界粮食计划署共同努力的结果。在它公布之后,第2次国际营养会议将于今年11月在罗马召开。

1 chronically   

ad.长期地

参考例句：

• Similarly, any pigment nevus that is chronically irritated should be excised. 同样，凡是经常受慢性刺激的各种色素痣切勿予以切除。
• People chronically exposed to chlorine develop some degree of tolerance. 人长期接触氯气可以产生某种程度的耐受性。

2 euphemism   

n.婉言，委婉的说法

参考例句：

• Language reflects culture and euphemism is a mirror of culture.语言反映文化,而婉语则是各种文化的一面镜子。
• Euphemism is a very common and complicated linguistic phenomenon.委婉语是一种十分常见而又非常复杂的语言现象。

3 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

4 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

5 eradicating   

摧毁，完全根除( eradicate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Objective: To study the acute and chronic toxicity of Ten-flavor-acne eradicating-capsule. 目的：探讨复方中药合剂十味平痤胶囊的急性及慢性毒性。
• We are on the verge of eradicating polio in the world. 我们已在世界消除小儿？痹症的边缘了。

6 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

7 acceleration   

n.加速，加速度

参考例句：

• All spacemen must be able to bear acceleration.所有太空人都应能承受加速度。
• He has also called for an acceleration of political reforms.他同时呼吁加快政治改革的步伐。

8 uneven   

adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的

参考例句：

• The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
• The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。

9 prerequisite   

n.先决条件；adj.作为前提的，必备的

参考例句：

• Stability and unity are a prerequisite to the four modernizations.安定团结是实现四个现代化的前提。
• It is a prerequisite of entry to the profession that you pass the exams.做这一行的先决条件是要通过了有关的考试。

10 eradication   

n.根除

参考例句：

• The eradication of an established infestation is not easy. 根除昆虫蔓延是不容易的。
• This is often required for intelligent control and eradication. 这经常需要灵巧的控制与消除。

11 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。