NPR 2010-02-18

From NPR News in Washington, I’m Barbara Klein.

 

The supreme¹ leader of Iran has accused Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of spreading lies about Iran on her trip to the Persian Gulf² earlier this week. NPR’s Mike Shuster has details.

 

Iranian state television quoted supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying the Americans dispatched their saleswoman to the Persian Gulf to spread lies. Earlier this week on stops in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Clinton said Iran was becoming a military dictatorship, as it sought to acquire nuclear weapons. She appealed to both states to join the US in its effort to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons through tougher sanctions in the UN Security Council. The Iranian government has reacted sharply to Clinton’s visit to the Gulf. Yesterday, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said if more sanctions are imposed on Iran, those who sought them would regret it. Khamenei also accused the US of turning the Gulf into an arms depot³. In January, the US acknowledged it intends to deploy⁴ land- and sea-based missile defense⁵ systems to counter Iran’s ballistic missile program. Mike Shuster, NPR News, Dubai.

 

President Obama today marked the one-year anniversary of the 787-billion-dollar economic Recovery Act, saying it created two million jobs and rescued the economy. "It is largely thanks to the Recovery Act that a second depression is no longer a possibility. It’s one of the main reasons the economy has gone from shrinking by 6% to growing at about 6%." Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve predicts unemployment will remain high for the next two years. In minutes released from their last meeting, the Fed says Americans have been scarred by the recession and are likely to remain cautious. Still, Fed policymakers project unemployment will slowly decline to between 6.5% and 7.5% by 2012.

 

The nation’s largest drugstore chain is getting bigger. Walgreen Company is buying New York’s Duane Reade stores in a deal valued at over a billion dollars. NPR’s David Schaper has details.

 

While suburban⁶ Chicago-based Walgreen has been expanding rapidly across the country in recent years to more than 7,000 stores, it has struggled to gain a significant foothold in the New York metropolitan⁷ market. Walgreen officials say acquiring the Duane Reade chain and its 257 stores allows Walgreen to do all at once what would have taken years to do by growing more organically in New York. The billion-dollar-plus deal will more than quadruple the number of stores Walgreen has in the New York area and give the nation’s largest drugstore chain considerable strength in Manhattan where most of the Duane Reade stores are concentrated. However, the Duane Reade stores will keep their name after the sale closes, as Walgreen officials say they will take some time to decide how to best integrate the two brands. David Schaper, NPR News, Chicago.

 

On Wall Street an hour before the close, the Dow is up 34 points at 10, 303; the NASDAQ is up seven at 2, 221.

 

This is NPR.

 

A New York Times business reporter has resigned after the newspaper acknowledged instances in which he allegedly plagiarized⁸ from other news organizations. NPR’s David Folkenflik has the story.

 

Zachery Kouwe joined the New York Times in October, 2008 after stints⁹ as a business reporter of the New York Post and Dow Jones Newswires. He wrote frequently for the Times’s business section and its popular DealBook website about such topics as the Bernard Madoff investigation¹⁰ and bonuses at Goldman Sachs. But Robert Thompson, managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, pointed¹¹ out a recent article by Kouwe that contained nearly verbatim elements of a Journal story. On Monday, the Times acknowledged that Kouwe had copied passages from other articles as well. The Journal’s complaint comes amid an aggressive effort to challenge the Times as the nation’s leading general interest newspaper. Kouwe expressed contrition¹² to the New York Observer, though he said the copying was inadvertent. He told NPR he could not currently comment under an agreement with the Times which also declined to comment. David Folkenflik, NPR News, New York.

 

Ukraine’s highest court has suspended the result of the country’s recent presidential election. It’s waiting to rule on a legal challenge from Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko who claimed the ballot¹³ was rigged. She lost to pro-Russian opposition¹⁴ leader Viktor Yanukovich.

 

French President Nicholas Sarkozy arrived in Haiti today, the first French president ever to visit its former enslaved colony. France is promising¹⁵ 400 million dollars to help Haiti reemerge from the ravages¹⁶ of last month’s earthquake. Haiti fought a bloody¹⁷ war for independence from France in 1804. Afterward¹⁸, it endured an international embargo¹⁹ imposed to discourage slave revolts elsewhere in the world.

 

I’m Barbara Klein, NPR News.
 

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 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。

3 depot   

n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站

参考例句：

• The depot is only a few blocks from here.公共汽车站离这儿只有几个街区。
• They leased the building as a depot.他们租用这栋大楼作仓库。

4 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

5 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

6 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

7 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

8 plagiarized   

v.剽窃，抄袭( plagiarize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The poem employs as its first lines a verse plagiarized from a billboard. 这首诗开头的几行抄袭了一个广告牌上的一节诗。 来自辞典例句
• Whole passages of the work are plagiarized. 那作品整段整段都是剽窃的。 来自辞典例句

9 stints   

n.定额工作( stint的名词复数 )；定量；限额；慷慨地做某事

参考例句：

• He stints himself in [of] sleep. 他节制睡眠。 来自辞典例句
• She never stints herself of money to buy books for her children. 她从不吝惜掏钱让子女们买书。 来自互联网

10 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

11 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

12 contrition   

n.悔罪，痛悔

参考例句：

• The next day he'd be full of contrition,weeping and begging forgiveness.第二天，他就会懊悔不已，哭着乞求原谅。
• She forgave him because his contrition was real.她原谅了他是由于他的懊悔是真心的。

13 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

14 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。

15 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

16 ravages   

劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹

参考例句：

• the ravages of war 战争造成的灾难
• It is hard for anyone to escape from the ravages of time. 任何人都很难逃避时间的摧残。

17 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

18 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

19 embargo   

n.禁运（令）；vt.对...实行禁运，禁止（通商）

参考例句：

• This country put an oil embargo on an enemy country.该国对敌国实行石油禁运。
• During the war,they laid an embargo on commerce with enemy countries.在战争期间，他们禁止与敌国通商。