-
States Put Pressure on Public Unions
美国各州试图限制工会权力引发大规模示威
This is the VOA Special English
Economics Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
Americans have been watching the
protests in the Middle East and North Africa --
and closer to
home. Workers in
Wisconsin, and now some other states, have been
protesting efforts to limit
the
negotiating power of government employees.
美国人一直在密切关注着中东和北非的抗议活动
--
而
现在抗议活动烧到了家门口。威斯康星
州和其他几个州的工人正在抗议限制政府职员谈判
力的措施。
Wisconsin's newly
elected governor, Scott Walker, says limits are
needed on labor unions to help
cut a
deficit in the state budget. The Republican
governor proposes to end collective bargaining
rights for most public employees except
on the issue of wages.
威斯康星州新任州长斯科特·沃克（
Scott
Walker
）表示，必须限制工会权力以帮助削减州
政府预算赤字。
这位来自共和党的州长提议，
终止大部分公职
人员工资问题以外的集体谈判
权。
The bill has led to big, noisy
demonstrations that began earlier this month in
Madison, the state
capital.
这项议案导致了本月初在州首府麦迪逊开始的大规模抗议活动。
PROTESTERS:
抗议人群：
“这就是民主的真实嘴脸！
”
The
bill
would
not
affect
police
or
firefighters.
They
are
barred
from
striking.
But
firefighter
Mahlon Mitchell came to protest anyway.
该议案将不会影响警察或消防队员。
他们被禁止参加罢工。
但消防队员马伦·
米切尔
（
Mahlon
Mitchell
）最终还是前来参加
了抗议。
MAHLON
MITCHELL:
马伦米切尔：
“这是美联邦的归零地。<
/p>
”
Democrats in the state Senate fled to
the neighboring Midwestern state of Illinois. They
want to
prevent
the
Republican
majority
in
the
Wisconsin
Legislature
from
passing
the
bill
which
they
consider anti-union. Labor unions are a
traditional base of support for the Democratic
Party.
该州民主党参议员躲到了邻近的伊利诺伊州。
他
们试图阻止威斯康星州议会多数派共和党人
通过这一被他们认为是反工会的议案。工会是
民主党的传统支持阵营。
Governor
Walker
says
the
state
could
have
to
start
dismissing
workers
unless
the
Democrats
return to debate
what he calls a budget repair bill.
州长沃
克表示，
如果民主党人不回来讨论他所谓的修复财政议案，
该州
可能不得不开始裁员。
Dennis Dresang is
professor emeritus of political science at the
University of Wisconsin. He says
the
modern history of the state helps explain the
strong reaction.
Dennis Dresang
< br>威斯康星大学政治学名誉教授。他表示，该州的现代史有助于解释这种强烈
反应。
DENNIS
DRESANG:
was
the
first
in
the
nation
to
establish
the
right
of
public
employees to bargain collectively, and
it's a real shock to a lot of people that these
rights would
be taken
away.
Dennis
Dresang
：
“威斯康星州是全国第一个建立政府职员集体谈判权的州。对许多人来说，
这项权力可能被剥夺是一个巨大打击。
”
Collective bargaining
rights differ from state to state. Lawmakers in
Indiana, Michigan and Ohio
have
also
proposed
limits
on
unions
representing
public
employees.
Critics
say
politicians
are
using
state
budget
problems
as
an
excuse
for
union-busting
--
an
effort
to
take
away
rights
to
organize.
各州的集体谈判权各自不同。
印第安纳州、
密歇根州和俄亥俄州议会也提议限制代表公共职
员的工会。批评人士说，政治家们以州政府预算为借口打击工会，试图剥夺工会权力。
Unions have been shrinking in
private industry. The Labor Department says only
seven percent of
workers in the private
sector now belong to one. But more than one-third
of government workers
hold union cards.
Local governments are the most unionized. Over
forty-two percent of workers
like
teachers, health care workers and public safety
employees are union members.
私营行业的工会规模持
续萎缩。劳工部表示，目前只有
7%
的私营行业工人参加了工会
。但
超过
1/3
的政府职员持有工会卡
。
地方政府是工会组织最严密的地方，
超过
42%
的类似教师、
医务工作者和公共安全职员一类的工作
人员都是工会成员。
But labor protests
are not the only political dispute capturing
attention right now. A budget battle
in
Washington could force the federal government to
suspend many operations at midnight next
Friday. The last government shutdown
happened fifteen years ago. It lasted a record
twenty-one
days.
但劳工抗议不是当前唯一
吸引眼球的政治争端。
华盛顿的预算之争可能迫使联邦政府下周五
午夜暂停办公。上一次政府停摆发生在
15
年前，并持续了创
纪录的
21
天。
In Class With Peace Corps
Volunteers in Africa, Asia
美国和平队志愿者在亚非国家支教
This is the VOA Special English
Education Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。
This week marks the fiftieth
anniversary of the Peace Corps. President John
Kennedy began the
program in nineteen
sixty-one. The Peace Corps sends American
volunteers to provide technical
assistance in education and other areas
in developing countries.
本周是和平队成立五十周年。约
翰·肯尼迪总统
1961
年发起了这个活动。和平队向发展中<
/p>
国家派遣志愿者，提供教育和其他领域的技术援助。
Amanda Pease is one of almost forty
volunteers serving in rural schools in Sierra
Leone.
阿曼达·皮斯（
Amanda Pease
）是在塞拉利昂乡村学校服务的近
40
名志
愿者之一。
Ms. Peace teaches
science at Saint Joseph's, a high school in
eastern Sierra Leone. She studied
chemical engineering at the University
of California, Los Angeles. She decided to serve
for two
years in the Peace Corps after
she finished her degree.
皮斯女士在塞拉利昂东部的圣·
约瑟高中教理科。
她曾就读于加州大学洛杉矶分校的化学工
程专业。在拿到学位后，她决定到和平队服务
2
年。
AMANDA PEASE:
postdoctoral degree and go into
industry, and then I had been doing some volunteer
work and
the idea was kind of always of
floating around.
皮斯：
“我曾试图选择走学
术路线，读博士后学位并进入化学行业工作。而那时我已经在做
一些志愿者工作，这个想
法总是浮现在我脑海。
”
Peace
Corps volunteers left Sierra Leone in nineteen
ninety-four because of civil war. But now
they are back.
和平队志愿者
1994
年由于内战离开了塞拉利昂。但现在他们回来了。
Science teachers are in
especially short supply. Efforts in Sierra Leone
to get more children
through primary
school have led to crowded high schools.
塞拉利昂理科老师特别短缺。塞拉利昂让更多孩子读完小学的措施导致了高中的爆满。
Amanda Pease is the only
chemistry and physics teacher at her school. She
says she has to work
hard to get
students more interested in learning, as she
thought they would be.
皮斯是学校唯一的化学和物理教师。
她表示要努力工作让学生们爱上学习，
而且她认为学生
们一定会这样的。
AMANDA PEASE:
everyone is
super motivated but just does not have
opportunities, and that is not exactly how it is.
Not that I am saying the opportunities
are so great, because of course there [are]
limited
opportunities if you compare it
to America, but I think one of the biggest things
is literally just
motivation.
皮斯：
“我多多少少揣着一些浪漫的想法来到发展中国家，认为这里的每个人都特别积
极，
只是一直没有机会。
而事实并非如此。
我并不是说这里有很多机会，
和美国相比这里当然机
会有限
。但我认为最重要的是十足的积极性。
”
What she loves best about her
experience, she says, is the magical moment when
students
understand a chemical process
or ask her for more exercises.
她说，她最喜欢的
经历就是当学生们理解一个化学过程或要求她做更多实验的时刻。
More than eight thousand Peace Corps
volunteers are currently serving around the world.
Volunteers become part of the community
where they work and live. Travis Bluemling from
Pennsylvania teaches English in a rural
Indonesian community.
