美国有线新闻 CNN 2015-01-08

 Since the outbreak to call last March, there have been more than 20,000 confirmed author suspected cases of Ebola in Western Africa. More than 7,900 have been dealt with the vast majority of the cases in Liberia, in Guinea and Sierra Leone. World bank has slashed¹ its economic growth estimate for those 3 countries it actually put the thing negative grow. For Guniea this year, it expects Sierra Leone's GDP to be down 2%, and Liberia are slightly more hopeful 3%. All significantly below precarious² estimate and likely to cost the country billions of dollars. Join me now from a Washington bureau is David * a senior economist³ for the world bank Africa region. Here we thank you for being with us today. We have talked about some of those GDP statitics, but can you put this into summing terms for ? economic cost. Absolutely, thank you. The Ebola crisis obvious the first casualty is the actual human crisis has helped them suffering. But the economics scars have wield⁴ human states as well. What we are talking about is huge slashes⁵ in incomes with that mean in a country where you got a large chunk⁶ of the population. That's right around the poverty line, are big increases in poverty. Well this means our children who don't have food to eat. We recently talked to households in Liberia, more than 2/3 of the households in Liberia don't have enough food to eat as the result of the Ebola epidemic⁷. We've seen the same kind of pattern in Sierra Leone. And in Liberia means mothers who normally take vegetables to the market to sell won't go because they are afraid of the explosure to the disease; and means fathers who were working in shop had been sent home because there's no bussiness. Really this is felt in every sector⁸ of the economy and throughout the country. 

Now, it's difficult to talk about overcoming these economic problems when we still in the situation where you have to be quarantined in order to get their down. Do you feel like the response has been strong enough and we just put the numbers on the cost. Why haven't we seen in terms of response. We heard some projects, we've been talking about also there are also worries out there a lot of regions are struggling with their own economic crisis. Where are we in terms of matching that response to commitment. 

It's true, so there is a slow start in terms of response. A lot of progress we've made were in last a few months. Resources have been dispersed⁹ to all 3 countries. A lot of NGO are working on the ground. There is still a huge need both for human resources, for train medical personnel on the ground to help fight this crisis and then as much as possible within where it's safe, normalisation of economic relations. 

 

1 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 precarious   

adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的

参考例句：

• Our financial situation had become precarious.我们的财务状况已变得不稳定了。
• He earned a precarious living as an artist.作为一个艺术家，他过得是朝不保夕的生活。

3 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。

4 wield   

vt.行使，运用，支配；挥，使用(武器等)

参考例句：

• They wield enormous political power.他们行使巨大的政治权力。
• People may wield the power in a democracy.在民主国家里，人民可以行使权力。

5 slashes   

n.（用刀等）砍( slash的名词复数 )；（长而窄的）伤口；斜杠；撒尿v.挥砍( slash的第三人称单数 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• They report substantial slashes in this year's defense outlays. 他们报道今年度国防经费的大量削减。 来自辞典例句
• Inmates suffered injuries ranging from stab wounds and slashes to head trauma. 囚犯们有的被刺伤，有的被砍伤，而有的头部首创，伤势不一而足。 来自互联网

6 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

7 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。

8 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

9 dispersed   

adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的

参考例句：

• The clouds dispersed themselves. 云散了。
• After school the children dispersed to their homes. 放学后，孩子们四散回家了。