2007年VOA标准英语-Millennium Development Goals Get Mixed Review

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
02 July 2007

The United Nations has given a mixed review of global efforts to lift millions of people out of extreme poverty. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva where the report has been issued.

The Millennium¹ Development Goals call for the eradication² of extreme poverty and hunger and for radical³ improvements in boosting primary education, promoting gender⁴ equality, reducing child mortality, and combating HIV/AIDS.

Ban Ki-moon

U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon says recent statistics show the number of extremely poor people living on less than a dollar a day fell to 980 million in 2004. One-and-one-quarter billion people lived in extreme poverty in 1990. He says this achievement has been made despite a sharp increase in the total global population.

"The share of children attending primary school has grown from 80 percent in 1990 to 88 percent in 2005," he said. "There has also been strong progress on child mortality because of focused interventions-on measles⁵, TB, dysentery and malaria⁶. I am very encouraged by these statistics."

The report finds South and South East Asia have made the most impressive reductions in extreme poverty. But, the poverty rate in Western Asia has more than doubled.

The report notes some progress is being made in other challenging regions. It says even sub-Saharan Africa is defying all predictions and is doing better than expected in cutting levels of poverty. It says the continent's poverty rate has fallen by nearly six percentage points since 2000.

Despite these gains, it says the poverty gap in sub-Saharan Africa remains⁷ the highest in the world. It says Africa urgently needs help in fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis⁸, as well as in basic medical care and education.

 

The U.N. Secretary General accuses developed countries of failing to live up to their commitments to provide adequate funding to help poor countries improve their situations.

"The goals are achievable, I think, if countries commit themselves to sound governance and accountability and receive adequate financial and technical assistance from the developed countries," he said. " For developed countries, it is also very necessary, desirable to keep their commitment."

Mr. Ban says there has not been any significant increase in Official Development Assistance since 2004. He says that makes it impossible, even for well-governed countries, to meet the Millennium Development Goals. He says the Group of Eight industrialized countries should meet its pledge to double aid to Africa by 2010.

1 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

2 eradication   

n.根除

参考例句：

• The eradication of an established infestation is not easy. 根除昆虫蔓延是不容易的。
• This is often required for intelligent control and eradication. 这经常需要灵巧的控制与消除。

3 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

4 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

5 measles   

n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子

参考例句：

• The doctor is quite definite about Tom having measles.医生十分肯定汤姆得了麻疹。
• The doctor told her to watch out for symptoms of measles.医生叫她注意麻疹出现的症状。

6 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。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 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。