篇一：2011年1月VOA常速英语听写20篇
2011年1月VOA常速英语听写20篇.txt49礁石因为信念坚定，才激起了美丽的浪花；青春因为追求崇高，才格外地绚丽多彩。50因为年轻，所以自信；因为自信，所以年轻。YinNR整理 RAR里含有每篇TXT+MP3总20枚
永久保存下载地址 http://u.115.com/file/f7a985e38b
The African Union and the Economic Community of West African States have recognized former prime minister Alassane Ouattara as the newly-elected president of Ivory Coast. So the focus of the groups' joint mission to Abidjan is the man who stands in Ouattara's way - incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo.
Gbagbo says he intends to remain in power and accuses foreign governments of plotting a coup against him. Dim prospects for resolving the dispute are evident in the two sides failing to agree even on what their talks are about.
West African leaders say they are in Abidjan to press their demands that Gbagbo step down. A spokesman for Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma, who is among the heads of state representing the West African alliance, said Gbagbo's exit is non-negotiable.
Gbagbo's aides say this meeting is all about negotiation. Ambassador Yao Gnamien, a special advisor to Gbagbo, said, "They are not coming to negotiate the departure of President Gbagbo. They are coming to Cote D'Ivoire just for a process of negotiations so that we can find a peaceful solution to the crisis."
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said West African leaders will decide what to do next, following Monday's talks that also include the African Union mediator to the crisis, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
The West African alliance said it is considering military force to remove Gbagbo, but he is still backed by Ivory Coast's military, so a battle for control of Abidjan would be costly. Gbagbo said Ouattara should not expect foreign troops to help him and is calling for the departure of U.N. peacekeepers, who are guarding Ouattara's hotel.
Ouattara said Gbagbo militants are killing his supporters, and he wants the International Criminal Court to investigate. The United Nations estimates that more than 170 people have been killed in post-election violence.
The crisis has sent more than 20,000 Ivorian refugees into Liberia.
Malek Triki works for the World Food Program in West Africa. He said, "Many of them have come without any food, without any assets at all, and those who have some assets like goats, for example, they would sell them below market price just to be able to
buy food and water. And some of them had during the first few days, had even to go back to Ivory Coast in search of food and water."
Relief officials expect as many as 450,000 people may be internally displaced and 150,000 people may eventually seek refuge in Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ghana. The rolling Himalayan hills in India's northeastern state, Assam, are carpeted with lush tea bushes whose leaves produce some of the world's finest teas.
But there are concerns that rising temperatures may be affecting the tea plantations, resulting in declining productivity of the brew to which millions of people across the world wake up.
The director of the Tea Research Association in Assam, Mridul Hazrika, is studying the impact of climate change on tea production.
"We have observed that minimum temperature has rise[n] by two degrees centigrade and there is a reduction in the rainfall in the last 90 years by around 200 millimeters. And this is very important, very significant from the point of tea as a plantation crop," Hazrika said.
Scientists say rising temperatures can affect the ability of the tea bush to grow. Tea production in the Assam region has declined in recent years, although the area under cultivation has risen.
Erratic rainfall patterns are of particular concern to planters because the tea plant is largely dependent on the weather. They point out that last year there were fewer days with sunshine, resulting in humid conditions which are unfavorable for the growth of the tea plant.
Planters are optimistic that the sturdy tea bush will adapt, but they are looking at ways to combat the impact of climate change.
Arijit Raha is an official with the Indian Tea Association, based in Kolkata.
"The industry has been looking at irrigation as an option, but tea plantations are huge, irrigating 100 percent is a very expensive proposition," Raha said. "One is also looking at other options, drought-resistant plants but those are things which will come in the future."
There have been some reports that the flavor of the Assam tea, known to produce a strong cup of tea, has also been impacted.
But the chairman of the Indian Tea Association, C.S. Bedi, dismisses any link between quality of the tea and climate change. He says other reasons may be responsible for
this.
"I belong to a generation which in many ways has systematically gone in for very high fertilization," Bedi said. "That has affected quality I am certain. It's gone in for very high pesticide application, for very high herbicidal application. When you look back in hindsight, these were not really the best environmental friendly operations...Today we are looking at correcting things. We are looking for more organic products, we are looking at organic teas."
Assam produces more than half of India's tea. India accounts for nearly one-third of the world's tea production. Kao: I think China realizes that it is very important for its future to move from being the low cost commodity manufacturer of a wide range of goods. China is today the factory for much of the world. It now wants to make a transition to higher value-added, which ultimately has to do with innovation, meaning creating new products, services and experiences that they can own.
Q: Do you think China is going to copy U.S. innovation, such as copying Silicon Valley, or do you think they're going to try to come up with a system of their own?
