According to UNICEF, around 564 million Indians, nearly half the population,

游客2023-12-30  24

问题    According to UNICEF, around 564 million Indians, nearly half the population, still defecate in the open — in fields, forests, next to ponds, along highway medians and on the beach.
   That spreads diseases and causes other public and personal problems.
   It is no accident that "Toilet" opens with a beautifully lit scene of women trudging out of their village right before sunrise, each one carrying a little brass jug of water to wash with. They are traveling in a group for safety.
   Rural women sometimes endure taunts and even sexual assault when they relieve themselves outdoors, so they travel in small groups, often before dawn, for protection.
   "This is a real problem, " said Jagmati Sangwan, a women’s rights advocate. "So many women, especially landless women, face a lot of violence when they go to the bathroom outside."
   To avoid being leered at during the day, some women hold on for hours for darkness to fall. Waiting that long can create health problems, particularly for pregnant women, who are highly susceptible to urinary tract infections, experts say.
   A recent study found a troubling correlation between pregnant mothers who had no toilet facilities and low birth weight.
   Not helping matters, hard-liners with the governing Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., have photographed women who relieve themselves outside in an effort to shame them. Earlier this year, a man who stood up for such women was beaten to death.
   Government officials say they have spent $4 billion to help install 50 million toilets so far, building community latrines and providing subsidies for people to put them in their homes. The Modi government runs a website bestowing on top-performing villages a special "ODF" (Open Defecation Free) status.
   Their efforts have earned praise abroad. Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, wrote on his blog: "I can’t think of another time when a national leader has broached such a sensitive topic so frankly and so publicly. Even better, Modi backed up his words with actions."
   But Mr. Modi’s detractors say there may be more emphasis on image than deed, and that in many areas party apparatchiks are so eager to fall in line with the prime minister’s directives that they are putting up latrines that are not connected to sewers or septic systems. Several businessmen in New Delhi said government agencies are in such a rush that they are awarding contracts left and right with little oversight and often to businesses that know nothing about sanitation. According to Indian news reports, countless rupees have disappeared in shady toilet deals.
   Sanitation specialists say that with less than 5 percent of India’s nearly 8, 000 cities and towns having sewage treatment plants, it is far from clear where all the waste will go.
   "There’s a blind scramble to make a toilet, whether it is usable or not, " said Bezwada Wilson, an official with the Sanitation Workers’ Movement, an advocacy organization. "It has become a business, and resulted in the corporatization of the toilet." [br] This passage can most possibly be read in a______.

选项 A、newspaper
B、science magazine
C、novel
D、story book

答案 A

解析 从体裁来看,文章属于报道性文体,故A项正确。
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