2023届高考英语一轮复习外刊语法填空Cattle in Ugand 讲义

Cattle in Uganda Trouble down at the kraal Commercial cattle-raiding enriches some but can starve others In bad years, when the rains fail and the sorghum wilts, Maria Lodia would usually sell an animal to survive. But in January gun-wielding thieves stole her three cows, 1.________her destitute. Since 2019 cattle-raiding 2.________ to the dry plains of Karamoja, home to 1.2m people in north-east Uganda. Robbed of their livestock and frightened away from their fields, the Karamojong had no safety net 3.________ dry spells this year. Local officials say that more than 2,400 people have died of hunger. Like many of Africa’s pastoralist regions, Karamoja is going through an uneven transition. Elders recall a time 4.________ cows were plundered for prestige or bride wealth. But in recent decades cattle-raiding has become big business. Stolen animals 5.________ to distant markets, since urban demand for beef has grown. On the grasslands the ownership of livestock is becoming more unequal, as the big owners get bigger and poorer ones struggle—and go hungry. “In Karamoja your bank is a cow, it’s a goat, it’s a sheep,” says Paul Komol Lotee, chairman of Kotido, one of the districts worst hit by violence. “If you don’t have the three you will not survive. In the 1990s and early 2000s raiders ran rampant in Karamoja. Thousands of cows were stolen. Others died of disease after being crowded into kraals (stockaded enclosures). The army eventually bludgeoned the raiders into submission. By 2010 cattle-keepers began to restock. Now the raidersare back. In Kaabong district they have emptied 32 of 34 kraals, where cattle are meant to be kept safe. Locals blame several factors: the flow of guns across the porous border with Kenya; a covid-19 lockdown and a foot-and-mouth outbreak, both of 6.________ disrupted legal trade; and the failure of the police and army to recover stolen cattle, which made young men take the law 7.________ their own hands. Hundreds of people were killed.