Kao: I think every country, by definition, has its own approach to innovation. There's no such thing as a "one size fits all" approach. China is interesting because, on the one hand, innovation is very much a part of the five year planning cycle which has its roots in the industrial era in the heyday of the Communist Party following 1949. But at the same time, the forces of entrepreneurship have been thoroughly unleashed. You have clouds of entrepreneurs pursuing their own individual idea of business bliss, so to speak. So China represents a curious hybrid between a top down state driven innovation agenda on the one hand and the traditional independent entrepreneurial ethos on the other. There's a famous Chinese saying that "It's better to be the head of a small chicken than the tail of a big cow." There's a curious blending of streams of culture and politics and mentality into what the Chinese system is today.
Q: There is a fear, as I'm sure you've heard here in the United States of China taking over just about everything from the United States. Is that valid in this case?
Kao: There is no doubt that the United States, which was alone on the world stage of innovation in the post World War II era now has to share that stage with many countries. To the extent that China has money and talent and willpower and scale and many other advantages it is going to be a big player on the global scene. But America has some elements that the rest of the world is short on.
For instance, we are the most tolerant society when it comes to big, new ideas, when it comes to uncertainty. [Also] when it comes to tolerating the risks of entrepreneurial activity and also [a] forgiveness of failure, which is a hallmark in virtually no other country that I'm aware of around the world. Most countries,
even in Western Europe have significant penalties for failure. We all can imagine being an entrepreneur and starting a business but there are no guarantees.
Q: So I take it that you think that China is willing to take on that possibility of failure.
Kao: There are many seasoned entrepreneurs in China who understand that there are no guarantees. What is less clear is the state driven innovation sector and how it will look at failure.
_______
Q&A With Dr. Charles Vest, President of the US National Academy of Engineering and past President of MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Q: What is your reaction to China's decision to try to grow its innovation?
Vest: First of all, I think we should celebrate the fact that around the world, including in China, economies are growing, education is improving and investments in research and development are now spread much more evenly around the world. So, on the whole, this is a good thing. However, it is putting U.S. leadership and the long term quality and vibrancy of the U.S. economy in serious jeopardy, I believe. We are still the most innovative nation on the globe, we still have the world's leading research universities, we still turn out more good, basic research at the cutting edges and are better at moving them into the marketplace than anywhere else. However, if you look at the growth in China, the growth in some other countries, unfortunately, the lack of growth, in fact going in the wrong direction in the U.S. in terms of many metrics, I think strategically, we're starting to get in trouble.
Q: To what metrics do you refer? Is it education?
Vest: The primary metrics we need to look at in terms of, I believe, to evaluate in which direction the U.S. is moving all have to do with the quality of our education to the extent of our populace being educated and our investments in fundamental research and development. After all, human talent and new knowledge are the things that undergird innovation and economy. So, there are a number of things we might look at. The U.S. currently ranks eleventh among the 33 OECD countries in terms of the percentage of our young work force that are high school graduates or better. We are sixteenth in that group in college completion rates. We are twenty seventh among developed nations in the proportion of our college graduates who earn degrees in science and engineering and the World Economic Forum, while it's somewhat qualitative, ranks us forty eighth in terms of the quality of our math and science education at the K-12 level. So these things cannot persist and yet expect us to lead the world in innovation and bringing out new products and new services. The challenge to the
U.S. is that it's kind of a double whammy. Every nation in the world, including China is going to have to compete in the world marketplace. The U.S. is the only country that has to simultaneously compete in the new world marketplace and knowledge age and also have a quality of life like ours to maintain. This is going to be hard work, and it's going to take an investment in R&D. It's going to take this nation getting serious about providing a world class education for our women and men and it's going to mean that we are going to have to increase our investment in R&D and keep our entrepreneurial spirit strong.
Q: One thing that China has done is to build an entire nationalistic movement behind its technological advances. Do you see that here, still?
Vest: I think we have lost that edge. We've unfortunately gone through a number of years in the political and public opinion spheres of being very negative and, I think, being very uninspired. I think we just have to start believing in ourselves and our greatness again. It hasn't gone away; we're still the same country, we still have free markets, we still have democracy, we still have a diverse population, we still have great higher education, we still have great higher education at the research university level. And I think we have to get ourselves inspired again and do what has to be done. After all, we're not doing it for ourselves; we're doing it for our children and grand children. That's maybe a little different tone than one observed in China today, but I think belief in our own greatness and acting accordingly is what we have to do.
Q: Is there a basis for fear among Americans when it comes to this?
