[ti:Gates Foundation: Sex, Environment Determine Child’s Future] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.01]While living conditions in many areas have improved in recent years, [00:07.19]a child's place of birth is still the biggest predictor of its future. [00:15.48]Oh, yes – and no matter where you are born, life is more difficult if you are a girl. [00:24.89]These claims come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, [00:31.29]a leading philanthropic organization for health and development. [00:37.23]The group reports that some 500 million people worldwide lack basic health care or education. [00:48.56]It also found that girls everywhere suffer from discrimination. [00:55.36]The new report is the foundation's third on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. [01:05.47]The report looks at efforts to reduce inequality and poverty and improve health around the world. [01:16.08]It follows progress on 17 measures that most UN member countries [01:24.10]have said they will try to reach by the year 2030. [01:30.58]Those efforts are falling short, says Bill Gates, [01:36.29]the 63-year-old co-founder of Microsoft Corporation. [01:42.93]He sat down with VOA at the foundation's offices in Seattle, Washington, before the report's release. [01:54.56]"As much progress as we're making, [01:58.70]a child in many countries still over 10% are dying before the age of five. [02:07.54]And in richer countries, it is less than 1%," said Gates. [02:13.56]"So the idea that any place in the world is still 10%, [02:19.11]some almost 15%...should galvanize us to do a better job." [02:26.93]The results "prove that the world's investments in development aren't reaching everyone," the report said. [02:37.33]It noticed progress in the education of girls. [02:41.93]But it also found that women's opportunities are limited [02:47.23]by social customs, discriminatory laws, and violence. [02:53.84]"If you reduce the child death rate, families...choose to have less children. [03:01.46]As you educate women, more families...choose to have less children," Gates said. [03:09.10]Smaller families can reduce poverty. [03:13.98]Gates Foundation chief executive Sue Desmond-Hellmann [03:20.08]says the clearest warnings from the report were of the dangers of "gender and geography." [03:28.44]She said the report showed that more children die in Chad every day than in Finland every year. [03:38.54]Also, Finland's average education is up to college level, [03:45.00]while in Chad the average child does not finish primary school. [03:51.31]"It's just not okay that a child in Chad is 55 times more likely to die than a child in Finland," Desmond-Hellmann said. [04:04.39]She added that a girl born in Africa has her gender and her geographic location affecting her future. [04:14.02]Generally, the report noted "unabated" development progress, with life, [04:22.15]health and economic success improving on average across the world. [04:29.07]But it also pointed out the large number of people who are being left behind. [04:37.03]I'm Susan Shand. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM