时间:2019-01-13 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2012年(三月)


英语课

Internet Opens World to Microloan Investors 1


A $2 loan lets a woman in Burundi start a business brewing 2 banana beer, and a $65 loan helped a woman in Pakistan start an embroidery 3 business that now supports 30 local families.


These small entrepreneurs are featured in a multimedia 4 exhibit called Half the Sky at the Skirball Cultural Center. Photographs, art and videos explain the plight 5 of poor women in developing countries and how microloans are helping 6 them. 
Corporate 7 donations to the center provide each visitor to the exhibit with $1 to get them started as investors. With help from a volunteer, this man has just invested in a small business in Africa.
The Internet microloan site Kiva is one of several partners in the project. Kiva's own website at kiva.org lets people invest small amounts of money in entrepreneurial projects from their homes, or any place with an Internet connection. The organization works through local micro-finance institutions in developing countries, and notes proudly that its clients’ repayment 8 rate is over 98 percent.
Writer Bob Harris has invested in nearly 4,000 small businesses, and has visited many of them while researching a book about Kiva. “It's everything from clinics to schools to farmers, crafts people, urban transportation people - taxi drivers - pretty much anything you can come up with,” Harris said.
Some investors, like Armenian-American computer consultant 9 Peter Tashjian, focus on a single region. He lends to Armenians so that those in cities can expand their businesses, and those in the countryside can buy an extra cow or sheep.
“And they actually are able to feed their families and make extra cheese and milk to sell in the markets,” Tashjian said.
Bob Harris got involved in microlending after exploring the world as a travel writer and seeing poverty in the shadow of exclusive resorts. 
He has inspired a loose-knit group on the Kiva website called Friends of Bob Harris, whose members have invested more than $1.6 million.
“And everybody who does it for any length of time and reinvests the money, it’s really kind of cool … Let’s see, the bicycle delivery guy in Nicaragua paid me back. I think I’ll invest in this student in the Philippines,” Harris said.
These people say the Internet has forged new links, both social and commercial, that help others around the world pull themselves out of poverty. 

n.投资者,出资者( investor的名词复数 )
  • a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
  • a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会
n.绣花,刺绣;绣制品
  • This exquisite embroidery won people's great admiration.这件精美的绣品,使人惊叹不已。
  • This is Jane's first attempt at embroidery.这是简第一次试着绣花。
adj.多种手段的,多媒体的;n.多媒体
  • Multimedia is the combination of computer and video technology.多媒体是计算机和视频技术的结合。
  • Adam raised the issue of multimedia applications and much useful discussion ensued.亚当提出了多媒体应用的问题,从而引发了许多有益的讨论。
n.困境,境况,誓约,艰难;vt.宣誓,保证,约定
  • The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
  • She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
adj.共同的,全体的;公司的,企业的
  • This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
  • His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。
n.偿还,偿还款;报酬
  • I am entitled to a repayment for the damaged goods.我有权利索取货物损坏赔偿金。
  • The tax authorities have been harrying her for repayment.税务局一直在催她补交税款。
n.顾问;会诊医师,专科医生
  • He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
  • Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来,加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。
学英语单词
Aechmanthera gossypina
agononida eminens
akota
Amaro Leite
articulationes interphalangeae pedis
as can be
average value voltmeter
Bakali
bellows piece
browster
bubble method
camera-maker
Carnot's butter
cease to
cicatrisant
compact closure
consine aperture distribution
CPC Communist Party of China
dairy-type
dead band of gas turbine
deflection distance
detector compartment
diazo sensitizer
dibonane
distributed operating system
dog race
dry dock companion craft
educational outlay
effect of increased concentration
exhibitions
Flying Sandbank model
gash
ghost nipper
globe head rivet
hair-spray
horse stable
hot method
Hydrocharitaceae
ichthyosauriform
incisum
initial capacity
Java tilapia
kogaluk r.
lame-asses
loading dead time
mandrel diameter
mechanics of rocks
mercurimetric determination
methoxypropanediol
micropurchase
mining bees
misheed
model of isostasy
Mātābhānga
Numidia
Obernholz
over-stiff
overall integration
owl car
oxypantetheine
perals
pervader
peuple
Pollaiuolo brothers
primordial potency
priority program
processing cell
pure gas turbine cycle
pyroligneous alcohol
Pénestin
Quaker-ladies
Qurayn, Jab.
read's conjecture
releasing mechanism
replenish stock
saitomycin
salsola sodas
shangais
single phase motor
sitespecific
soap-dodger
solance
special-purpose
sphere packing
ST_science_measurements-in-general
stevedore's hook
strattons
sulfurless
sutura ethmoideomaxillaris
Tinwald
to persist
trade schools
tripartitory
tritanous
vaidhyanathan
vhoes
vibrating-reed meter
water level gauge
water test
white collar
ynolates