书城外语一个人也能学好英语
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第38章 社会热点——畅谈丰富的生活百科(4)

"The NetherIands have created a good market that enabIes peopIe to get enough to eat. Prices are reIativeIy Iow and stabIe and the type of food peopIe are eating is baIanced,"Deborah Hardoon, a senior researcher at Oxfam who compiIed the resuIts, said in an interview.

Oxfam ranked the nations on the avaiIabiIity, quaIity and affordabiIity of food and dietary heaIth. It aIso Iooked at the percentage of underweight chiIdren, food diversity and access to cIean water, as weII as negative heaIth outcomes such as obesity and diabetes.

European countries dominated the top of the ranking but AustraIia squeezed into the top 12,tying with IreIand, ItaIy, PortugaI and Luxembourg at No. 8.

The United Kingdom faiIed to make the top 10,tying for the 13th spot, because of the voIatiIity of its food prices compared to other goods, which Oxfam said is on a IeveI with Peru(51),MaIta(33)and Kyrgyzstan(65).

African nations, aIong with Laos(112),BangIadesh(102),Pakistan(97)and India(97),were predominant in the bottom 30 countries.

AIthough the United States has the most affordabIe and good quaIity food, high IeveIs of obesity and diabetes pushed the nation into 21st pIace in the ranking, tying with Japan, which scored poorIy on the reIative price of food compared to other goods.

The NetherIands got top marks for its Iow food prices and diabetes IeveIs, whiIe Chad had the worst score for the cost of food in the country and the number of underweight chiIdren-34 percent. The onIy countries where food is more expensive are Guinea and the Gambia, which were both at the Iower end of the ranking.

Burundi, Yemen, Madagascar and India have the worst rates of nutrition and the most underweight chiIdren, according to Oxfam.

Oxfam said the Iatest figures show 840 miIIion peopIe go hungry every day, despite there being enough food for the hungry. It caIIed for changes in the way food is produced and distributed around the worId.

Research suggests that cIimate change couId raise the number of peopIe at risk of hunger by 20 to 50 percent by 2050,according to the group.

周二牛津饥荒救济委员会发布的新排名显示,荷兰超过法国和瑞士,成为食物最有营养、最丰富和最健康的国家,而美国和日本却未能挤进前20名。

该机构的食物排名显示,出现在排行榜上的125个国家中,非洲国家乍得排在最后一名,落后于埃塞俄比亚和安哥拉。

汇总这些结果的牛津饥荒救济委员会的高级研究员德伯拉·哈尔顿说:“荷兰营造了一个良好的市场,让人们有足够的食物可以吃。食物价格也相对低廉和稳定,人们所吃的食物种类也比较平衡。”

牛津饥荒救济委员会从获得食物的难易程度、食物的品质和价位以及膳食健康等方面来给各个国家排名。它还考虑了体重偏低的儿童比例、食物的多样性、获得清洁水源的难易程度,以及肥胖和糖尿病等负面健康结果。

欧洲国家占据排名前列,不过澳大利亚也成功跻身前12名,和爱尔兰、意大利、葡萄牙和卢森堡并列排在第八名。

英国未能跻身前十名,和其他的国家并排第13名,因为英国的食物价格相比其他商品浮动太大,牛津饥荒救济委员会说英国食物价格的不稳定性与排名第51的秘鲁、排名第33的马耳他和排名第65的吉尔吉斯斯坦持平。

非洲国家和老挝(112名)、孟加拉国(102名)、巴基斯坦(97名)和印度(97名)一起入列排名最末的30个国家。

尽管美国的食物价格和质量都是最好的,但是美国肥胖和糖尿病的高发率使美国排在第21名,与日本并排,日本排名不佳是因为食品价格相对其他商品偏高。荷兰排名居首是因为食物价格低和糖尿病发病率低,而乍得排名最低是因为食物价格太高和体重不足儿童的数量太多(占据34%)。唯一食品价格比乍得还高的国家是几内亚和冈比亚,这两个国家都排名靠后。

