Obama Europe Trip to Focus on Economy

     President Barack Obama is scheduled(安排) to leave early Monday for a six-day, four-nation tour of Europe.  The president will talk with European leaders about improving the global economy and regional security as well as bilateral¹ and multilateral relations.

    After a week of concentrating on the upheavals² in the Middle East, President Obama will turn his attention to Europe and its concerns, mainly the state of the global economy.

    The president will start in Ireland, whose economy, once called Europe’s “tiger,” is now reeling from a debt crisis.

    Mr. Obama will mix business with pleasure in Ireland, visiting a small village where some of his ancestors had lived. "I am expecting to go not only to all the famous sites, but also to go to Moneygall, where my great-great-great-great-great grandfather hails from," he said.

    Almost 37 million Americans claim Irish heritage, and Mr. Obama says the two countries share a close kinship.

    Next, the president will spend two days in London for a formal state visit.

    He and Mrs. Obama will stay at Buckingham Palace, where Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II will host a state dinner in their honor.

    In London, Mr. Obama will speak to both houses of the British Parliament, and he will talk with Prime Minister David Cameron about the economy, security and other issues.

    Steven Clemons, a senior fellow at Washington’s New America Foundation, says the United States and Britain have an enormous stake in the recent changes in the Middle East and North Africa. “The phenomenal changes underway and which will likely continue for years in the Middle East, the ongoing³ challenges of troop deployment⁴ in Afghanistan, the combined NATO and allied⁵ forces intervention⁶ in Libya," he said.

    But analysts⁷ say the main purpose of the meetings in London might be to smooth over recent rough spots in the so-called “special relationship” between the United States and Britain.

    After disagreements, including the Obama administration blaming Britain for last year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf⁸ of Mexico, Steven Clemons says the special relationship is not as special as it once was.  But he says that might not be cause for concern. “I do not look at the conflict as a problem as much as it is a sign of a natural and healthy move to a different kind of relationship in the future that may actually be more effective," he said.

    The president moves on to Normandy, France, and the resort city of Deauville, where the Group of 8 industrial countries will hold its annual economic summit.

    The leaders will cover numerous issues, including global health, food security and arms control.  But their primary focus will be on the state of the world’s economy.

    Domenico Lombardi, a senior fellow at Washington’s Brookings Institution, says Mr. Obama knows the economic health of the other G-8 nations will affect the pace of America's economic recovery. “But, of course, it still contains some elements of fragility, and in that sense, it is very important for the U.S. economy that the other systemically important economies are doing well," he said.

    Lombardi says he expects Mr. Obama to push America’s European partners for tougher fiscal⁹ policies, especially toward heavily indebted(负债的) countries such as Greece, Portugal and Ireland. “If anything, President Obama will be asking his European counterparts to be more aggressive in devising a more appropriate response to the crisis in Europe," he said.

    At the same time, the president hopes to reassure¹⁰ his counterparts on the strength and importance of their relationship.

    Mr. Obama will conclude his trip with a long-delayed visit to Poland.  The president had planned to visit Poland last year, for the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski and other officials who were killed in a plane crash.  But the trip was canceled due to the huge cloud of ash from an erupting volcano in Iceland.

    During this visit, Mr. Obama and President Bronislaw Komorowski are expected to sign an agreement to station U.S. F-16 fighter jets in Poland, a proposal that has angered Russia.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

2 upheavals   

突然的巨变( upheaval的名词复数 )； 大动荡； 大变动； 胀起

参考例句：

• the latest upheavals in the education system 最近教育制度上的种种变更
• These political upheavals might well destroy the whole framework of society. 这些政治动乱很可能会破坏整个社会结构。

3 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

4 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

5 allied   

adj.协约国的；同盟国的

参考例句：

• Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
• Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。

6 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

7 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

8 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

9 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

10 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。