CNN 2011-04-06

The FBI hopes you can help them solve the suspicious death from a dozen years ago. The images top our look across the country. Two notes were found in the pocket of 41-year-old Ricky McCormack. His body was discovered in a Missouri corn field in 1999 and the notes are the few clues investigators¹ have to go on, but the encrypted text has been mystified. Click on the FBI website if you have any insight into the case and we'll be talking more about this with the host of the History Channel's "Decoded²" in the next hour.

Los Altos, California, now lays claim to the highest known price for a single family home in the United States. "The Walt Street Journal" reports a Russian billionair actually paid $100 million for this french-styled chateau³.

In Atlantic City, New Jersey⁴, former cocktail⁵ servers at the resort casino say they're contemplating⁶ a discrimination lawsuit⁷ after they were allegedly fired for how they appeared in the casino's new uniforms. Casino management says all servers let go were given a hiring preference for other positions. That really what this story means is the casinos are trying to force them to dress in that sexy way and many of them were too old to dress that sexy way and they were got rid of.

Police in Sacramento, California are on the lookout⁸ for this 18 wheeler, which is hiding in plain sight. The big rig is a moble marijuana-growing facility. The owner says it's designed to be used only by professionals growing medicinal marijuana. Critics questioned the trucks legality.

Some of us recall the images of our high school principal walking the halls eyeballing students with a wooden paddle in his hand. I know, I remember those days. Looking at recent stats nearly a quatrer million kids got corporal punishment in the 2005 school year. That may suprise you, but that's actually down from years earlier.

Twenty states still permit paddling. Most of those are in the south. Top states in 2005: Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama. Steve Perry is our education pro⁹. Welcome, Steve.

Welcome to the principal's office, Carol.

Exactly. You know when I ran for like student body president and I ran to ban paddling from my high school. I mean, that's how long this thing has been around and I ...

It's absurd. It's actually one of the biggest problems in public education is nostalgia¹⁰. We often think that things were so much better back in the day and so something even as silly as hitting a child with a piece of wood is still considered something that we may want to do in school.

We had a parent hit a child with a piece of wood last week. We called the police on her. You can't hit children with objects. We understand, I understand the need to be creative with discipline. But in order to be creative with discipline, you need to have a relationship with the child. You can't just go around, saying that they're wrong and they're bad. That's what happens. We are not the parents.

No but Steve. The only creative thing out there seems to be let's take a time out. Go sitting in the corner and take a time out. Does that kind of thing work?

No.no. We don't need to do that way. I don't, we do discipline differently here at Captial Prep. One of the thing that we do is we, children, where they in this office. They wouldn't sit, they stand because this is not a place for them to be comfortable. They are not guests. It begins with something as simple as that. There are other ways in which we can be creative with discipline. You can have the child clean windows at a school. You can have a child, I mean if you want to, they can do stairs or something like that. Anything that something physical and not comfortable without necessarily hurt them. Of course, the parents and everyone else has to buy into it. But ultimately, what's most important is not how you discipline them is how you build a relationship with them. Once you have built a relationship with them, you can establish expectations and they will respond to those expectations. The reason why successful schools are successfuul is because they built relationship with the children. People think that there is a shortcut¹¹. There is no shortcut. Paddling a child simply will no improve the student's academic performance. There is nothing anywhere in academic annals that will say if you hit a child with a piece of wood, they will do better in math.

I don't think you're gonna convince some people. Steve Perry, many thanks. We appreciate it.

Take it easy, Carol.

1 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 decoded   

v.译（码），解（码）( decode的过去式和过去分词 )；分析及译解电子信号

参考例句：

• The control unit decoded the 18 bits. 控制器对这18位字进行了译码。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Scientists have decoded the dog genome. 科学家已经译解了狗的基因组。 来自辞典例句

3 chateau   

n.城堡，别墅

参考例句：

• The house was modelled on a French chateau.这房子是模仿一座法国大别墅建造的。
• The chateau was left to itself to flame and burn.那府第便径自腾起大火燃烧下去。

4 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

5 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

6 contemplating   

深思，细想，仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 )； 注视，凝视； 考虑接受（发生某事的可能性）； 深思熟虑，沉思，苦思冥想

参考例句：

• You're too young to be contemplating retirement. 你考虑退休还太年轻。
• She stood contemplating the painting. 她站在那儿凝视那幅图画。

7 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

8 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

9 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

10 nostalgia   

n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧

参考例句：

• He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth.也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
• I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song.我听到这首喜爱的旧歌，心中充满了怀旧之情。

11 shortcut   

n.近路，捷径

参考例句：

• He was always looking for a shortcut to fame and fortune.他总是在找成名发财的捷径。
• If you take the shortcut,it will be two li closer.走抄道去要近2里路。