零九年新春高级口译考试第一部分听力刚刚结束。听力的第一道题目，是新东方口译课堂上讲的考试十大热点中的人道主义话题之下的粮食危机，我们也静待之后的题目涉及其他九大热点话题。
对于food shortage这一话题，属于08年下半年到09年上半年的加沙地带及非洲的热点话题，也是世界范围内的焦点之一。在新东方高口课堂上我曾提过要大家去CNN关注这一话题。对参加今后高级口译的同学，要抓住考试 “时效性”和 “实用性” 的特点。（双 “S” 特征）在词汇的复习上需要关注考试日期前一年的世界热点。平时可以关注CNN或VOA的网页，一段时间内提及频率最高的话题即是该时间段的热点。不出意外的话，09年的最热话题应该还是经济危机这一话题。相关的经济类基本热词可以到我博客的考试专区中找到。
粮食危机这一话题的词汇不是问题。所以对听写这一部分考试来说，重点永远是口译的基本素质---速记。关于如何在短时间内提高基本的速记本领，我在上海新东方考前串讲和上海新东方模考讲评中介绍了短期能迅速突破并解决考试基本速记分数的四种方法，分别是音节法、数字法、单字母法和头尾法。在这次考试中，尤其对音节法和单字母法的应用较多，大家可以将本次考试答案和我课堂上的高频缩写词笔记进行比较。本题针对速记应考的策略应是抓住重点的词汇。把一些几乎每次必考的词汇速记符号熟记于胸，先得到基本的分数。除此之外，熟词速记后节省出的时间可使其他词汇的记录更加从容不迫。
本篇考试文章选自于网络的一篇文章：
Is hunger really a problem in the United States?
When Americans think about hunger, we usually think in terms of mass starvation in far-away countries, but hunger too often lurks in our own backyards. In 2004, 35.1 million people, including 12.4 million children, in the United States did not have access to enough food for an active healthy life. Some of these individuals relied on emergency food sources and some experienced hunger.
Who is going hungry in the U.S.?
Although most people think of hungry people and homeless people as the same, the problem of hunger reaches far beyond homelessness. While the thought of 35.1 million people being hungry or at the risk of hunger may be surprising, it is the faces of those 35.1 million individuals that would probably most shock you.
The face of hunger is the older couple who has worked hard for their entire lives only to find their savings wiped out by unavoidable medical bills; or a single mother who has to choose whether the salary from her minimum wage job will go to buy food or pay rent; or a child who struggles to concentrate on his schoolwork because his family couldn’t afford dinner the night before. A December 2006 survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors estimated that 48 percent of those requesting emergency food assistance were either children or their parents.
Aren't most of the people going to soup kitchens to blame for their own situation?
Another study, commissioned by America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest network of food banks, found that about 36 percent of households seeking emergency food banks assistance had one or more family member currently employed. Hunger is becoming a growing problem among the working poor.
Although the number of people participating in the Food Stamp Program has risen in recent years, about 40 percent of currently eligible people still do not participate, often because of they do not know that they are eligible or face various other barriers to participation. Food banks have had to help fill the gap. Indeed, America’s Second Harvest estimates that they serve over 25 million people per year, just about the same as the number of people who receive Food Stamp benefits (25.7 million). |
