[VOA听写] 2008-04-11

作者: Hugh 在四月 11th, 2008 发表

欢迎来到“杂乱的书桌”每天准时为你带来的VOA听写，本期的慢速VOA是美国人上高中的新闻第一部分，标准VOA则是关于女性领导的新闻的第二部分。还犹豫什么，赶紧和Hugh一起加入到学习英语，锻炼听写的队伍中来吧！

其实想多总结出写内容来，可是感觉尽管才听了大概40天的VOA，进步还是有一些的，听不出来的内容比刚开始的时候少了很多，所以总结也就越来越短了。前两天一个朋友建议我说既然以后准备去学金融，不妨听听Bloomberg看看，不是别人提醒，都忘了原来还听过一段时间的Bloomberg呢。

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题目: New Study Adds to Evidence That Too Many Americans Do Not Finish High School (1/2)

专有名词: Wichita, Kansas

重点总结: N/A

原文

A new report says only about half of all students in the main school systems of America’s largest cities finish high school. The report notes higher rates of graduation – more than seventy percent – in areas surrounding the cities.

The editorial projects in education research center prepared the report. Researchers studied high school graduation rates from the 2003-2004 school year. They also identify the nations fifty largest cities. The largest New York city had a population of more than eight million. The smallest city was Wichita Kansas it had about three hundred sixty thousand people. Researchers used a system of measurement called the Cumulative Promotion Index to find graduation rates.

School official in many of the cities studied say the resulting numbers were too low. That is because different areas use different methods to find graduation rates. Critics say many methods do not give a true picture of the number of students who leave high school before finishing.

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题目: Five Honored for Women’s Leadership (2/2)

专有名词: Shan Women’s Action Network, Thailand, Burma, Kakenya, Ntaiya, Pittsburgh, Maasai

重点总结: solidarity（团结）, circumcision（割礼）

原文

She co-founded the Shan Woman’s Action Network which is based in Thailand and document rapes and other abuses by Burma’s military government against women and girls.

“For us, for the women of Burma, this award means a lot to us. Because every statement, every single action, every award like this, make sure it’s also a message of solidarity that the world has not given up on our hopes for future democratic and free Burma.”

Other award recipients included Kakenya in Ntaiya, a young Kenya woman who negotiated with her father, and agreed to undergo female circumcision, if he allowed her to go to school. She later won a scholarship to attend university in the United States and is now finishing her doctorate in education at the University of Pittsburgh. She plans to start a boarding school for girls and for her Maasai village in Kenya.

Vital Voices is a non-governmental organization that trains emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs. Since 1997, the group has mentored more that 5,000 women leaders from 150 countries who later returned home to train more that 100,000 additional women in their communities.