VOA常速英语:Africa’s High Cost of Adapting to Climate Change

短语讲解：

1. Ward, director at Vivid Economics, said up to 50 percent of Africa’s population live in countries that are most exposed to the physical impacts of climate change.

expose to暴露于
例句：Don't expose it to the sun.
谨防日晒。

2. “Africa faces some pretty severe challenges largely because its economy is so heavily centered around agriculture, which is well known to be particularly sensitive to variation in climate change,” he said.

center around集中于…; 包围, 围绕
例句：The issue centers around academic freedom.
争论围绕学术自由的问题展开。
be known to为…所熟知
例句：He is known to everyone in this university.
在这所大学里, 人人都知道他。

3. The abilities of countries in Africa to respond to the changing climate with a degree of flexibility to create new opportunities.

respond to对…反应; 回答；对…作出回应
例句：She responded to the news by bursting into tears.
她听到那个消息后眼泪夺眶而出。

4. And again, Africa, unfortunately, tends to do pretty badly against many of those indicators

tend to趋向
例句：My grandmother tends to go to bed early every day.
我祖母每天通常比较早睡。

5. The report estimates it will cost between $20 and $30 billion a year for the next 10 to 20 years for Africa to adapt to climate change.

adapt to变得习惯于…, 使适应于, 能应付…
例句：I adapted quickly to the new climate.
我很快地适应了这种新的气候。

6. The continent is being looked upon to produce a great deal more food over the coming decades to help meet global demand.

look upon看作,显得不错
例句：I look upon them as my compatriots.
我把他们都视为同胞。

7. And so if you factor that into the challenges already created by Africa’s growing population, then clearly it becomes an absolutely critical issue to deal with

deal with应付, 处理; 对待
例句：There are many difficulties to be dealt with when starting a new business.
开展一项新业务时, 有许多困难需要解决。