VOA慢速英语20061218a

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

The Bush administration¹ has announced a new program to support local efforts to control malaria² in Africa. Laura Bush said thirty million dollars will go to African and American nongovernmental organizations, as well as civic³ and religious groups.

The first lady announced the Malaria Communities Program at a White House conference last Thursday. The one-day White House Summit⁴ on Malaria was the first of its kind. It was organized to educate Americans about malaria and to give new life to a worldwide campaign to end the disease⁵.


President Bush (l) with with actor Isaiah Washington at closing of the White House Summit on Malaria, 14 Dec 2006

The conference included nonprofit groups, international health experts and African civic leaders. Among other things, they discussed an effort to get millions of chemically treated mosquito nets to Africans. That campaign is led by a new group called Malaria No More.

Also, President Bush will declare April twenty-fifth of next year Malaria Awareness⁶ Day, as observed by other nations. And he announced he will add eight countries to a year-old program, the President's Malaria Initiative⁷. They include Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya, along with Liberia, Madagascar, Mali and Zambia.

The initiative calls for spending more than one thousand million dollars over five years on fifteen African countries. The goal is to cut their malaria-related deaths by fifty percent.

President Bush says the plan has already helped six million people in Tanzania, Angola and Uganda. Other targeted countries are Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal.

Malaria kills more than one million people a year, mostly young children in Africa.

The World Bank last week announced one hundred eighty million dollars in interest-free loans⁸ to fight malaria in Nigeria. Africa's most populated nation has twenty percent of the world's cases.

Earlier this month, a study in Science magazine showed how malaria and AIDS help each other to spread. University of Washington scientists say malaria temporarily increases virus levels in people with HIV. So they are more likely to infect others. And because the AIDS virus weakens⁹ the body's defenses, the victims are at higher risk from malaria.

And last week, the United States National Institutes of Health announced another important finding¹⁰ about AIDS. Two studies in Africa showed that circumcision can reduce a man's risk of getting HIV through heterosexual sex by half. For more about this finding, and about malaria, go to www.unsv.com.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss¹¹. I'm Steve Ember.

1 administration   

n.经营，管理；行政，行政机关，管理部门

参考例句：

• Who is in charge of the administration of your company?你们公司的行政工作由谁负责？
• The teachers are responsible to the school administration.教师向学校行政负责。

2 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

3 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

4 summit   

n.最高点，峰顶；最高级会议；极点

参考例句：

• They climbed up the mountain and reached the summit.他们爬山，最终达到了山顶。
• The summit of the mountain is lost in the cloud and mist.山顶隐没在云雾之中。

5 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

6 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

7 initiative   

n.主动性，首创精神，主动权（的行动），倡议

参考例句：

• He went to see the headmaster on his own initiative.他主动去看望校长。
• His employer had described him as lacking in initiative and drive.雇主说他缺乏进取心和干劲。

8 loans   

n.借出物，借款( loan的名词复数 )v.借出，贷与（尤指钱）( loan的第三人称单数 )；出借（贵重物品给博物馆等）

参考例句：

• They are offering loans at extortionate rates of interest. 他们在放高利贷。
• Government loans have been the salvation of several shaky business companies. 政府的贷款救活了几家濒临倒闭的公司。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 weakens   

v.（使）削弱， （使）变弱( weaken的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• "Cousins shouldn't marry, even second cousins. It weakens the strain. "表兄妹不应该结婚，就是从表兄妹也不应该，那会削弱血统的。 来自飘（部分）
• The burlesque element weakens the serious portions of the book. 书里的戏谑成分使严肃部分受到损害。 来自辞典例句

10 finding   

n.发现，发现物；调查的结果

参考例句：

• The finding makes some sense.该发现具有一定的意义。
• That's an encouraging finding.这是一个鼓舞人心的发现。

11 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。