VOA常速英语2007年-Ukrainian Village Suffers Painful Demise

By Peter Fedynsky
Stariy Sokil, Ukraine
01 November 2007
 

The United Nations predicts Ukraine, Russia and Belarus will lose up to 50 percent of their people by the year 2050 due to declining birth rates, low life expectancy¹ and emigration. All of these factors are clearly evident in many villages of the former Soviet² Union. VOA Correspondent Peter Fedynsky recently visited one such village in Ukraine.

Trees are gradually overtaking the fertile fields around the Ukrainian village of Stariy Sokil. The village is located about 100 kilometers north of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, and just outside the 30 kilometer exclusion³ zone surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Like many rural areas of the country, Stariy Sokil also occupies a still uncertain place between collectivized Soviet agriculture and private farming. Here, privatization has not brought enough investments to make up for the collapse⁴ of the Soviet rural infrastructure⁵, including machinery⁶, markets and social services.

The mayor of Stariy Sokil, Valentyna Mashkivska, says the village's aging population simply does not have the physical strength to maintain the fields. "Today, the people have nothing with which to plant and cultivate even half a hectare. There are no tractors. Long ago, horses provided the energy for work, so we may as well return to horsepower, because there is nothing to work the land with."

Liubov Drozd is one of millions of Ukrainians who received a share of private land. Hers came to about three and one half hectares, a plot she says is too small to raise a profitable crop, and too big for one person to cultivate. And because Ukrainian law forbids the sale of land, Drozd is effectively held hostage by it. "What benefit does the land give me? None! I have the documents, I registered everything appropriately. But it gives me no benefit."

Village resident Alyona Rusakova says, "I want to go anywhere, away from this village. As far away as possible. To get away, to study."

The dire⁷ situation of the Ukrainian village is not lost on 13-year-old Aloyna Rusakova and the dwindling⁸ number of young people in Stariy Sokil. Aloyna's older sister already lives in Kyiv. The local school, built just 20 years ago, is closed and children are bused to a neighboring village.

Mayor Mashkivska says there are 20 deaths for every birth in the area. The population in Stariy Sokil and three neighboring villages has plummeted⁹ by more than 50 percent, from 700 residents to 320. The mayor says that, unlike Western Ukrainians, young people here do not leave the area for jobs in foreign countries. Mashkivska says a sense of hopelessness drives many of those who remain to alcoholism and an early grave. "It's sad to watch young people being buried. Their parents and grandparents are alive, but the children are being buried. It gets worse with each passing year," she said.

Middle-aged¹⁰ men are also trapped between unemployment and difficulties finding jobs in the big cities. Viktor Antonovych is one year from retirement¹¹ and does odd jobs to make ends meet. "You go for a job to the big city, to Kyiv, and they immediately ask, 'How old are you?' If you're 50, they tell you to hit the road."

Many of the people in Stariy Sokil survive on meager¹² pensions and subsistence farming. The hardships here and in much of rural Ukraine coincide with rising global demand for grain. Ironically, much of that demand is being filled by large corporate¹³ farms, similar in size to former Soviet collective farms. But unlike Soviet collectives, corporate farms are highly mechanized and rely on few people. Meanwhile, these rural Ukrainians are stranded¹⁴ on small, private plots of land that they can neither farm at a profit, nor sell.

1 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

2 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

3 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。

4 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

5 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

6 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

7 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

8 dwindling   

adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The number of wild animals on the earth is dwindling. 地球上野生动物的数量正日渐减少。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He is struggling to come to terms with his dwindling authority. 他正努力适应自己权力被削弱这一局面。 来自辞典例句

9 plummeted   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Share prices plummeted to an all-time low. 股票价格暴跌到历史最低点。
• A plane plummeted to earth. 一架飞机一头栽向地面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。

11 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

12 meager   

adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的

参考例句：

• He could not support his family on his meager salary.他靠微薄的工资无法养家。
• The two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began their meager meal.两个男人同一个女人围着火，开始吃起少得可怜的午饭。

13 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

14 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。