VOA标准英语2008年-UN Secretary General Urges Action to Forestall

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
23 January 2008

In a blunt statement to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, the U.N. Secretary-General urged the 65-member body to start negotiations¹ on a nuclear weapons material treaty.   Ban Ki-moon said the nuclear threat was real and action must be taken to prevent the arms race.  As Lisa Schlein reports for VOA on the secretary-general's speech from Geneva, he is the first U.N. secretary-general to address the yearly opening of the conference, which was established in 1979.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon did not mince² his words.  He told the 65-member Conference on Disarmament (CD) to wake up and get serious about controlling the nuclear threats proliferating³ around the world.

He said a lot was at stake and it was crucial that the CD lived up to its mission of maintaining international peace and security.  And, to do this, he said progress was needed in disarmament negotiations to forestall⁴ arms races.

"And forestalling⁵ arms races calms tensions," Ban said. "By reducing tensions, we free up resources that would have been diverted to armaments.  These resources can then be used to achieve the Millennium⁶ Development Goals." 

The U.N. Millennium Development Goals aim to cut poverty in half by 2015.

Secretary-General Ban spoke⁷ about the gravity of threats facing the world and scolded the delegates before him for doing nothing to break the impasse⁸ that has stalled vital negotiations for years. 

The Conference on Disarmament is the world's sole multilateral forum⁹ for disarmament negotiations.  For the past few years it has been paralyzed by its inability to agree on a work agenda. 

Differences among the United States, Russia, China and other countries have prevented negotiations on a nuclear material treaty that would ban the production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium used to make nuclear bombs.  Some of these countries refuse to start negotiations on these materials without simultaneously¹⁰ starting talks on other issues.

Ban told the U.N. body a treaty would advance nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation objectives.

"In making this call, I am not at all discounting the importance of preventing an arms race in outer space, or negative security assurances, or nuclear disarmament per se," he said. "Just the opposite; these are all perennial¹¹ and very important issues before the conference.  You must decide how to organize your treatment of these issues without holding any of them hostage to the others." 

The U.N. chief reassured¹² the Conference on Disarmament that it had not lost its relevance¹³.  But, he warned it was in danger of losing its way.

1 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

2 mince   

n.切碎物；v.切碎，矫揉做作地说

参考例句：

• Would you like me to mince the meat for you?你要我替你把肉切碎吗？
• Don't mince matters,but speak plainly.不要含糊其词，有话就直说吧。

3 proliferating   

激增( proliferate的现在分词 )； （迅速）繁殖； 增生； 扩散

参考例句：

• Computerized data bases are proliferating fast. 计算机化的数据库正在激增。
• Crown galls are cancerous growths composed of disorganized and proliferating plant cells. 冠瘿是无组织的正在不断增殖的植物细胞所组成的癌状物。

4 forestall   

vt.抢在…之前采取行动；预先阻止

参考例句：

• I left the room to forestall involvements.我抢先离开了这房间以免受牵累。
• He followed this rule in order to forestall rumors.他遵守这条规矩是为了杜绝流言蜚语。

5 forestalling   

v.先发制人，预先阻止( forestall的现在分词 )

参考例句：

6 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。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 impasse   

n.僵局；死路

参考例句：

• The government had reached an impasse.政府陷入绝境。
• Negotiations seemed to have reached an impasse.谈判似乎已经陷入僵局。

9 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

10 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

11 perennial   

adj.终年的；长久的

参考例句：

• I wonder at her perennial youthfulness.我对她青春常驻感到惊讶。
• There's a perennial shortage of teachers with science qualifications.有理科教学资格的老师一直都很短缺。

12 reassured   

adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The captain's confidence during the storm reassured the passengers. 在风暴中船长的信念使旅客们恢复了信心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The doctor reassured the old lady. 医生叫那位老妇人放心。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。