2007年VOA标准英语-Australian Outback Town Reverses Controversial

By Phil Mercer
Sydney
17 January 2007

Councilors in Australia's most famous musical city have reversed a controversial decision to reject refugees from Sudan. Authorities in Tamworth, 600 kilometers northwest of Sydney, had earlier said African migrants were troublemakers¹ and could carry diseases. The town council has said it will now help Sudanese families settle in Tamworth, which is preparing to host its famous country music festival. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

Members of local Sudanese community are helped to fill in forms for Australian Bureau of Statistics (File photo)

The mayor of Tamworth, James Treloar, says the town council now will accept more refugees from Sudan.

Last month he insisted that African migrants could cause trouble in the city and bring with them diseases such as tuberculosis² and polio.

The council also argued it did not have the resources to cope with potentially traumatized people who had fled civil unrest in southern Sudan.

So councilors rejected a request from Australia's Immigration Department to resettle five Sudanese families.

The decision caused dismay and anger. It prompted an emergency council debate in Tamworth and public pressure has helped to bring about this U-turn.

Treloar now says the plan can work but only if the federal government and local community are willing help.

"The program needs adjustment, needs modification³ to suit certain areas. We're hoping that that modification can be made to suit Tamworth and what we're particularly saying is people who have signed petitions, who've put letters forward now need to become volunteers to make the program work," said Treloar.

Australian immigration officials now will head to Tamworth to help the city prepare to welcome five Sudanese families as part of a one-year pilot program.

Many residents were horrified⁴ that their prosperous city should be portrayed⁵ as so mean-spirited.

Tamworth is the capital of Australia's country music. Its annual music festival starts this week and there were fears that the refugee debate would overshadow this famous event, which draws tens of thousands of visitors.

Tamworth is already home to about 25 Sudanese. They arrived a year ago under a separate resettlement program. Most work in slaughterhouses doing jobs that many long-time residents are not willing to do.

The Australian government is resettling more refugees from Sudan than from any other country including Iraq and Afghanistan. Last year more than 3,700 Sudanese arrived out of a total intake⁶ of 14,000 refugees.

1 troublemakers   

n.惹是生非者，捣乱者( troublemaker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was employed to chuck out any troublemakers. 他受雇把捣乱者赶走。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She had automatically labelled the boys as troublemakers. 她不假思索地认定这些男孩子是捣蛋鬼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

3 modification   

n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻

参考例句：

• The law,in its present form,is unjust;it needs modification.现行的法律是不公正的，它需要修改。
• The design requires considerable modification.这个设计需要作大的修改。

4 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

5 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 intake   

n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口

参考例句：

• Reduce your salt intake.减少盐的摄入量。
• There was a horrified intake of breath from every child.所有的孩子都害怕地倒抽了一口凉气。