实用英语：A ribbon to remind us 谈论艾滋病话题
Ping and Say discuss Aids awareness.Say: Hi Ping, what’s with the red ribbon?
Ping: Oh hello Say, good to see you. The ribbon? It’s just something I
bought to participate in World AIDS Day next week.
Say: Hah! They have a “day” for everything now!
Ping: But AIDS awareness is so important, don’t you think?
Say: To tell you the truth I hadn’t really thought about it that much. I
know it’s mentioned on the News every other day.
Ping: Well that’s because it’s having such a terrible effect around the
world.
Say: But it’s really only a problem for drug users and sex workers, isn’t
it?
Ping: Are you kidding? You need to do some homework Say.
Say: Why?
Ping: Firstly, because it is now very much a concern for the wider
community, and also, because if people keep thinking that it is only something
that affects “fringe minorities” it makes the job of providing care for those
who have it more difficult.
Say: OK. It’s not like I lack compassion but I can’t help thinking, “what’s
it got to do with me?”
Ping: Partly, because it’s another killer virus out there that we haven’t
been able to defeat. Did you know that around 30% of pregnant women in Southern
Africa are diagnosed with HIV?
Say: That seems like an extraordinarily high number! Are you sure?
Ping: Those are the figures just released by the WHO. And you know what
else, their children are born with the disease.
Say: Hell! That’s a pretty poor break in life — as if poverty was not
enough.
Ping: Yeah. Seems like the virus has found its way into the larger
population, with more heterosexuals contracting it.
Say: My god. I just thought it was something Gays and prostitutes and
needle-users got.
Ping: Afraid not. Actually there are quite a lot of AIDS-affected people
here in China who contracted it when they were giving blood.
Say: What? How on earth...
Ping: Through poor needle practices and sloppy medical procedures. And now
thousands of people have had their lives ruined.
Say: But how did AIDS happen in the first place?
Ping: An interesting thought. It seems that it’s a natural virus in the
monkey population — except that it has little effect on monkeys. It’s not all
monkeys of course — just one particular African species. Scientists believe
hunters who ate and handled, and probably got blood on themselves when they
butchered the monkeys for meat — they probably were the first people affected.
Of course it takes years to have “full-blown AIDS,” the first step is HIV and
you can live quite a while suffering that.
Say: Wow! Monkeys huh?
Ping: Right. And you know what? I think we’re going to see more diseases
just like this “come out of the woodwork” in the future.
Say: What gives you that idea?
Ping: Because Nature is paying us back for destroying the planet. There are
all kinds of diseases that are at home deep in the heart of the jungle and in
wild places and in animals and birds that we don’t normally have contact with.
But we’re using more and more of the planet and destroying the habitat of other
creatures — so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that nature is “biting
back.”
Say: So what can we do?
Ping: Well, in the short-term we should all be using safe health practices,
you know, no needle swapping10, using a condom, and keeping clean. And we should
be encouraging our political masters to put more resources into the fight for a
cure. But really we must also be showing compassion to those people who have the
disease. They shouldn’t face a stigma — this is not about finding fault— nobody
WANTS to be sick...
Say: You know, I don’t even know anybody with AIDS. What can I do?
Ping: Actually you may know people with AIDS or HIV. They could be people
who don’t know they’re carrying it, or they could be people who just don’t want
to tell you — because they’re frightened as much about losing their friends as
about losing their lives. What can you do? Make donation to the cause and buy
one of these red ribbons. Think of it as... Insurance!
页:
[1]