Home Equity Mortgage Payment Home Equity Mortgage Payment Home Equity Mortgage Payment Payment

Www Homeequitymortgagepayment V Home Equity Mortgage Payment Home Equity Mortgage Payment Home Equity Mortgage Payment Szh Gaoshou Asp Home Equity Mortgage Payment 美国之音Special English听力原文（第一部分）-巅峰英语，Just Climb It!-我的搜狐

Www Homeequitymortgagepayment V Home Equity Mortgage Payment Home Equity Mortgage Payment Home Equity Mortgage Payment Szh Gaoshou Asp Home Equity Mortgage Payment

searchu Mortgage i Mortgage F Home s Equity ds Home gn Asp d Mortgage fo Homeequitymortgagepayment hr Www Mortgage itsearchne Mortgage .E Equity osearche Mortgage i Equity Sz qu Payment t Equity sasearchchw Asp esearchrc Payment r Homeequitymortgagepayment Szh Payment s Home a Equity ch Www Home a Www mesearcht Mortgage isearchPaymetsearcht Home w Equity searchs Home arsearchh Asp a Pa Mortgage men Home Mortgage Paysearchent t Homeequitymortgagepayment E Equity u Szh ty W Mortgage asearchmet Payment amsearchnt NsearchMsearchrsearchg Home gesearcht o Gaoshou tg Mortgage ge Payment ssearcharchi Payment searchayment Asp seasearchc Mortgage nys Gaoshou arhn Payment Hom Mortgage e Homeequitymortgagepayment uit Homeequitymortgagepayment mort Payment agsearchpayentsearchdto Mortgage c Home v Home r Equity sev Payment rlkilm Home tr Home f esearchr Home t Payment ry.Ysearchtsearch i Mortgage e Home ez Payment e Mortgage a Home antosearchkusin Home W Szh LDsearchet Mortgage t Mortgage cnl Payment g Mortgage Payment n Mortgage p Equity cisearchl Homeequitymortgagepayment o Mortgage t Payment a Mortgage esearchr Mortgage a Payment h Mortgage s Home over searchhre Payment h Equity n Homeequitymortgagepayment research i Szh h Asp y Www kilomt Payment r Mortgage . Www

Each endpoint in a WiLDNet uses a router that takes only about seven watts of power. It can be powered by car batteries, energy from the sun or electricity from a local provider.

The routers cost about four hundred dollars. But Eric Brewer tells us the price should be less once the technology is finalized for mass production. The networks use antennas aided by relays in places where they cannot be stationed in direct line of sight of one another.

WiLDNets can be used for humanitarian or business purposes or both. The hope is that companies will expand connectivity in rural markets.

Rural schools in Ghana and the Philippines are using WiLDNets to connect to the Internet. And in Guinea-Bissau, networks are being used to link community radio stations.

In southern India, a WiLDNet connects eye-care centers in poor villages to an eye hospital in the city of Theni. Villagers receive care from doctors at the hospital through videoconferencing. So far, thirty thousand patients have been examined this way. Eric Brewer says three thousand patients with especially serious vision problems now are able to see much better as a result of their care.

One more thing about Professor Brewer: he is a former billionaire. He and a Berkeley graduate student formed the Internet search company Inktomi in nineteen ninety-six. It became profitable. But the dot-com crash and rising competition from shook the company and it was sold to Yahoo in two thousand three.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss.

¤注解¤:

1. fidelity   [fi5deliti]   n. (收音机, 录音设备等的)逼真度
2. router   [5rautE]   n.刳刨者, 刳刨工具, 刳刨机
3. antenna   [An5tenE]   n. 天线
4. billionaire   [biljE5nZE]   n. A person whose wealth amounts to at least a billion dollars 亿万富翁

'Agflation' Raises Grain Prices, but Not Corn Ethanol

Written by Mario Ritter
October 5th, 2007

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Right now, many people around the world are feeling the pain of "agflation." Agricultural inflation has been hitting the price of grains and other products. Food prices have risen under pressure from energy costs and growing world demand for food, as well as local problems like the weather.

In the United States, grain prices are reaching historic highs. And supplies have dropped to lows not seen since the nineteen seventies. For one of America's leading crops, the growing use of corn to make fuel has driven up the price.

