NEWS HEADLINGES

 

 

    Iraq has reacted defiantly¹ to the American and British air raids on targets near Baghdad.  President Sadam Hussein vowed² to fight until victory on land, in the air and at sea.  China and Russia have also 1)condemned the air strikes.  But the United States defended the 2)raids saying Iraqi air defenses were threatening allied³ aircraft 3)patrolling the air 4)exclusion zones imposed after the Gulf⁴ War. The latest Iraqi casualty figures say two civilians⁶ were killed and twenty people were injured in the attacks. The Iraqi capital Baghdad this morning the public mood on first glance appeared to be on of 5)resignation. Iraq had suffered another attack 6)at the hands of American and British aircraft. There was little ordinary Iraqi's could do about it. In total, twenty-four American and British aircraft were involved in last night's attack. They fired their missiles from south of the 33rd parallel where Iraqi aircraft are not allowed to fly. But their targets were above the parallel and near Baghdad as close as five miles. The installations hit were radar⁷ units and command control centers which the 7)Pentagon claims were some distance from civilian⁵ areas.

  

   Japan got its latest warning flag that there's a long way to go before it's on the road to economic recovery. It recorded its first monthly trade 8)deficit⁸ in four years last month. The January trade deficit 9)tumbled to $824 million mainly because of the economic 10)slowdowns in United States and Asia in general. Exporters Nippon Steel, NEC and Matsushita Electric Industrial among others have all noted⁹ that sales are slowing to those regions.

 

    Now European finance ministers are expected to 11)reprimand the Irish government today after they meet in 12)Brussels. They've been alarmed by December's budget in the Irish Republic which cut taxes and increased government spending. The other European countries fear this will 13)stoke up inflation and 14)undermine the stability of the Euro, the single 15)currency.

   Finance ministers from the European Unions 15 states are holding their regular monthly meeting in Brussels. They've been given the 16)tricky¹⁰ task of 17)handing out some public criticism to the government of the country with the most successful economy, the Irish Republic. In the last five years Ireland has 18)boomed growing by an average eight percent a year, unemployment has reached its lowest level for 20 years and task prices in 19)Dublin became more expensive than in London.

 

   Executives of the plan Hong Kong Disneyland met with business leaders and government officials this week for a status check of development plans. Disney's second Asian park is scheduled to open in 2005.The Hong Kong government is providing nearly three billion US dollars in land and financial 20)subsidies. The chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts says everything's on schedule and going as planned.

  

   Residents across the South Eastern United States are cleaning up after a storm with near 21)hurricane force winds ____ through the region. At least two people were killed and hundreds of thousands of people were left without electricity as heavy rain and strong winds made their mark on five US states. Officials said it may take days to restore power in some areas. In Texas a military medical 22)evacuation team used a helicopter to ____three children and a driver from the roof of a school bus. The bus had been swept into a rain swollen¹¹ creek¹².

   Finally in sports Real Madrid and Leeds are through to the quarterfinals of the European Champions League. But we start tonight's 23)wrap up of soccer action with 24)penalties deciding a semi-final clash in Brazil.

   The semi-final first leg of the Rio-Sao Paulo 25)tournament ended 1-nil in Sao Paulo's favor. In the return leg in Rio Fluminense made the most of home advantage opening the scoring with a strike from Marco Brito. And seven minutes later Brito added a second from outside the penalty area. Sao Paulo pulled a goal back on the arrow when Franca made it 2-1 on the night and 2-all on aggregate¹³.  It took 18 penalties to decide the winner with Ilan sending Sao Paulo into the finals against Botafogo.

 

新闻短讯

 

   伊拉克对英美两国在巴格达附近的空袭作出了对抗性反应。萨达姆·候赛因总统誓要奋战到底，直到陆海空三军大获全胜。中国和俄罗斯谴责了这次空袭。但美国辩解说，是伊拉克空防军队首先挑衅正在边界外巡逻的联合空军才发起空袭的。边界线是海湾战争后建立起来的。最新的伤亡统计数字表明，空袭中有两人死亡，20人受伤。今天一早，伊拉克公众的情绪乍看起来似乎对此已麻木不仁。伊拉克遭受了英美空军的另一次空袭。伊拉克老百姓对此毫无办法。昨晚共有24架英美飞机参与空袭，它们从纬度33度以南的地方发射导弹，这是伊拉克飞机的禁区。但它们的目标在纬线以上，与巴格达距离只有5英里。遭摧毁的装置是雷达和指挥中心，美国国防部声称离居民区还很远。 