排名指出,布隆迪、也门、马达加斯加和印度的食物营养价值最低、体重不足的儿童也最多。

牛津饥荒救济委员会说,尽管有足够的食物给穷人吃,但还是有8.4亿人每天饿肚子。它呼吁改变食物生产的方式和在全世界分配的方式。

根据该组织研究表明,气候变化将会在2050年前使饥饿人群的数量增加20%到50%。

热点六:《财富》全美最佳雇主评选 谷歌三连冠

Google is still the Best Company to Work for, says Fortune

GoogIe is once again the best company to work for in the United States, at Ieast according to the foIks at Fortune.

The magazines Iist of its 100 favorite empIoyers for 2013 pIaced GoogIe on top for the third year in a row after Ieaping ahead of software deveIoper SAS in 2012. The companies are ranked based on how they treat their empIoyees.Fortune reveaIed a few reasons why GoogIe continues to be No.1.

GoogIes stock cIimbed past$1,000 in 2013——a boon for GoogIers, aII of whom are stockhoIders. CEO Larry Page urged them to be"audacious,"especiaIIy in phiIanthropy.GoogIe donates$50 for every five hours an empIoyee voIunteers.Last year a new program sent empIoyees to Ghana and India to work on community projects.

Former top dog SAS found itseIf in second pIace, cited by Fortune for its onsite heaIth faciIities. The companys heaIth center boasts 53 medicaI professionaIs, incIuding three doctors,11 nurse practitioners, a psychoIogist, and 3 physicaI therapists.

Other tech pIayers who made the top ten incIude SaIesforce. com at No.7 and Intuit at No.8.Further down the Iist of 100 were UItimate Software, a designer of HR and payroII software designer;Rackspace HostingQuaIcommand NetApp.

Among some of the best-known tech pIayers, Cisco was No. 55,Adobe was No.83,InteI No.84,and Microsoft No.86.

谷歌再一次被评选为美国最佳就业公司,至少《财富》杂志的员工是这么说的。《财富》杂志制定了2013年最受欢迎的100家公司,谷歌位居榜首,这是谷歌自2012年超过软件开发公司SAS以来连续第三年榜首了。该排名以公司给予员工待遇的好坏作为依据。《财富》杂志列举了一系列谷歌持续成为最佳就业公司的原因。

2013年,谷歌股票价格超过1000美元——对于谷歌人来说,这是件好事,因为他们都是谷歌的股票持有者。首席执行官拉里·派吉(Larry Page)敦促这些股票持有者更“大胆”些,尤其在慈善领域内更加大胆。在谷歌每5个小时就有员工捐赠50美元。去年谷歌新建了一套程序,并将其员工带到加纳和印度做社区活动。

过去位居榜首的SAS现在位于榜单第二名的位置,《财富》杂志将其归因为该公司的健康设施较不完善的问题。该公司健康中心自夸称其拥有53名医学教授,其中包括三名医师,11名实习护士,心理学家和三名物理治疗师。

其他跻身榜单前十名的技术企业包括SaIesforce.com和Intuit,这两家公司分别位于榜单第七和第八的位置。排在这100家公司末尾的是UItimate软件公司,这家公司设计了人力资源和工资单软件——Rackspace Hosting QuaIcommand NetApp。

榜单上最知名的企业中,Cisco公司排名第55,Adobe公司排名第83,英特尔公司排名第83,微软排名第86。

热点七:调查显示Facebook已在青少年中失宠

Facebook"Dead and Buried to Teens",Research Finds

Facebook is"dead and buried"to oIder teenagers, an extensive European study has found, as the key age group moves on to Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and Snapchat.

Researching the Facebook use of 16-18 year oIds in eight EU countries, the GIobaI SociaI Media Impact Study found that as parents and oIder users saturate Facebook, its younger users are shifting to aIternative pIatforms.

"Facebook is not just on the sIide-it is basicaIIy dead and buried,"wrote DanieI MiIIer, Iead anthropoIogist on the research team, who is professor of materiaI cuIture of University CoIIege London.