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本文选自《纽约时报》 January 18,2006 ,作者Keith Bradsher. 文章报道了世界卫生组织召开会议采取措施，联合起来对抗禽流感的情况。灾难面前，人人自危。因此，只有团结起来才可与之对抗。

BEIJNG, Jan. 18 –Alarmed by as spate of bird flu infections and deaths in Turkey, 33 countries and multilateral institutions pledged $ 1.9 billion today to fight the disease.

The pledges, at the 1)_____ of a two – day conference here , are considerably greater than the $ 1.2 billion to$1.4 billion that the World Bank had said was needed over the next three years.

James Adams, the World Bank’s 2)_____ president for operations policy and country services, said that the over subscription would make it possible for poor countries to rely more on grants than loans in fighting the disease. The 3)_____ includes $ 1 billion in grants and $900 million in loans, including 4)______ in World Bank loans.

The United States pledged $334 million in grants for example, of which $31.3 million is money 5)____ from funds previously earmarked for helping 6)_____ of the Asian tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004. But $280 million comes from new bird flu-related legislation passed by Congress just before Christmas, while another $22.7 million comes mostly from allocating money previously 7)_____ for international health issues, American officials said.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China came to the conference and 8)______. Asked later at a new conference why China was pledging relatively little three days after in disclosed that its foreign currency reserves had hit a record $818.9 billion, Jia Youling, China’s chief veterinary official, said that 9）_____. “China needs to eradicate the current avian influenza cases in China.”

10）_____. By contrast, China had concealed the first outbreaks of SARS in late 2002 and early 2003 for four months, until the disease had spread to Hong Kong and around the world.

1. spate n. 大水，突然增多

2. subscription n. 捐助的款项

3. grant n. 赠送，给予

4. earmark v. 为某目的确定或安排某人