2007年VOA标准英语-World Population Moving More Toward Urban Areas

By Robert Raffaele
Washington
10 July 2007
 

This week marks the United Nations' annual observance of World Population Day (Wednesday July 11th)  -- focusing attention on issues surrounding population growth worldwide. The annual event comes on the heels of a U.N. report that says the world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history. VOA's Robert Raffaele has more.

The U.N. report offers some daunting¹ statistics. By 2008, more than half of the world's population  -- 3.3 billion people -- will be living in urban areas.

By the year 2030, that number is expected to grow to almost five billion, or 60 percent of the world population. The urban populations of Africa and Asia are projected to double during the same period.

dwelling2" hspace="2" src="/upimg/allimg/070712/1036160.jpg" width="210" vspace="2" border="0" />

Slum dwelling

The report emphasizes that poor people will continue to comprise much of the urban population. More than 90 percent of slum dwellers³ today are in the developing world.

South Asia has the largest share, followed by Eastern Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Thoraya Obaid is the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund.

"Policy makers⁴ and officials need to ensure that there is good urban landscape planning, so that there is good housing that does not turn into slums and that there are also the necessary social services that will allow people to have a decent life," she says. 

Lawrence Smith, Junior is the president of the Population Institute, a non-profit group in Washington, D.C. that seeks to reduce rapid population growth.

Smith says one problem is that many developing countries do not  have job training and other programs to help new, unskilled labor⁵ -- especially the young -- join the workforce⁶.

Lawrence Smith

"If you could get the investment climate to have businesses, have manufacturing facilities where they could draw and absorb those people into the workforce, but often times they have to be trained and educated in order to get to the point where they can be useful and fit into it. But when there's no opportunity structure, as I mentioned, there's no place for them to go" says Smith. 

Another big concern is the health and education of women, and creating better lives for mothers and their children.

The U.N.'s theme for this year's World Population Day is "Men as Partners in Maternal⁷ Health."  "The more a man can be involved in seeing that the child is looked after or the wife is looked after, the mother is looked after, the greater the success, the greater the overall picture of the family health"  says Smith.

He says encouraging greater male involvement will require a shift in attitudes about gender⁸ equality. "You'll find that in many countries, women basically do seven times the work that the man does to rear the children.  Women we know do two-thirds of the world's work, they earn 10 percent of the world's income, and they only have one percent of the world's property." 

Smith says giving women more input⁹ into decisions about family planning is just one step toward making men in developing countries treat women with more respect.  "And then taking the men, not just to court when he is involved in crimes of violence toward his spouse¹⁰, but more or less making men see the issue that they have, and I think when this happens, I think this will be a better condition for many women"

The U.N. report says urban planners must implement¹¹ immediate¹² plans to address the rapidly expanding population.

Those plans must address shelter and services for the poor, while responding to environmental and other concerns of existing residents.

1 daunting   

adj.使人畏缩的

参考例句：

• They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
• Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。

2 dwelling   

n.住宅，住所，寓所

参考例句：

• Those two men are dwelling with us.那两个人跟我们住在一起。
• He occupies a three-story dwelling place on the Park Street.他在派克街上有一幢3层楼的寓所。

3 dwellers   

n.居民，居住者( dweller的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes. 城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They have transformed themselves into permanent city dwellers. 他们已成为永久的城市居民。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

7 maternal   

adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的

参考例句：

• He is my maternal uncle.他是我舅舅。
• The sight of the hopeless little boy aroused her maternal instincts.那个绝望的小男孩的模样唤起了她的母性。

8 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。

9 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

10 spouse   

n.配偶(指夫或妻)

参考例句：

• Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
• What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？

11 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

12 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。