2007年VOA标准英语-Cape Verde Trades in Cobblestone for Asphalt Ro

By Phuong Tran
Praia, Cape¹ Verde
09 June 2007

Off the coast of West Africa, transport officials in the island nation of Cape Verde have begun a road improvement program. They say colonial-era cobblestone roads do not make much sense anymore, and are, instead, choosing asphalt.  Phuong Tran has more from Cape Verde's capital, Praia.

Arlindo Rosario, the head of the government institute that maintains the islands' approximately 2,000 kilometers of roads, says no one wants to work with stones anymore.

Rosario says before, there were people to change and prepare the rocks, but now, it is almost impossible to find anyone to do that. He says he could not meet his construction deadlines if he had to search for people who can work with stone.

Cape Verde's former colonizer², Portugal, built most of the country's cobblestone roads, which according to some measurements, form about two-thirds of the islands' roads.

For years, officials have talked about fixing decaying roads. Recent donors³ for this work include the World Bank, the Organization of Petroleum⁴ Exporting Countries and the United States.

The donors say better roads can help fight poverty because Cape Verdean farmers and small business owners can reach markets to sell their products more easily. After years of droughts, Cape Verde still suffers from high levels of rural poverty.

But road institute director Rosario says road repair has been slow.

Rosario says it takes three times as long to build one kilometer of road in stone rather than asphalt. He adds the shortage of stone builders has increased the price of fixing a stone road to four times the cost of building an asphalt one.

As a result, Rosario says his team converted 30 kilometers of stone roads to asphalt, and plans to evaluate another 170 kilometers in the coming years to see if they can be paved.

According to Rosario, this work is part of an almost $60 million road improvement program to repair roads in five of Cape Verde's nine inhabited islands.

One taxi driver in the capital of Praia says he welcomes the new smooth roads that are starting to appear in the capital.

This driver says Cape Verde needs to modernize⁵ and catch up with other countries that have long had asphalt roads.

Even though road agency director Rosario admits cobblestone roads can be pretty to admire from a distance, he says up close, they are not practical.

Rosario says he personally prefers asphalt, not only because it makes road construction easier, but also because he will not have to spend as much to fix his car's tires and suspension system.

1 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

2 colonizer   

殖民者，殖民地开拓者，移民

参考例句：

• In the first few year, the colonizer find life difficult. 头几年里，殖民地开拓者觉得生活艰难。

3 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

5 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。