目前有
8
千多名和平队志愿者在世界各地服务。
志愿者成为了他们生活和工作
的社区的一部
分。来自宾夕法尼亚州的
Travis
Bluemling
在印度尼西亚一个农村社区教英语。
TRAVIS BLUEMLING:
having
some knowledge of the language can separate
themselves from the people next to them
when they are looking for a job or
meeting people.
Travis Bluemling
< br>：
“即使这些孩子中有些人不能上了大学，
学习英语并具
备一定的语言知识，
可以让他们在求职或与人接触时，从身边的人中脱颖而出。
”
Mr. Bluemling's
family expressed concern for his safety in a
country where Islamic militants have
sometimes attacked Westerners. But what
concerned him, he says, was the thought that
leaders
in his village might not
welcome him.
Bluemling
的家人对他身
处一个伊斯兰武装分子不时袭击西方人的国家表示担忧。
但他表示，
他担心的是他所在的村庄的头领可能会不欢迎他。
TRAVIS BLUEMLING:
enter
their house. I joined them in their Muslim
meetings. I joined them with fasting and I have
even entered the
mosque.
Travis Bluemling
：
“然而我大错特错了。他们允许我进入他们的房子。我参加了他们的穆斯
林会议，和他们一起斋戒，甚至还进到了清真寺。
”
In addition to Indonesia, Peace Corps
volunteers in East Asia serve in China, Thailand,
Cambodia,
Mongolia and the Philippines.
除了印度尼西亚，东亚和平队志愿者还在中国、泰国、柬埔寨、蒙古和菲律宾提供服务。
After Brain Study, New
Questions About Mobile Phones
一项大脑研究结果引发对手机辐射新的关注
This is the VOA Special English Health
Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
How important is your mobile phone,
better known to Americans as a cell phone?
美国人通常称之为蜂窝电话的手机对你有多重要？
MAN:
男：
“我时刻都在用手机，
我总打电话。
”
WOMAN:
女：
“手机对我非常非常重要，它就像是我的保护神。
”
WOMAN:
女：<
/p>
“我需要手机。
”
So far, no studies have
proven beyond question that the radio signals from
cell phones cause
brain cancer or other
health problems. But a new study by government
scientists in the United
States has
some people wondering what to think.
截至
目前为止，
尚未有研究可以确切证明，
手机信号会引发脑癌和其
他健康问题。
但美国政
府科学家的一项研究给人们提供了一些思
考方向。
The scientists found
that holding a cell phone to your ear for at least
fifty minutes increases brain
cell
activity. Even the scientists themselves are not
sure about the meaning of their findings.
< br>科学家发现，
把手机放到耳旁至少五十分钟，
可以提高脑
细胞活跃程度。
即使是科学家本身
也不确定这一发现意味着什么
。
Dr. Nora Volkow led the
study. She heads the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, part of the
National Institutes
of Health. Dr. Volkow says she would not be
concerned that fifty minutes of
cell
phone exposure would harm anyone. But she says the
research does show the need to study
whether or there are long-lasting
effects of repeated exposure over several years.
诺拉·沃尔考（
Nora Volkow
）博士领导了这项研究。她是美国国家健康研究院下属的美国
国家药物滥用研究所所长
。沃尔考博士称，她不担心暴露在手机辐射下
50
分钟会伤害任
何
人。
但她表示，
该研究确实显示，<
/p>
有必要对若干年来长期暴露在手机辐射下是否会产生持久
影响进行
研究。
Her team studied forty-
seven healthy volunteers between January and
December of two
thousand nine. The
volunteers had cell phones placed against both
ears while the scientists made
images
of their brain activity.
她的小组在
2009
年
1
月到
12
月期间，对
47
名健康志
愿者进行了研究。志愿者们在科学家
扫描大脑活动图像时，将两部手机分别放到两耳旁。
As part of the test, one
phone was activated but muted for fifty minutes.
The other phone was off.
After that,
the people were tested with both phones turned
off. Dr. Volkow says the brain scans
showed increased activity in brain
cells closest to the activated phone.
