澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2010-02-04

The Federal Communications Minister has rejected criticism of his handling of plans for a National Broadband Network. An Auditors-General report says an initial tender process aborted¹ by the government in April last year cost taxpayers² 17 million dollars. The report says doubts about the tender process surfaced eight months before it was abandoned. And Stephen Conroy’s department began looking at alternatives. The minister says the global financial crisis was the cause of the problems. He’s rejected Opposition³ claims he wasted time and money continuing with the bidding process knowing it was going to fail.

 

The United States says it doesn’t believe three American soldiers killed in Pakistan were deliberately⁴ targeted by the Taliban. Three US military trainers and three children were killed by a bomb blast near a girl’s school in the northwest. The Taliban has claimed responsibility and says attacks on Americans will continue.

 

And at least 23 people are dead in another big bomb blast in Iraq after a vehicle laden⁵ with explosives plowed⁶ into a group of Shiite pilgrims. More than 40 people were injured when the bomb exploded in the city of Karbala. It’s the latest in a series of bombings targeting Shiites ahead of the country’s election next month.

 

I’ll have more news later.

1 aborted   

adj.流产的，失败的v.（使）流产( abort的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）（某事物）中止；（因故障等而）（使）（飞机、宇宙飞船、导弹等）中断飞行；（使）（飞行任务等）中途失败

参考例句：

• The rocket flight had to be aborted because of difficulties with computer. 因电脑出故障，这次火箭飞行只好中辍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They aborted the space flight finally. 他们最后中止了这次宇航飞行。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

5 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

6 plowed   

v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• They plowed nearly 100,000 acres of virgin moorland. 他们犁了将近10万英亩未开垦的高沼地。 来自辞典例句
• He plowed the land and then sowed the seeds. 他先翻土，然后播种。 来自辞典例句