Vest: Well, there certainly is a basis for fear in that, at the moment, we seem to be stagnating for a number of reasons and we look to the East and we see this huge country of China that is on the upswing and I think that ought to send a chill up our spine. But it doesn't mean that it is something we can't meet. We're still on top of the mountain. But we've got people chasing us up rather quickly and we have to be sure we stay there. It was a record year for tourism in Israel thanks to a lull in violence. There were 3.45 million visitors in 2010, 14 percent more than the previous record two years ago.
Mark Feldman, who heads the Israeli travel agency Zion Tours, says tourism is booming.
"More and more flights... that's the biggest reason we are breaking 3 million for the first time," said Feldman. "We have charter flights from London, from Copenhagen, all over. We have conferences, congresses, delegations. It's bringing in $20 billion of revenue."
Most of the visitors were Jews and Evangelical Christians. Some 625,000 Americans came, more than any other country.
篇二：大学英语六级听力VOA常速英语19
scientists creating new devices to battle diabetes
two factors are critical for the successful treatment of diabetes patients. first is a correct diagnosis of the type of the disease, and second is the administration of the appropriate drugs.
a misdiagnosis and, consequently, the wrong treatment can cause many problems.
scientists are now trying to develop an even simpler dna-based test that could be done with a smartphone app.
no more injections?
in the meantime, researchers in south korea are developing a nanotechnology-based adhesive strip that takes away pain and stress of daily injections for diabetes patients.
?°the device is a patch type that enables [diabetics] to monitor blood sugar levels via sweat without taking blood samples and injections, as well as to control glucose levelsby injecting medication,?± said kim dae-hyeong, a professor in the school of chemical and biological engineering at seoul national university.
the patch is studded with microneedles that painlessly enter subcutaneous tissue. when the connected chip senses that the level of glucose has risen above normal, a small heating element dissolves medication and releases it into the bloodstream.
tests done on lab mice were promising, so scientists hope they will soon start testing the patch on humans. in this phase, experiments are still expensive, but scientists say the price will drop once it the patch is ready for mass production.
篇三：大学英语六级听力VOA常速英语15
working-class anger fuels trump?ˉs popularity in wisconsin
anesville, wisconsin?a
the campaign to collect more delegates on the road to the republican nomination for u.s. president winds its way through the state of wisconsin, home of speaker of the house paul ryan. republican presidential front-runner donald trump?ˉs appeal to working-class voters is easy to see in the industrial town of janesville, which is also ryan?ˉs hometown.
standing in line among thousands hoping to see donald trump at the janesville conference center was a last-minute decision for accountant william collett.
the presidential candidate he?ˉll vote for in the wisconsin primary april 5 also will be a late decision.
?°well, as of this morning i?ˉll be voting for trump,?± said collett.
one of the biggest reasons is trump?ˉs views on curbing foreign trade agreements.
?°look at the nafta program that was voted in by politicians," collett said of the north american free trade agreement, signed into law in 1993. "and they darn well knew that jobs were going to jump the borders.?±
this is a primary concern for many in janesville, home to a massive general motors assembly plant that has been idle for almost a decade.
the plant's closure put thousands out of well-paying jobs and changed the lives of many in this working-class town of roughly 64,000, which reflects a large part of the republican electorate.
?°many of them were once democrats. their fathers worked on the line in industrial america. they had a nice house in the suburbs. they make the kind of money the upper working class used to make in the '50s and '60s. they look back on that life and they wonder where it went,?± said john sharpless, a history professor at the university of wisconsin in madison.
sharpless is a former republican candidate for congress who narrowly lost his election in 2000. he said republican party leadership has misjudged working-class voters for several election cycles.
?°i think they are a hurting group, and they?ˉre an angry group, and they feel rejected by the democrats, and then they felt they were rejected by the republicans, and trump has tapped into that anger,?± explained sharpless.
charlie luiting, 21, said he?ˉs most impressed by trump?ˉs credentials.
"he?ˉs kind of the epitome of an american businessman. i kind of like that," said luiting.
but there?ˉs another name on luiting?ˉs radar: ryan, who went to school with luiting's mother. if republicans are split among candidates and go to a brokered convention in july, there's speculation the house speaker could emerge as the party's nominee.
"if paul was in the race, i would vote for paul just because of my personal connection with him. i trust him. he?ˉs honest. straightforward," luiting said.
sharpless said ryan could be a strong contender as the repblican nominee: "if he somehow magically became the candidate, i think he?ˉd be a very serious rival for hillary clinton.?±
ryan, who served as running mate to the gop's 2012 nominee, mitt romney, has said he believes the nominee should be someone currently in the race.
《VOA常速英语:每年暴力事件影响十亿儿童成长》出自：百味书屋
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