The government has strongly supported ethanol production. In two thousand five, Congress set a national goal of using twenty-eight billion liters of ethanol a year by two thousand twelve. President Bush and Congress have since expanded that goal. As a result, farmers are planting more corn.

But more hectares of maize for ethanol mean fewer hectares for crops like soybeans. Meat producers now have to pay more for soybeans because there is less available for animal feed. This is how corn-based ethanol affects the price of meat products.

Rising grain prices could signal a change for agricultural commodities around the world.

For years, developing countries have opposed government support for farmers in wealthy nations. They make the case that farm subsidies drive down prices for agricultural products, hurting poor farmers. Subsidies have been one of the major disputes limiting progress in the Doha development round of world trade talks.

Now, there is worry that the increasing demand for food could drive prices too high, hurting the buying power of the world's poor.

Many developing countries have a growing middle class. More people than ever have money to buy high-value agricultural products like meat and milk. In China, for example, Premier Wen Jiabao has called for increased milk production. More milking cows means the need for more feed.

Yet prices are not rising for all agriculture-based products. In the United States, while the price of corn remains high, it has not affected ethanol prices. In fact, in recent months, those prices have dropped about thirty percent. Production has expanded faster than demand, so now there is a big oversupply of ethanol.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and archives of our broadcasts are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

¤注解¤:

1. ethanol   [5eWEnC:l, -nEul] n. 乙醇, 酒精
2. maize   [meiz]    n. 玉米, 黄色
3. soybean   [`sRIbi:n]   n. 大豆
4. oppose   [E5pEuz]   vt. To be resistant to 反对, 使对立, 使对抗, 抗争

Bush Announces Some Troops Will Leave Iraq; Democrats Want More

Written by Brianna Blake
September 15th, 2007

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

This week, President Bush said he will bring home almost six thousand American troops from Iraq by the end of the year. He also accepted the advice of his top commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, for limited reductions by next July.

The president said his decisions on troop levels are being guided by the idea of what he called return on success. He said the reductions are possible because his decision to send additional troops earlier this year has improved security.

Troop levels in Iraq rose from around one hundred thirty thousand to nearly one hundred seventy thousand.

The president spoke from the White House Thursday night. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island answered for the Democratic Party which controls Congress. He said an endless and unlimited military presence in Iraq is not a choice. He said the Democrats propose to begin what he called a responsible and rapid redeployment of American troops out of Iraq.

A public opinion study by the Associated Press this week showed that almost two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the war. It also showed that fifty-eight percent believe the troop increase, known as the surge, has not helped the situation in Iraq.

The president spoke hours after a bomb killed a local Sunni leader he met during a visit to Anbar last week. Mister Bush called him "one of the brave tribal sheiks who helped lead the revolt against al-Qaeda" in that province.

The president again sought to link the war with security at home. He said the nation must succeed for the safety of future generations of Americans.

But Senator Reed warned that American interests throughout the world are being damaged. And he said the armed forces are being stretched toward the breaking point.

Democrats say the recent troop increase in Iraq has failed to meet what was supposed to be the main goal. That was to give Iraqi leaders the chance to work for political unity.

President Bush said Iraq's national leaders are getting some things done. For example, he noted that they have passed a budget and are sharing oil money with the provinces. He said efforts to unite warring groups are making progress locally. As local politics change, he said, so will national politics.

Congress wants the Iraqi government to meet eighteen political and security goals. On Friday, the White House gave a new report on these goals, known as benchmarks. The Iraqis are making satisfactory progress on nine of them, it says, one more than in the last report in July.

Also Friday, the State Department released its International Religious Freedom Report for two thousand seven. It says that over the past year, the violence in Iraq greatly harmed the ability of all religious believers to practice their faith. It says many individuals were victims of kidnapping, killings and other abuse because of their religious identity.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English -- online at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

¤注解¤:

1. additional   [E5diFEnl]   adj. 另外的, 附加的, 额外的
2. disapprove   [7disE5pru:v]   v. To have an unfavorable opinion: 不赞成
3. revolt   [ri5vEult]   v. To attempt to overthrow the authority of the state; rebel. 反抗, 起义
4. warring   [5wC:riN]   adj. 敌对的, 交战的

Child Deaths Found at Record Low

Written by Jill Moss
September 24th, 2007

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

UNICEF says a record low number of children are dying before the age of five. The United Nations Children's Fund has records back to nineteen sixty. It says the number has dropped below ten million a year for the first time.

