特别广播英语第 187 课：Let's Stop Keeping Pets 让我们停止养宠物-3

The first dime we ever made was ours to spend in any way we chose. 我们曾经挣得的第一个十分硬币是自己的，我们可以选择花掉它的任何一种方式。

No one thought of questioning that. That attitude, formed before we had learned to think, usually prevails through our life:" 没人想到对此提出质疑，那种态度形成于我们学会思考之前，通常会贯穿我们的一生：

"I made my money. I can spend it any way I like."我挣自己的钱，我可以以我喜欢的任何方式花掉它。"

But more and more we are reading that the people of the "Third World" feel bitter at us in the developed countries (with the United States far more developed than any of the others) for our seizing hold of two-thirds of the world's wealth and living like kings while they work away all day to earn a bare living. 但我们越来越多地在阅读中了解到"第三世界"的人们怀恨发达国家的我们，因为我们占有了世界2/3的财富，生活得像国王一样，而他们整天工作以求糊口。

The money and the time we spend on pets is simply not our own to spend as we like in a time of widespread want add starvation. 我们花在宠物身上的金钱和时间在广泛渴望帮助和饥饿遍布的时代绝对不是我们可以随心所欲花费的私有物。

A relief organization advertises that for $33 a month they can give hospital care to a child suffering from kwashiorkor - the severe deficiency disease which is simply a starving for protein. 一个救援组织做广告说，每个月捐献33美元就可使一个患营养不良症的孩子住院治疗――这是一种仅仅由于缺乏蛋白质而产生的严重营养不良疾病。

Doing without such a pet, and then sending the money saved to a relief organization would mean saving a life - over the years, several human lives. 不养宠物，然后把节省下来的钱捐给救援组织将意味着挽救一条生命――几年后，就能挽救几条生命。

Children not suffering from such a grave disease could be fed with half that amount - not on a diet like ours, but on plain, basic, life-sustaining food.
没有遭到那种严重疾病的孩子可以用那个数目的半数糊口――不是们那样的食物，只是一般的、基本的、维持生命的食物。

It is not unreasonable to believe that the amount of money we spend on the average pet dog could keep a child alive in a region of great poverty. 相信我们平均花在宠物狗身上的钱能够养活一个特别贫穷地区的孩子是不过分的。

To give what we would spend on a cat might not feed a child, but it would probably pay for his medical care or basic education. 拿出我们花在猫身上的钱可能养活不了一个孩子，但它们可能付清他的医疗费或基本教育费。

The point needs no laboring. That is all that need be said. 这一点无须详述，这就是所有要说的。