Cultural Notes

Directions：Read the following short passage related to the video you are going to watch.

The Costs Rio de Janeiro（里约热内卢）Faces in 2016

Brazil，the first South American country to host the Olympics，faces a number of additional challenges stemming from its precarious（不安全的）economic and political situation.Every Olympics since 1960 has gone over budget，and Rio 2016 is no exception.

Rio’s plan involves four clusters of stadiums and facilities，connected by new highways and rail lines.Many of these projects are over budget and behind schedule：the centerpiece subway extension—which has already cost 1 billion more than expected—is set to open just days before the games begin.A month before the opening ceremonies，several stadiums remained half⁃finished.(https://www.daowen.com)

The country is also facing its worst recession in decades，with the national economy shrinking by 3.8 percent in 2015.The recession has contributed to a financial crisis in the Rio de Janeiro state government，which is responsible for police，hospitals，and other public services in the city of Rio.The state has already required a 900 million bailout（援助）from the federal government to cover the policing costs of the Olympics.The games will require some 85，000 security personnel，more than twice the number needed for London in 2012，with Rio’s violent crime rising sharply as gang warfare increases in the city’s favelas（贫民窟，棚户区），as the city’s sprawling（杂乱无序的）slums are known.

Health worries have placed an additional burden on Rio.As the Zika virus（寨卡病毒）has spread rapidly throughout Brazil，a number of global health experts have warned that Rio’s health system is too“severely weakened”to effectively fight the disease，though the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that the Olympics is unlikely to contribute to its spread.The Brazilian government says that two thousand extra health professionals would be made available for the games，but the state budget crisis has led to Rio hospitals running out of medicine and basic supplies.

City officials say Rio’s original plan to use Olympics spending to overhaul its sewage（污水）system and clean up the widespread contamination（污染）of its water supply has fallen by the wayside，even as scientists have found that the water venues（体育比赛场地）set to hold swimming and boating competitions are contaminated with raw sewage and dangerous“super⁃bacteria.”