节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-07-04
难易度:Medium
关键字:assistance, pregnancy, financial, production, premature, Neonatal
Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And you're joining us for a very special lesson: Christian Salvation Service
Celebrates Life.
Actually, we have a very special guest in the studio today.
Welcome, Paula.
Thank you so much.
It's a pleasure to be here.
It's very wonderful to have you here.
We're so glad you could join us.
Paula, would you like to tell us a little bit about Christian Salvation Service
before we get started in the lesson?
I would.
Uh, Christian Salvation Service is a nonprofit Christian organization that helps
babies and women in crisis situations.
And believe me, there are a lot of crisis situations that can affect newborns.
OK. So they're helping women and children in crisis situations.
And Paula, I understand that the 30th anniversary is this week, right?
That's right.
And it's amazing; over 1,600 children and their families have been helped over
the years.
And we have a big group returning to celebrate.
I sent them out a letter, and I said: Come home for the celebration of life and
the celebration of the 30th anniversary, so.
Many adults from Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia and even little... little
kids are coming with their parents.
So it's going to be a busy, busy week.
Well, that sounds wonderful.
It sounds like a great time to celebrate life.
And that's exactly what this organization does.
Let's get started learning about the Christian Salvation Service in the first
part of our reading for today.
(Music).
Christian Salvation Service Celebrates Life.
Remembering 30 years of service while looking to the future.
What do Sweden, the United States, Australia and the Netherlands have in common?
Nearly 1,700 kids from the island of Taiwan - all adopted with the assistance of
Christian Salvation Service (CSS).
Many others have stayed with their birth families with the help of CSS.
Started in 1983, the organization was established to help women and children in
crisis.
Working together since the beginning, Paula Voigtmann and Hsieh Hui-Chen have
seen the organization grow.
It now includes 56 full-time staff, including 16 social workers and 24
child-care workers.
(Music).
The organization has certainly grown.
And this week Christian Salvation Service is remembering 30 years of service
while looking to the future.
It's pretty incredible that it's been 30 years, Christian Salvation Service.
Paula, I do wonder how things maybe have changed over the last 30 years.
Maybe that's a big question?
Well, Paula has certainly changed over the last 30 years.
But, in all honesty, the... the mission is the same.
However, um, the introduction of many good laws in Taiwan to protect against
violence, to protect children's rights,
these laws have been in place now for a number of years.
And this has made it easier to intervene in cases where there really were not
laws to protect, um, children and spouses from domestic violence in the early
years.
So that's a positive.
Um, in a negative way, I would say that um, our... women and children that we
help have more difficult problems today than in the past.
In the early years it was mostly very young girls, uh, 15 or 16 years old who
needed help.
But now most of our referrals come from the government, from prisons as older
women become involved with drugs,
and continue to create the crisis in their life and the life of their newborn
children.
OK. Well, I'm glad that at least the laws have been a big help in this
situation.
But we're going to continue learning about this Christian Salvation Service.
Now at the very beginning of our lesson we read:
What do Sweden, the United States, Australia and the Netherlands have in common?
And what is the answer here?
Well, they have nearly 1,700 kids from the island of Taiwan - all adopted with
the assistance of Christian Salvation Service.
That's right.
Well, before we continue learning about this, let's look at that word from our
Word Bank.
It is "assistance." Assistance basically means help.
So how might you use that word?
Well, if you need assistance, that means that you need help.
You might ask: Can you give me some assistance to complete this project? I can't
do it by myself.
That's right.
And with the help of Christian Salvation Service, these kids have been adopted.
And these countries... or people from these countries have adopted them.
Uh, Paula, I do wonder why these countries in particular, the United States,
Sweden, Australia and the Netherlands?
Well, you know, we have chosen very special families for our children.
Um, we have a criteria that uh, is amazing really because we are very particular
where these children go.
And in the early years we did place many children in the United States because
being an American, I was familiar with that.
I was familiar with the legal system.
But over the years we found that Scandinavia and these countries of Sweden and
Norway that we're working with have wonderful social services,
good security, free education through college.
So we... we really see these children doing well in their communities,
and the parents feeling secure that they can provide everything they will need
either medically or educationally and socially.
Well, it is good to know that so many families are willing to get involved from
these different countries.
So they have helped adopt some of these kids through the help or assistance of
CSS.
And many others have stayed with their birth families with the help of CSS.
So not all of these kids are sent overseas to live with other families.
Uh, some of them remain in Taiwan with their birth families.
That's right.
And we find out that started in 1983, the organization was established to help
women and children in crisis,
which is what Paula mentioned earlier in our introduction that they are trying
to help women and children, babies that need help.
That's right.
And if you are in crisis, that means you're in a difficult time or things are
hard, there is a lot of trouble.
Maybe you need help from the outside.
You're in a crisis situation.
Well, we continue.
Working together since the beginning, Paula Voigtmann and Hsieh Hui-Chen have
seen the organization grow.
She still works together with you, right, Paula?
Absolutely.
All right, so...
We are bookends.
Bookends? What do you mean by that?
I think Georgie on the Chinese side and me on the international side, we hold
the program together like bookends.
That's great.
Well, I'm sure it's helpful to have had a partner since the beginning, right?
Yes.
Well, the organization has grown, and what do we learn about it now?
Well, it now includes 56 full-time staff, including 16 social workers and 24
child-care workers.
So you have quite a large staff now and not just the two of you.
That's right. That's right.
In '83 it was just my friend Georgie, Hsieh Hui-Chen, and... and me.
No way!
And we hired our first uh... unwed mother was became our first secretary.
So we've built from the ground up.
Wow! That is an interesting... way the things have happened for the better.
Sometimes things start out as a crisis, but as you can see, things turn out for
the good.
Well, we're very grateful for what CSS is doing, and we have more to learn over
the next couple of days.
But for right now, it's time for us to take a break.
First, however, we have some special features, right?
That's right.
We need to spend some time with Steve and Ken in the Information Cloud and join
Michelle in the Language Lab.
Friends, be careful when using the word "staff." It's a collective noun, so we
do not add an S after it.
Just like a team, a staff refers to a group of people.
That's right.
A staff and a team are often thought of as a single group of people.
For example, the staff was very kind.
Other times "staff" implies a collection of individuals, as in most of the staff
were American.
If we use "staff" as a plural noun, we can put a number in front of it.
Our lesson today mentions an organization that has 56 full-time staff.
It's saying it has 56 full-time staff members.
That's right.
We cannot say 56 full-time "staffs." The word "members" is implied in that
sentence.
"Staff" can also be used as a verb.
A restaurant might want to hire more cooks until it has staffed the kitchen
fully.
And when all the cooks are hired, we could say the kitchen is fully staffed,
which means there are no more openings.
A related word is staffer, which is an informal word that refers to a member of
a staff.
Staffer is often used in government circles referring to an assistant.
You might talk about a White House staffer or a staffer in a congressional
committee.
(Chinese).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.