作
为测试的一部分，其中一部手机接通但处于静音状态并保持
50
分钟，另一部手机是关机
状态。
然后在两部手机都关机的情况下
再次测试。
沃尔考博士称，
大脑扫描显示，
靠近接通
手机一侧的大脑细胞活跃程度有所提高。
NORA VOLKOW:
increase in
metabolism as compared when the telephones were
off. Even though the radio
frequencies
that are emitted from current cell phone
technologies are very weak, they are able
to activate the human brain to have an
effect.''
沃尔考：
“与手机关机时相比，靠近手机
天线的大脑区域的新陈代谢速度提高最快。即使现
代手机科技发射的电磁波频率非常微弱
，但仍足以刺激人类大脑，并对此产生影响。
”
The scans showed how the brain cells
used sugar to produce energy, a normal activity.
The
activity was seven percent higher
in areas of the brain closest to the cell phone
antenna.
大脑扫描显示了脑细胞如何把葡萄糖转化为能量这一正常的新陈代谢
活动。
靠近手机天线的
大脑区域葡萄糖新陈代谢速度提高了
7%
。
The
study appeared in the Journal of the American
Medical Association.
这项研究发表在美国医学会杂志上。
Experts say people who are concerned
about mobile phones can take steps like using a
hands-free device.
专家们表示，担心手
机辐射的人们可以采用一些措施，例如使用免提装置。
Dr.
Giuseppe Esposito is a nuclear medicine expert at
Georgetown University Medical Center in
Washington. He says after many years of
studies, better kinds of research are still needed
to
settle questions about cell phone
safety. These studies would take years.
朱塞佩·埃斯波西托（
Giuseppe Esposito<
/p>
）博士是位于华盛顿的乔治敦大学医学中心的核医
学专家。他表示
，在数年研究之后，
仍需要更好的研究方式来解决手机安全方面的问题。这
类研究将耗费多年时间。
GIUSEPPE
ESPOSITO:
population using cell phones
-- high users or light users -- and then see what
happens over the
years.
埃斯波西托
：
“我们需要进行流行病学研究，对使用手机的人群进行跟踪调查，包括频繁使
用者和轻度使用者。然后观察数年后发生的状况。
”
A Stock Market Big Enough to Stretch
Across the Atlantic
德交所和纽交所合并成立全球最大交易所集团
This is the VOA Special English
Economics Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
A ten-billion-dollar deal aims to
create the world's largest exchange company. The
plan would
combine the operators of the
New York Stock Exchange and Germany's Frankfurt
Stock Exchange.
一项百亿规模的交易旨在创建全球最大的证券交易所
。
这项计划将合并纽约证券交易所和德
国法兰克福证券交易所的
运营商。
注：
纽约泛欧交易所和德意
志交易所分别是纽约证券交易所和德国法兰克福证券交易所的运
营商。
< br>
The two companies, NYSE Euronext
and Deutsche Borse, announced the agreement
Tuesday.
Deutsche Borse shareholders
would own about sixty percent of the combined
group. One thing it
still needs is a
name. The new company would have headquarters in
Frankfurt and New York.
纽约泛
欧交易所和德意志交易所周二宣布了这项协议。
德意志交易所的股东将拥有新集团约
60%
股份。
现在只缺一个新集团的名字。
合并后的新公司将分别在法兰克福和纽约设立总部。
The New York Stock Exchange
is the world's most famous stock market and a
symbol of American
capitalism. Treasury
Secretary Tim Geithner says New York will remain
at the heart of the world's
financial
system for a long time to come.
纽约证券交易所
是全球最著名的证券市场，
同时也是美国资本主义的象征。
美国
财政部长盖
特纳表示，纽约在接下来的很长一段时间里，仍将是全球金融体系的核心。<
/p>
But the exchange business
has changed in these days of high-speed trading by
computers in a
globally connected
economy. The Big Board now has to compete with
smaller exchanges. Where
stocks are
traded has become less important than how much
those trades cost.
但是，
证券交易在全
球化经济计算机高速交易的背景下已发生改变，
纽约证券交易所现在面
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