(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Award-winning Ugandan education activist Beatrice Ayuru says thousands of girls have reached her dream of a good education for Ugandan children. But she says the struggle to guarantee schooling for all is far from over.
Ms. Ayuru spoke to VOA before appearing at a TEDx event in Geneva, Switzerland. TED is a nonprofit group that works to share information and ideas by organizing short, public speeches.
For her TED talk, Ms. Ayuru discussed her long and successful struggle to establish a school in a rural area of northern Uganda.
In 2000, she opened Lira Integrated School in a poor area of the city of Lira. At the time, the rebel Lord's Resistance Army was terrorizing the area's population with murder, torture and child kidnappings.
The story of Ms. Ayuru's activism begins in own childhood. She was one of 16 children in a polygamous family. Her father valued education and supported her desire for it. But she said the poverty and cultural barriers affecting women in her society worked against her.
"I would say the environment shaped me a lot. Even while I felt I was going through hard moments, but others girls were worse than me. They were forced into early marriages. They were not given opportunity to be in school. It was a very painful life."
She graduated from high school to become the first student from her school to gain admission to a national university. After completing a degree from Makerere University she began teaching.
At age 19, Ms. Ayuru had just become the mother of the second of her six children. She had no money. But her father gave her land. She says it was the need to support her children that made her work hard.
"I realized what I had was land. I am already teaching, but I am not earning salary, so I started with planting cassava. That was all I could afford, using my energy because I could not employ people to do anything."
Later, she opened some small businesses. Money from those and the cassava crop helped her build the school in 2000. But continuing attacks from the Lord's Resistance Army threatened the school.
"During the war, we would always run with the children from school to the town to hide them. Then, during the day we collected them from town again to come and have lessons."
In 2007, the LRA lost its fight for control of northern Uganda and fled the area. Beatrice Ayuru's school has been doing well ever since. It teaches 1,500 students from nursery through high school. The cost to attend is about 90 dollars a year. Many parents cannot pay. So the school gives financial help to 100 children who lack money but show promise.
Lira Integrated School accepts both girls and boys. Ms. Ayuru says having both sexes study together is important because it helps boys to respect girls.
In 2009, the school founder took steps toward building a university. Beatrice Ayuru says she is getting closer to reaching her dream.
I'm Jeri Watson.
词汇解释
1.polygamous adj. 一夫多妻的；一妻多夫的
Less than 1 percent of the men in any Muslim country are polygamous.
任何一个穆斯林国家都有不到1%的男子是有多位妻子的。
2.cassava n. 木薯（等于cassawa）
Main grain crop has cassava, taro, corn, banana.
主要粮食作物有木薯、芋头、玉米、芭蕉。
3.torture vt. 折磨；拷问；歪曲 n. 折磨；拷问；歪曲
No torture would make him talk.
任何严刑拷打都不能使他开口。
内容解析
1.But she said the poverty and cultural barriers affecting women in her society worked against her.
work against 对…不利；违背
Her testimony works against his chance of success as a politician.
她的证词使他作为一个政治家很难有成功的机会。
Some members of the other party are working against suggested changes in the law.
另一党派中的一些人极力反对修改法律的提议。
参考译文
获奖的乌干达教育活动人士比阿特丽斯·阿玉如说，数千名女孩已经实现自己的梦想，也就是让乌干达儿童获得良好的教育。但她说让每个孩子都上学的工作还远未结束。
阿玉如在参加瑞士日内瓦TEDx活动之前接受了美国之音的采访，TED是一个非盈利组织，致力于通过组织短小的公众演讲来分享信息和理念。
在她的TED讲话中，阿玉如谈到自己为在乌干达北部农村地区建立学校所做的长期、成功奋斗故事。
2000年，她在里拉市的贫困地区开办了里拉综合学校，当时，叛军“上帝抵抗军”用谋杀、酷刑和儿童绑架手段对该地区人民实行恐怖主义。
阿玉如的活动精神始于童年，她是一个一夫多妻制家庭16个孩子中的一员，她的父亲重视教育，支持她接受教育。但她说，当地社会的贫困和阻碍妇女的文化障碍对自己不利。
“可以说环境在很大程度上塑造了我，即使我觉得自己在经历苦难时刻，但也有别的女孩处境更糟，她们被迫早早结婚，没有上学的机会，这是终身的痛苦。”
她高中毕业后成为学校第一名被录取到国立大学的学生，在从麦克雷雷大学完成学位后她开始任教。
19岁那年，阿玉如有了第二个孩子，她总共生了6个孩子，她没有钱，但她父亲给了她土地。她说是养活孩子的需要让她努力工作。
“我意识到自己只有土地，我当时在教书，但没有挣工资，所以我开始种植木薯，这是我所能做的，因为我无法雇佣别人来做事，只能靠自己的力气。”
后来她开班了些小企业，从中挣的钱和木薯的收益帮助她在2009年开办了学校，但来自“上帝抵抗军”的不断袭击也威胁到学校。
“在战争期间，我们总是和孩子们从学校逃到镇上，把孩子们藏起来，然后白天我们把他们从镇上接过来回来上课。”
2007年，“上帝抵抗军”在企图控制乌干达北部的战争中失败，比阿特丽斯·阿玉如的学校自此开始运转良好，学校接收了从幼儿园到高中的1500名学生，学费每年90美元。很多父母支付不起，所以学校给100名缺钱但有希望的学生提供资助。
里拉综合学校接收男生和女生，阿玉如说男女同校很重要，能让男孩尊重女孩。
2009年，这位办学者迈出了开办大学的步伐，阿玉如说她正一步步接近自己的梦想。
我是杰瑞·沃森。
