VOA慢速英语2014 印度总理发起“清洁运动”

 

AS IT IS 2014-10-16 Indian Prime Minister Launches Cleanup Campaign 印度总理发起“清洁运动”

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, has started a nationwide campaign to clean up the country and provide toilets to all homes by 2019. The effort is called the “Clean India” campaign, but it will not be an easy task.  Many of the country’s major cities struggle to deal with garbage because of poor waste removal systems. And, more than 50 percent of the people in India do not have access to toilets.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently spoke¹ to tens of thousands of schoolchildren and government officials in New Delhi. He asked that they promise to spend two hours every week cleaning up the country.

He asked people to make a promise to themselves, their families, neighborhoods, workplaces and villages to help with the effort.

Ministers, lawmakers and school leaders also picked up brooms and trash cans to sweep streets and clear garbage. They hoped to bring attention to the issue of better sanitation². Traditionally in India, cleaning is considered a task to be done by people in a lower social class or caste.

Mr. Modi urged India’s 1.25 billion people to turn the cleanliness effort into a social campaign.

He said it takes time to change old habits, or ways of doing things. But, if everyone helps to form a mass movement, he said, then India too will be counted among the world’s clean countries.

Mr. Modi began the “Clean India” campaign on the birth anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi. He had called good sanitation more important than independence. Mr. Gandhi urged his followers³ not to associate cleaning with something only done by people of a lower class.  

Another important part of the campaign will be to build toilets.  Studies suggest more than half of Indians expel⁴ bodily waste outside. This can spread diseases like diarrhea. And, women are exposed to the risk of sexual⁵ attack when they go into the fields after dark. A World Bank study estimates that poor sanitation costs India $54 billion in treatments for illnesses, early deaths and lost work time.

But some critics wonder how Prime Minister Modi will reach his goal of cleaning up India and providing toilets to all Indian homes by 2019. That year marks Mohandas Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.   

Critics say the problems are complex. For example, building toilets is not the only problem. In rural India, there is opposition⁶ to using them. Many people living in those areas believe having a toilet in or near their homes is unclean.  

Words in this Story

caste – n. one of the classes into which the Hindu people of India were traditionally divided

cleanliness – n.  the practice of keeping yourself and your surroundings clean

habits – n. a usual way of behaving; something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way

sanitation – n. the process of keeping places free from dirt, infection or disease by removing waste or garbage, by cleaning streets, etc.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

3 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

4 expel   

vt.把...开除，驱逐，放逐，排出，喷出

参考例句：

• They were told at first that they should simply expel the refugees.一开始有人告诉他们应该直接将那些难民驱逐出境。
• The headmaster may expel the boy from the school.校长可能要把那个男孩从学校开除。

5 sexual   

adj.性的，两性的，性别的

参考例句：

• He was a person of gross sexual appetites.他是个性欲旺盛的人。
• It is socially irresponsible to refuse young people advice on sexual matters.拒绝向年轻人提供性方面的建议是对社会不负责任。

6 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。