VOA标准英语2011--Economy, Post Office Woes Force Iowa Tow

Economy, Post Office Woes¹ Force Iowa Town off Map

The United States Postal² Service is facing unprecedented³ financial losses. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe recently told lawmakers his agency needed government intervention⁴ by the end of the year to prevent bankruptcy⁵. The problems of the post office, at a time of high unemployment and slow economic growth, have taken their toll⁶ on the town of Searsboro, in the Midwest state of Iowa. The only thing keeping the town of about 150 people together was its small post office, which closes at the end of September.
Searsboro, Iowa doesn't have much going for it.
"If you go out, and you go out in the country, and you see the old barns falling down, that could be a metaphor⁷ for this town," says Jim Roye a Searsboro resident.
For Roye, Searsboro is home. But in the time he's lived here, the only employer, the grain elevator, closed its doors. A fire forced the only restaurant out of business. An embezzlement⁸ scandal in the local government left the town broke.
The only thing that was keeping this community of about 150 people together was its small post office. But now, that is scheduled to close in late September.
"It's just something we're seeing in America, in small towns especially, with the way the recession has hit us," Roye says.
Retired⁹ army veteran and Searsboro resident Dave Phipps agrees.
"It's going to pot. There's nothing happening anymore," says Phipps.
In fact, Searsboro is not officially a town, any more. Residents, including Dave Phipps, voted earlier this year in favor of disincorporating.
"We were not getting anywhere the way we were going," notes Phipps.
Even though less than one third of the town's population voted, most residents say the loss of the post office sealed Searsboro's fate.
"A lot of people wanted to keep it. It formed a sense of our community," says Roye.
"A post office is very, very important to a small rural community. And it was very important to the people of Searsboro," notes Deb Collum-Calderwood, the executive director of Poweshiek Iowa Development, also known as POW I-80. The organization promotes economic development in Poweshiek County, Iowa, where Searsboro is located.
The county had eight incorporated towns. It's now down to seven.
"It seems like the incorporated areas that have more services to offer their residents seem to be growing and sustaining, whereas the really small communities really struggle to retain the businesses, the people that are living in their communities," adds Collum-Calderwood.
Searsboro's residents faced increasing local taxes coupled with decreasing services. They voted to disincorporate partially¹⁰ to get help from the state and county governments to fix what is left of the community.
"Streets were a big issue for them," Collum-Calderwood explains. "It's hard, when you have just such a limited tax base to pull from. It's hard for small communities to make those infrastructure¹¹ improvements."
Though Searsboro's 135-year history seems at an end, Dave Phipps plans to stay.
"I don't know if it will be on the map anymore, but it will always be here, I mean, people love living here," says Phipps.
The problems in Searsboro will not be isolated¹². As the U.S. Postal Service looks at more ways to trim its $10 billion deficit¹³, more small towns across the United States could face similar cuts.

1 woes   

困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉

参考例句：

• Thanks for listening to my woes. 谢谢您听我诉说不幸的遭遇。
• She has cried the blues about its financial woes. 对于经济的困难她叫苦不迭。

2 postal   

adj.邮政的，邮局的

参考例句：

• A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

3 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

4 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

5 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

6 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

7 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

8 embezzlement   

n.盗用，贪污

参考例句：

• He was accused of graft and embezzlement and was chained and thrown into prison.他因被指控贪污盗窃而锒铛入狱。
• The judge sent him to prison for embezzlement of funds.法官因他盗用公款将其送入监牢。

9 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

10 partially   

adv.部分地，从某些方面讲

参考例句：

• The door was partially concealed by the drapes.门有一部分被门帘遮住了。
• The police managed to restore calm and the curfew was partially lifted.警方设法恢复了平静，宵禁部分解除。

11 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。

12 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

13 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。