2009年9月 中级口译笔试部分 阅读

Section 2 passage ３

这篇文章于2008年4月18日刊登于<The Times>上, 原题为 “Despair of the runaway children”, 是一篇事关民生的佳作,其中讲到了许多有关于孩子离家出走的问问题。由于儿童问题一直是社会的热点，根据新东方的多年教学经验，考生应该对这类问题比较熟悉，难度相对也就适中。

文章的第一段讲述了现在的问题的严重性，离家出走的孩子人数之多，而我们能帮助的人数之少，由此形成鲜明对比，在后面的第11题中就是简单的词汇题，只要结合上下文，sanctuary的意思显而易见。

文章的第二段到第四段都是有关用于社会团体和社工是如何通力合作，想尽办法为出走的儿童群策群力创造拯救条件，在第12，13，14题中也是针对救助措施进行发问。文章的第五和第六段是有关于孩子们出走的原因和社工们让儿童回归家庭得到照顾的心愿，而第15题就是针对社工心声的表述。

我们发现，文章整体难度不高，话题熟悉，题目也大多是Fact Questions， 所以考生应该是应对自如，稳操胜券的。

1 It's estimated that every year 100,000 children aged 16 and under run away from home. The London Refuge, an unremarkable house on an unremarkable street, is the only place in Britain that will give them a bed. Last year it gave sanctuary to 238 children, of whom the youngest was 11. What happened to the other 99,762? Nobody knows, although it's a fair bet that some of them ended up on the streets, that some fell into inappropriate and dangerous company, that some didn't survive. “The mere fact that they're running away puts them at risk,” says Lorna Simpson, the refuge's deputy manager. “On the streets they'll mix with other young people. They're so naive; they don't understand that people who are nice to them will want payback. Our job is to make them safe.”

2 Simpson, a former social worker, is a calm woman of great warmth. The refuge has six beds and has been open since 1993, often with the threat of closure hanging over it. The problem has nothing to do with the quality of its service – Ofsted ranks it as outstanding - and everything to do with funding. A week's placement costs ?2,278 and three successive governments have argued that the annual running costs of ?720,000 should be locally funded. But because it is used by children from many parts of London, and beyond, local authorities are reluctant to contribute.

3 The Government has now agreed to work on a strategy to support runaway children in England and Wales, which is rich after its withdrawal of funding from the refuge in December. Since then the NSPCC(英国)全国防止虐待儿童学会, which runs the refuge in conjunction with St Christopher's Fellowship, has financed it through a donation from an individual, but that money will last only until late next year. “Without this facility there's nothing; children who run away are on the street,” says Nasima Patel, the assistant director of the NSPCC. “One of the strengths of the refuge is that children who have left home can ring up directly and will get a bed and supportive staff without having to go through a process of assessment. That's hard to re-create in statutory法定arrangements and if you're on the run you need somewhere to go and someone to talk to. We're convinced that direct access will always be needed.”

4 The refuge accommodates six children plus staff. Many of the admissions are at night and children can stay up to 21 days in three months, although most stay for three to five days. They find it through social services, through Child Line (although the number is given only to children who have already left home) and through word of mouth; only when they arrive do staff discover their circumstances. Simpson recalls the injured young boy who ran four miles without shoes after his dad had beaten him.

5 “They're running away from everything you can think of,” she says. “Arguments with step-parents, sexual abuse, alcoholic parents, being left to bring up their younger siblings, neglected children who have been failed by social services, girls who have been trafficked. We get doctors' and lawyers' children who run away because they want more pocket money, or want to stay out later than their parents allow. They've been given everything, they get to 15 and no one thinks to pull the reins in. By that time it's too late; they rebel.”

6 Most of the children are from families known to social services, and for them the refuge's ordered regimen生活规则is a welcome contrast to the chaos they know. Staff listens without judging and without encouraging dependency, trying to establish why the children have run away. The aim is to get them home or into the care of social services and, after discharge from the refuge, a family support worker is available.