VOA慢速英语:Greek Spending Cuts Clear Way for Loans

play stop

mute max volume

00:00

00:00

repeat

Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.

Greece has approved a plan to raise taxes, cut spending and sell government-owned assets. This clears the way for seventeen billion dollars in loans from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. The loans are a share of the one-hundred-fifty-six-billion-dollar rescue deal that Greece secured last year.
希腊已经批准了提高税收，削减支出和出售国有资产的计划。这将为希腊从国际货币基金组织和欧盟获得170亿美元的贷款扫清了道路。这些贷款是希腊去年获得的1560亿美元贷款的一部分。

The money will help the government to operate and pay its debts until the middle of September. But the austerity plan led to a national strike on Tuesday and Wednesday, along with violent demonstrations in Athens.
这笔资金将帮助希腊政府维持正常运作及偿还债务直到9月中旬。但是紧缩计划导致周二和周三的全国大罢工，雅典甚至出现了暴力示威活动。

(SOUND)

Several hundred protesters and police were injured.
几百名抗议者和警察受伤。

The Greek parliament approved the forty-billion-dollar plan on Wednesday and the details on Thursday. Prime Minister George Papandreou won more support than expected for his proposals. He appealed to parliament to do everything possible to avoid defaulting on the debts of the birthplace of democracy.
希腊议会在周三通过了价值400亿美元的计划，周四通过了相关细节。总理帕潘德里欧的提议赢得的支持超过预期。他呼吁议会采取一切可能的措施避免拖欠民主的发源地的债务。

(SOUND)

"There is a choice," he said. "We can remain a Greece which has a huge public sector, or change to a Greece which has an effective democratic and productive public sector."
“这是一个选择，我们可以继续拥有一个庞大的公共服务部门，也可以将希腊改变为高效的，民主的，生产力高的公共服务部门。”

Greece is expected to seek more international help, even though years of government borrowing led to the crisis.
希腊预计将寻求更多国际帮助，尽管这次危机就是由于政府几年来的借贷造成的。

Many protesters said their government is making decisions that serve the interests of wealthy nations.
许多抗议者称政府作出的决策是为发达国家的利益服务的。

WOMAN: "I want to feel Greek again. But I’m not Greek. I’m German, I’m American. I don’t know what I am.”
WOMAN：“我希望再次感到自己是希腊人。但是现在我觉得自己不像希腊人，而是德国人，美国人。我不知道自己到底是什么人。”

But other Greeks, including this man, see the need for austerity.
但是其他希腊人，包括这名男子在内，则能够理解紧缩措施的必要性。

MAN: “I think the policies are a good step towards finding common ground with the European Union, which is I think a vision that all Greeks should aspire to. I don’t think any country can operate in isolation these days, especially a country the size of Greece.”
MAN：“我认为这些政策是与欧盟寻找共同点的正确的一步。我认为所有希腊人都希望这样。我认为在现代社会，任何一个国家都不可能孤立地运作，尤其是一个像希腊这么大的国家。”

Also this week, the International Monetary Fund chose French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde as managing director. Ms. Lagarde received support from the United States and European nations as well as Russia, Brazil and China. Her five-year term starts Tuesday.
同样是在本周，国际货币基金组织选择法国财长拉加德担任新的总裁。拉加德受到了美国，欧洲国家，俄罗斯，巴西和中国的支持。她五年的任期将从周二开始。

Dominique Strauss-Khan had to resign in May. He is under house arrest in New York, charged with sexually attacking a hotel maid. He denies the charges.
前国际货币基金组织总裁卡恩五月份被迫辞职。他被控告性侵犯酒店一名女服务员，现在被软禁在纽约。他否认了所有指控。

The international lender has always been led by a European, but Ms. Lagarde will be the first woman.
国际货币基金组织一向由欧洲人担任总裁，但是拉加德将成为担任该职位的首位女性。

Ms. Lagarde has promised to be a strong voice for developing countries, especially in Asia and Africa. But international monetary expert Domenico Lombardi says being a European will also help.
拉加德已经承诺更大限度地代表发展中国家的意见，尤其是亚洲和非洲。但是国际货币专家Domenico Lombardi称，作为欧洲人也是有很大的帮助的。

DOMENICO LOMBARDI: "And one key factor in guiding this decision is certainly the ability for Christine Lagarde as a European coming from a key euro area country to exert pressure, leverage on her European fellow finance ministers in terms of taking a more aggressive stance on the European crisis."
Domenico Lombardi：“导致该决定的其中一个关键因素当然是因为拉加德来自关键的欧元区国家，作为欧洲人，在应对欧洲危机方面采取更坚定的立场方面她可以向欧洲各国财长施加压力和影响力。”