VOA慢速英语(翻译+字幕+讲解):巴基斯坦选民更关心经济问题
日期:2013-04-27 13:53

(单词翻译:单击)

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听力文本

From VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report.

Pakistan is preparing for national elections next month, many likely voters seem more concerned about the economy than stopping militant violence.

But few Pakistanis are hopeful for changes. Zafar Saeed directs an occupational training centre in Islamabad, the capital. For the past ten years, the centre has trained thousands for work in an increasingly difficult economy. Now his own business is struggling from power cuts and inflation, he blames the government for the situation.

"Our organization has suffered major financial losses, particularly over the past five years, because prolonged power outages have not allowed us to perform our activities. The other main reason is inflation because people can no longer afford to pay for their fees to learn income-generating skills.”

Many people share his opinion. Street protests against power cuts are common in Pakistan. Some cuts can now last all day long.

Ashfaque Hassan Khan is a professor at the Nast Business School in Islamabad.

"We are facing economic challenges and the reason for this is that for five years the economy has never been on the radar of the government.”

He also says part of the problem has been too little political will to fix the national tax system. Less than one percent of Pakistan’s 180 million people pay income taxes. About 70 percent of federal lawmakers did not complete any income tax documents last year, most of them are likely to be returned to parliament in the elections.

As professor Khan notes, that makes it more difficult to ask the country's major donors for help.

"There is a genuine complaint from [the] international community because their taxpayers have started raising questions that 'why should our government give our taxpayer money to Pakistan when [the] Pakistani government doesn’t tax their own rich and influential people?'”

60 percent of the Pakistani population is under the age of 25. Recent opinion surveys show most young people are concerned about unemployment, power shortages, and corruption.

Maleeha Lodhi is a former ambassador to the United States. She says young people have grown less hopeful about the future.

"So, the message to Pakistan’s next government is a very strong one. And that message is deal with the economy otherwise young people will opt out of the system and when young people opt out of the system and lose faith then frankly, the future prospects for any country begin to look very bleak."

To build support among young voters, some political parties are promising to reduce unemployment, and fight corruption. However, opinion surveys have shown low ratings for politicians, this is why voters like Zafar Saeed are wondering whether the next government will be any different from the last one.

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词汇解释

1.power cut 供电中断,停电

Power cuts, in turn, have further disrupted the railways.
紧接着,电力中断使得铁路瘫痪70nMN6]3zv+

2.outage n. 储运损耗;中断供应;运行中断

A windstorm in Washington is causing power outages throughout the region.
风暴造成整个华盛顿地区电力供应中断us)1~Zy^|aNK_NVf[rZy

3.radar n.关注范围,局面;雷达(无线电测距及定向装置);雷达设备;雷达技术

Our radar pinpointed accurately the attacking planes.
我们的雷达准确地对准来袭的敌机QCP9*~,C@pkQiNte&

4.rating n. 等级;等级评定;额定功率

Four restaurants have been awarded the highest accolade of a three - star rating .
四家餐馆获授予三星级餐馆的最高荣誉称号6Lhx9;On-;TFFB_Bj-q

参考译文

这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道I&(#0;,Kyda[t

巴基斯坦正为下月的全国选举做准备,许多准选民似乎更关心经济问题,而非阻止武装暴力DL%#Km[fiNO,

但没几个巴基斯坦人能指望有什么改变,扎法尔·赛义德是伊斯兰堡一家就业培训中心负责人D_-qsCA05RfvTYnk。在过去十年日益艰难的经济情况下,该中心培训了数百名劳动力~8=rl*x1mdC&R@h9my。如今由于断电和通胀,他的业务很艰难,他将目前的时艰归咎于政府Ehi;8dPQOJ

“我们中心遭受了重大的财政损失,尤其是过去五年间,因为断电时间很长,我们没办法做培训XmDS2S~J49B。另一个原因是通胀,人们没钱支付学费来学习增加收入的技能p~dBpbao0b)dZd9gr%Zj。”

许多人都有这样的看法,巴基斯坦街头抗议停电的游行司空见惯,有时断电能持续一整天p]aIrfxiC,r5XtQjUy|K

Ashfaque Hassan Khan是伊斯兰堡纳斯特商学院教授dlU^7oCG(pqcGd

“我们目前着经济困难,这是因为过去五年来政府根本不关心经济-c=RoIuv)9;mbks&r。”

他说,问题的部分原因是,政府不大愿意整顿全国税收体系J=[()CZ614o4|h~。在巴基斯坦1.8亿人口中,只有不到1%的人缴纳个税V+5;#A8+bQb)+ZK10IB。去年约有70%的联邦议员未能完成任何税收记录,其中多数人可能在选举中重回议会xcqi2lLpl5;imH

Khan教授说,这样一来,请求该国的主要捐赠者提供更多帮助就更难了m[Y7.)yQWVJRq4A

“国际社会一直投诉不断,因为它们的纳税人质疑‘为何我们的政府将我们纳税人的钱给巴基斯坦,而巴基斯坦政府却不向本国最富有和有势力的人征税呢?’”

巴基斯坦有60%的人口年龄在25岁以下,民调显示大多数年轻人担心就业、电力短缺和腐败问题V+X#(745orUA!l[QOvfp

罗德尼是前驻美大使,她说年轻人对未来不那么抱有希望了]P)rg+[*AG1

“因此,我们向巴基斯坦下届政府传达的信号很明确,就是解决经济问题,否则年轻人将退出这个系统,而当年轻人退出并失去信念时,任何国家的未来景象都会是惨淡的+^I9|s9e;,。”

为了赢得年轻选民的支持,有的政党承诺降低失业率并打击腐败Xqo#oNa4[.frCF]qOGG。但民调显示政客的评分很低,因此像扎法尔·赛义德这样的选民都觉得下届政府和上届政府不会有太大区别[GEV#z4ujGfX_b,K

wpps,]^2f=^oz0;Tnd0)_qWEx.v-3ky_NeuTzO~ctCXsqjAp&I]W
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重点单词
  • violencen. 暴力,猛烈,强暴,暴行
  • communityn. 社区,社会,团体,共同体,公众,[生]群落
  • populationn. 人口 ,(全体)居民,人数
  • corruptionn. 腐败,堕落,贪污
  • unemploymentn. 失业,失业人数
  • genuineadj. 真正的,真实的,真诚的
  • occupationaladj. 职业的
  • concernedadj. 担忧的,关心的
  • inflationn. 膨胀,通货膨胀
  • accuratelyadj. 准确地 adv. 精确地,准确地