練習(xí):
　　When it comes to air pollution, the simple life isn’t necessarily the safest. The most poisonous atmosphere in Asia is found not in rapidly modernizing cities like New Delhi or Beijing but inside the kitchens of homes in rural Asia. Millions of families in the countryside heat their abodes and cook with open fires using cheap fuels that belch carbon monoxide and other noxious fumes at level up to 500 times international safety limits. Rural women and children often spend hours each day in poorly, ventilated kitchens, breathing this putrid air. “This is a problem that has been around forever, as long as humankind has existed, but it’s been ignored,” says Eva Rehfuess, a World Health Organization expert on indoor air pollution. “If you walked into these kitchens, your eyes would start tearing and you would find it difficult to breathe. It’s terrible. ”
　　The WHO estimates that indoor air pollution cause 1.6 million deaths per year in developing countries around the world, up to 555,000 of which occur in India alone-and overwhelmingly it’s the poor who are dying. Villagers have no choice but to use wood, coal or dung fires, raising the risk that young children will be killed by carboj-monoxide poisoning or a bad case of pneumonia ravaging weakened lungs. Likewise, the women who typically keep their home fires burning are vulnerable to chronic respiratory diseases. “Day in and day out for 50 years, some of these women might be cooking six hours a day, exposed to pollutions,” says Rehfuess.
　　Curtailing indoor air pollution can be as simple as replacing open wood fires with better-ventilated cookstoves, but more sophisticated stoves can cost up to $120. China and India, home to the world’s largest rural populations, have launched ambitious national programs in recent decades to supply villagers with safer stoves at subsidized prices. But the programs have not always worked, in India, for example, some 33 million stoves were given out free to villagers in rural areas from 1984 to 2000—but because of a lack of health education or follow-up maintenance, most families abandoned the cookstoves for their old fires within a few years.
　　That’s left nongovernmental organizations like the shell Foundation to step into the gap. It has begun a pilot program with local Indian NGOs in a pair of rural states to develop and market clean, wood-burning stoves that cost just $5-$10 yet can reduce emissions by up to 40%. The project is on track to sell 1000,000 stoves by the end of 2005, and the groups plan to expand the program nationally in the future. Program manager Karen Westley says Shell and its partner NGOs made an effort to sell their customers not just more efficient tools but also the idea that different is better. “You have to make sure people actually want that damn thing,” says Westely. “They need to make the connection between having a better stove, breathing less smoke and experiencing better health in the end.”
　　But habits ingrained by tradition can be hard to break. “They’ve been living with this always, and so have their mothers and grandmothers,” says Rehfuess. “You have to give people the felling they can do something about it.” And that they’ll breathe a lot easier for their trouble.
　　參考譯文:
　　說(shuō)到空氣污染，并不是說(shuō)簡(jiǎn)單的日常生活就必然是最安全的。研究顯示，在亞洲，毒氣最濃的空氣并不在新德里和北京這樣的現(xiàn)代化速度很快的城市，而是在亞洲農(nóng)村家庭的廚房里。在農(nóng)村，上百萬(wàn)的家庭用明火取暖或是做飯，他們使用的是廉價(jià)的燃料，這些燃料所釋放的一氧化碳量和其他有毒霧量是國(guó)際標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的500倍。農(nóng)村地區(qū)的婦女和孩子經(jīng)常每天在通風(fēng)不好的廚房里待上幾個(gè)小時(shí)，呼吸這種有毒的空氣。“這個(gè)問(wèn)題從人類誕生以來(lái)就一直存在著，但是卻一直被忽視了，”一位名叫伊娃.瑞弗絲的世界衛(wèi)生組織室內(nèi)空氣污染方面的專家說(shuō)道，“走進(jìn)廚房你的眼睛就開(kāi)始流淚，而且你會(huì)覺(jué)得呼吸困難，這太可怕了。”
　　世界衛(wèi)生組織估計(jì)，在發(fā)展中國(guó)家，室內(nèi)空氣污染造成每年160萬(wàn)人死亡，其中印度占55萬(wàn)——而且死亡的大部分都是窮人。村民們除了用木頭，煤或者是糞肥來(lái)燒火之外別無(wú)選擇，這樣會(huì)增加小孩子一氧化碳中毒死亡的危險(xiǎn)，肺功能減弱，肺炎得病率增加。同樣，那些在家里生火的婦女很容易得慢性呼吸道疾病。瑞弗絲說(shuō)“有些婦女一天要花6小時(shí)做飯，五十年里日復(fù)一日，每天都生活在污染中。”

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