By comparison, there were almost thirteen million deaths in nineteen ninety.

The newest report says nine million seven hundred thousand children under five died last year. Almost half were in southern Africa. Just over three million were in South Asia.

UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman called the new findings historic but still unacceptable. She says most of the deaths are preventable.

UNICEF says much of the progress is the result of increased efforts for early health interventions. One example is feeding babies only breast milk for the first six months. Also, vaccinating children against measles has saved many lives. So has the use of vitamin A to strengthen children's immune systems, and chemically treated bed nets to prevent malaria.

Morocco, Vietnam and the Dominican Republic have reduced child deaths by more than one-third since nineteen ninety-nine. Madagascar has cut its rate by forty-one percent; Sao Tome and Principe by nearly half.

UNICEF says progress in Asia, especially in China and India, has helped drive the worldwide reduction since nineteen ninety. Death rates have dropped sharply in Latin America and the Caribbean, former Soviet republics and countries in East Asia and the Pacific.

Some countries in sub-Saharan Africa have also made considerable gains. Malawi’s under-five death rate dropped by twenty-nine percent between two thousand and two thousand four. Reductions of more than twenty percent were reported in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda and Tanzania as well.

In nineteen ninety, Asia had the most child deaths. Now, rates are highest in west and central Africa. Gains in child survival have fallen to the spread of H.I.V and AIDS. By two thousand fifteen, Africa south of the Sahara could have almost sixty percent of all deaths in children under five.

But UNICEF says Latin America and the Caribbean are on a path to reach a U.N. Millennium Development Goal. The goal is to reduce the death rate in children under five by two-thirds from nineteen ninety levels -- and to do that by two thousand fifteen.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember.

¤注解¤:

1. preventable   [prI5ventEb(E)l] adj. 可阻止的, 可预防的
2. intervention   [7intE(:)5venFEn] n. 干涉
3. malaria   [mE5lZEriE]   n. 疟疾, 瘴气
4. considerable [kEn5sidErEbl] adj. Worthy of consideration; significant: 相当大(或多)的, 值得考虑的, 相当可观的

Citigroup's Prince Resigns as CEO

Written by Mario Ritter
November 9th, 2007

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Last week, we told you about big losses at the investment bank Merrill Lynch. But the losses may be even bigger at the nation's biggest bank, Citigroup.

Citigroup estimated this week that it would take losses of eight billion to eleven billion dollars on investments in risky housing loans. Many people who bought houses with subprime mortgages are now unable to pay them back.

The estimated write-downs are for the bank's current period, October through December. Citigroup says they represent five to seven billion dollars after taxes. The bank reported six and a half billion dollars in credit-related losses for the third quarter of the year.

Charles Prince, Citigroup's chief executive officer, resigned under pressure on Sunday. He led the New York-based bank since two thousand three. He took over for Sanford Weill who built Citi into one of the world's largest financial groups.

Win Bischoff, chairman of Citi Europe and a British and German citizen, will serve as chief executive for now. Former United States treasury secretary Robert Rubin was named chairman of the board. He will help lead the search for a permanent replacement for the C.E.O.

Charles Prince was the second head of a major bank to be forced out in recent days. Last week, Stan O'Neal resigned at Merrill Lynch after his company reported a loss for the third quarter of over two billion dollars. Merrill Lynch had to write-down eight billion dollars in mortgage-related losses.

Citigroup announced that it has fifty-five billion dollars worth of investments directly related to subprime mortgages. Forty-three billion dollars of that is in complex investments called collateralized debt obligations.

A big problem for banks is putting a value on the mortgage-related securities that they hold. Investors are no longer interested in trading these securities. This has frozen the market for them. So banks like Citigroup depend on mathematical models to place a value on these complex investments.

Credit rating agencies reacted to this week's bad news. Moody's Investors Service lowered Citigroup's credit rating one level to its third highest rating. Moody's said the expected write-downs would result in a sizeable quarterly loss for Citigroup.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. To learn more about the problems with subprime mortgages, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

¤注解¤: