大家好，今天我要談?wù)勜毨А?/p>
Poverty has become a critical issue in today's world.
貧困已成為當(dāng)今世界的一個(gè)重大問題。
It concerns not only us sociologists, but alsoeconomists, politicians and business people.
貧困問題不僅讓社會(huì)學(xué)家擔(dān)憂，也讓經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家、政治家和商人擔(dān)憂。
Poverty has been understood in many different ways.
劃分貧困的方法多種多樣。
One useful way is to distinguish between threedegrees of poverty: extreme poverty, moderate poverty, and relative poverty.
一個(gè)有用的方法是區(qū)分三種程度的貧困：極度貧困、中度貧困和相對(duì)貧困。
The first type of poverty is extreme poverty; it's also called absolute poverty.
第一種貧困是極度貧困;它也被稱為絕對(duì)貧困。
In extreme poverty, households cannot meet basic needs for survival.
極度貧困是指，家庭收入不能維持其基本的生存需要。
People are chronically hungry.
人們長(zhǎng)期處于饑餓狀態(tài)。
They are unable to access safe drinking water, let alone health care.
他們連安全的飲用水都喝不到，更別說(shuō)擁有醫(yī)療了。
They cannot afford education for their children.
他們負(fù)擔(dān)不起孩子的教育費(fèi)用。
In short, people who live in extreme poverty do not have even the minimum resources tosupport themselves and their families.
簡(jiǎn)言之，處于極度貧困的人甚至連養(yǎng)活他自己和其家人的最低資源都沒有。
Where does extreme poverty occur?
極度貧困會(huì)在哪里出現(xiàn)呢?
Well, you can find it only in developing countries.
那個(gè)，只有發(fā)展中國(guó)家才會(huì)有。
Well, what about moderate poverty?
那么，中度貧困會(huì)在哪里出現(xiàn)呢?
Unlike extreme poverty, moderate poverty generally refers to conditions of life in which basicneeds are met but barely.
與極度貧困不同，中度貧困一般是指生活條件，基本的生存需要勉強(qiáng)得到滿足。
People living in moderate poverty have the resources to keep themselves alive, but only at avery basic level.
中度貧困的人擁有生存下去的資源，但僅僅是最基本的水平。
For example, they may have access to drinking water, but not clean, safe drinking water.
比如，他們有飲用水可喝，但卻是不干凈、不安全的飲用水。
They may have a home to shelter themselves, but it does not have power supply, a telephoneor plumbing.
他們有屋可住，但屋里沒有電、電話或管道設(shè)施。
The third kind of poverty is relative poverty.
第三種貧困是相對(duì)貧困。
Relative poverty is generally considered to be a household income level, which is below a givenproportion of average family income.
相對(duì)貧困通常被認(rèn)為是家庭收入水平，它低于人均家庭收入的特定范圍。
The relatively poor live in high-income countries, but they do not have a high incomethemselves.
相對(duì)貧困者雖然居住在高收入國(guó)家，但他們本身的收入?yún)s并不高。
The method of calculating the poverty line is different from country to country,
不同的國(guó)家有不同的計(jì)算貧困線的方法，
but we can say that basically a family living in relative poverty has less than a percentage of theaverage family income.
但基本上可以說(shuō)，相對(duì)貧困家庭的收入要低于一定比例的人均家庭收入。
For example, in the United States, a family can be considered poor if their income is less than 50% of the national average family income.
例如，在美國(guó)，如果一個(gè)家庭的收入不及全國(guó)的人均家庭收入的一半，那它就是貧困家庭。
They can meet their basic needs, but they lack access to cultural guts, entertainment andrecreation.
他們可以維持基本的需要，但卻很難滿足享受文化、娛樂活動(dòng)和消遣的需要。
They also do not have access to quality health care, or other prerequisites for upward socialmobility.
他們也不能享受優(yōu)質(zhì)的醫(yī)療，或缺少向上層社會(huì)流動(dòng)的先決條件。
Well, I have briefly explained to you how poverty can be distinguished as extreme poverty, moderate poverty and relative poverty.
好了，我已向你們簡(jiǎn)要介紹了如何區(qū)分極度貧困、中度貧困和相對(duì)貧困。
We should keep these distinctions in mind when we research people's living conditions, either inthe developing or the developed world.
日后，無(wú)論我們研究的是發(fā)展中國(guó)家人們的生活狀況，還是研究發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家人們的生活狀況，都要記住這些區(qū)別。
Questions 23 to 25 are based on the passage you have just heard.
問題23至25是基于你剛才所聽到的那段錄音。
Question 23: What does the speaker do?
問題23：說(shuō)話者是做什么的?
Question 24: Where does the speaker say we can find extreme poverty?
問題24：說(shuō)話者說(shuō)哪里會(huì)出現(xiàn)極度貧困?
Question 25: What do we learn about American people living in relative poverty?
問題25：我們了解到了相對(duì)貧困的美國(guó)人的什么信息?
