英语高级听力 04 课 (听力及原文部分)
(2010-03-27 21:16:24)
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Lesson Four
Section One: News in Brief
1. Another American has been kidnapped in West Beirut. Fifty-three-year-old Frank Reed was abducted by four gunmen this morning. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, accusing Reed of being a spy. The pro-Iranian group already holds at least three other Americans and three Frenchmen. Reed is the Director of the Lebanese International School. He is a native of Malden, Massachusetts and has lived in Lebanon for eight years.
2. A federal jury in Brooklyn, New York today indicted a Soviet UN employee on charges of spying. Gennadi Zakharov is being held without bond, pending trial on the charges. John Kailish has more from New York. "The thirty-nine-year-old Soviet physicist worked at the UN Center for Science and Technology until August 23rd when he was arrested on a Queens Subway platform for allegedly buying military secrets from a college student. It turned out that the student worked for the FBI and was known by the code name 'Berg.' According to today's indictment, Zakharov agreed to pay Berg for information involving the national defense of the United States. Berg, in turn, agreed to work for the Soviet Union for a period of ten years. The two met a total of four times, from April 1983 to August of 1986. At their final meeting, Zakharov allegedly gave Berg a thousand dollars. Zakharov is currently being held in a federal jail in Manhattan. He faces life in prison if convicted on the espionage charges.'
3. The foreign editor of a news magazine recently banned in Chile has been found shot dead near a cemetery in Santiago. The family of Jose Carrasco says he was taken from his home by armed men who claimed to be police. Carrasco's magazine, Analisis, has been banned under the new state of siege imposed in Chile after an attempt this weekend to assassinate President Augusto Pinochet. Since the attempt, police have been rounding up opposition leaders although the deny the arrested Carrasco.
Section Two: News in Detail
In Chile, the military government held a rally today- in support of President Augusto Pinochet, who escaped an assassination attempt two days ago. A crackdown on opponents of his government continued in response to that attack. A journalist for an opposition magazine was found dead. His family and colleagues charge he had been kidnapped yesterday by police. Tim Fosca reports now from Santiago.
Several thousand people gathered in front of La Moneda, the presidential palace, for a rally in support of General Augusto Pinochet this afternoon. Heavily armed soldiers were stationed along major downtown streets for the demonstration, which is celebrating the thirteenth anniversary this week of the military takeover. Hundreds of members of women's charity groups passed in review before General Pinochet and his wife Lucia. The head of state appeared physically unaffected by his close call Sunday when he narrowly escaped assassination. Hours before the rally, Jose Carrasco, a thirty-eight-year-old editor at the opposition magazine Analisis was found dead in a Santiago cemetery. He had been shot ten times. Carrasco's wife said he was roused from bed early Monday morning by men claiming to be police. But authorities officially denied his arrest. Carrasco, a member of MIR, the revolutionary left movement, had been back in Chile only two years after eight years in exile.
The bodies of at least two more murdered victims were also found today, but their identities have not yet been established. Arrests continued in the second day of the state of siege. More leftist political figures were rounded up, bringing the total number of detentions to twenty. The government has issued arrest orders for a number of others, some of whom are in hiding. On the list is at least one member of the Chilean Human Rights Commission. A spokesman said the homes of Commission members in the provincial city of San Fernando were also raided, but no members were at home. All opposition magazines were ordered closed yesterday, including the Christian democratic weekly, Hoy. Under the last state of siege in 1984 and 85, Hoy was allowed to continue publishing. The situation of five foreign priests and one local lay worker detained yesterday remains unresolved. The clergymen were accused of attacking police officers and carrying instructions on how to make home-made bombs. General Pinochet warned yesterday that human rights advocates would have to be expelled. For National Public Radio, this is Tim Fosca in Santiago.
Section Three: Special Report
Fifty years ago, Henry Ford and his son Edsel, placed a modest amount of their vast wealth into a charitable foundation. That was the common practice then and is now for wealthy Americans. The once modest foundation has grown into the largest general purpose charitable organization in the world. The Ford Foundation has given away more than six billion dollars. Its money has touched every aspect of American life, touched the arts, science and even public radio. Warren Kozak has this report.
A symphony orchestra in the Midwest, an inner-city building project, Africa's chronic food shortages. These varied activities have one thing in common: all have received money from the Ford Foundation. Just off New York's Forty-second Street, in the shadow of the United Nations, a modern building with a huge glass wall serves as the world headquarters of the Ford Foundation. Besides giving away money, the Foundation has always attracted some of the country's best minds.
'Well, I should tell you that I do not join any organization, including Ford Foundation, unless it can satisfy two criteria.''
Former Secretary of Defense, World Bank President, and Ford Board member, Robert McNamara.
“One, I insist that it be an organization I feel some capability of contributing to. And, secondly, I insist it be an organization that can contribute to me that can stimulate my interest, enlarge my understanding of the world. I should say that it has been, I think the most interesting association of my life.”
At the Foundation's headquarters, a staff of more than three hundred people studies data from all over the world, spots trends and writes recommendations. In the large board room, the directors argue the merits of individual requests and eventually decide who will get what part of the one hundred and twenty-five million dollars that goes out every year. If you think giving away that kind of money, is easy, you're wrong.
There is no question that today's Ford Foundation with a four and a half billion-dollar endowment is a force of its own. But it wasn't always that way. You see, back in 1936, there were just a few large foundations when Henry and Edsel started their small project. Their original contribution was only twenty-five thousand dollars and its main function was to help local charities in Michigan. Then in 1943, son Edsel died unexpectedly, followed four years later by his father. And the family lawyers had a huge problem on their hands. At the time of their deaths, the Ford Motor Company was not a public corporation. These two men owned most of the stock and, for tax reasons, a great deal of it had to be disposed of and quickly.
There was only one logical recipient of the windfall. So, in the late forties, the sleepy Michigan charity became, almost overnight, the largest foundation in the world. The Third World development programs also continue to take a lot of heat from time to time. Millions of dollars have been poured into what seems to be a bottomless pit. Some problems have been solved only to find new ones taking their place. Robert McNamara defends Ford's involvement there. He thinks Foundations offer something that no one else is able to do, because without their research the government's foreign aid would be wasted.
“It's insane to put as much money, invest as much money, per year with as inadequate an intellectual foundation of how to maximize the efficiency of those investments. And Africa is a perfect illustration of the problem. Tens of billions of dollars are being invested in Africa today. They need more. But, despite that investment, the GNP growth per capita in the countries of sub-Saharian Africa has been negative, on average, for a decade. The food production per, capita has been negative, per capita, for over a decade. Why? Who knows? Nobody knows. And governments are too large; they're too rigid; they're too inflexible; they're too sensitive, really, unable to move as rapidly, and in some ways, as radically as is necessary to find the answer to that question.”
This year the Ford Foundation will receive about nine thousand formal requests for money. All of the letters and forms will be looked at; some will be studied more closely; and about twelve hundred lucky projects will receive anywhere from a thousand dollars to several million to help them along the way. I'm Warren Kozak in Washington.