  

   日本最近收到警报，经济恢复之路还很漫长。上个月它的记录里出现了四年来的第一个月交易赤字。由于美国和亚洲经济发展速度的滑坡，一月交易赤字跌至八亿两千四百万美元。出口商日本钢铁公司，日立公司和松下电器公司和都注意到上述地区交易的滑坡。

  

　　有消息说欧洲财政部长今天将在布鲁塞尔会面，并对爱尔兰政府作出谴责。当12月爱尔兰共和国的预算中提到减税和增加政府开支时，各国部长已对此感到非常吃惊。其他欧洲国家则担心此举会引起通货膨胀，并影响单一货币欧元的稳定性。

   欧盟15国的财政部长在布鲁塞尔举行每月一次的常规会议，他们将要巧妙地完成一项任务，对爱尔兰共和国政府--也是经济最成功的政府提出批评。在过去5年里，爱尔兰的经济以平均每年8%的速度增长，失业率达到20年来的最低水平，都柏林的物价甚至比伦敦的还要高。

  

   香港迪斯尼乐园工程执行人本周会见商界要人和政府官员，逐项检查建造计划进展情况。迪斯尼的第二个亚洲乐园将在2005年开放。香港政府将提供30亿美元的土地和财政拨款。沃尔特·迪斯尼乐园和度假地的董事长说一切顺利，都在按部就班地进行。

  

   美国东南部的居民现在都在进行打扫清理，因为一场风力强劲的暴风雨刚刚席卷这个地区。五个州内，至少有两人死亡，成千上万的人仍然忍受着暴风骤雨肆虐后留下的后患--停电。政府官员称，有些地区还需要数日才能恢复电力。在德克萨斯州，一辆学校巴士被卷入一条暴雨聚成的洪流中，一个军事医疗疏散小组用一架直升飞机从车顶上救出了三名儿童和一名司机。

  

   最后来看体育新闻，欧洲冠军联赛皇家马德里和利兹联队进入四分之一决赛。在今晚最后的足球新闻中，我们先看看在巴西举行的一场半决赛，由罚点球来决定胜负让人着实捏了一把汗。

   里约热内卢-圣保罗锦标赛半决赛中，圣保罗队主场作战首先攻入一球，以1比零获胜。接下来弗鲁米嫩塞队占尽主场优势，一开场马可·布里托就以一记劲射得分。7分钟后布里托梅开二度，从罚球区外又进一球。尽管弗朗卡为圣保罗队扳回一分，当晚还是以2-1落败，双方总分以2-2踢平。结果共罚了18个点球后，伊兰为圣保罗队攻入决定性的一球，这样圣保罗队进入决赛将与博塔福古队展开对抗。

 

1) condemn  v. 谴责；非难   

2) raid  n. [军事]袭击，空袭  

3) patrol v. 巡逻，巡视 

4) exclusion  n. 排斥，拒绝 

5) resignation  n. 屈从；辞职 

6) at the hands of  被；受

7) pentagon  n. 五角形。the Pentagon，五角大楼，即美国国防部，位于美国弗吉尼亚州的一幢正五角边形建筑。

8) deficit  n. 亏损，赤字             9) tumble  v. 急骤下跌；跌落

10) slowdown  n. 减速；降低生产速度

11) reprimand  v. 申斥；谴责      12) Brussels  n. 布鲁塞尔，比利时首都

13) stoke v. 拨旺；司炉               14) undermine v. 削弱……的基础；使……垮台

15) currency n. 通货，货币         16) tricky a. 善施妙计的；爱耍花招的

17) hand out  把……拿出来；分发             18) boom  v.（商业、城市等）迅速发展；繁荣

19) Dublin n. 都柏林，爱尔兰共和国首都。

20) subsidy  n. 拨款；资助      

21) hurricane  n. 飓风

22) evacuation n. [军事]撤退，疏散       23) wrap up （非正式语）结束（一项活动）

24) penalty  n. [体育]（因犯规）受罚         

25) tournament n. 锦标赛；联赛

 

1 defiantly   

adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地

参考例句：

• Braving snow and frost, the plum trees blossomed defiantly. 红梅傲雪凌霜开。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

3 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。

4 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。

5 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

6 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

7 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

8 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

9 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

10 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

11 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

12 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

13 aggregate   

adj.总计的，集合的；n.总数；v.合计；集合

参考例句：

• The football team had a low goal aggregate last season.这支足球队上个赛季的进球总数很少。
• The money collected will aggregate a thousand dollars.进帐总额将达一千美元。