NPR 2010-04-03

From NPR News in Washington, I’m Lakshmi Singh.

 

President Obama says jobs market is beginning to turn the corner, encouraged by the Labor¹ Department’s March report out today showing 162,000 jobs added to the economy. That’s biggest gain in three years. But the president told workers in Charlotte, North Carolina that an unemployment rate of 9.7% is still too high.

 

“We shouldn’t underestimate the difficulties we face as a country or the hardships that confront millions of our fellow citizens—some of your friends, some of your neighbors, some of your relatives.”

 

The additional jobs include people hired temporarily for the US Census². But senior economist³ Hugh Johnson says the overall uptick in jobs is a good sign.

 

“If you sort of take away the census workers and look at what the economy really hired during the month of March, you see 114,000 on the plus side. That’s a really solid number and it’s very encouraging.”

 

The gains were the largest since the recession began in 2007.

 

Good Friday service is in St. Peter’s Basilica. Choiring helps observe an important moment for Christians⁴ this Easter weekend. This while the Roman Catholic Church still wrangles⁵ with another string of sex abuse allegations. Today, Pope Benedict XVI’s personal preacher said attacks on the pontiff are comparable to the most shameful⁶ anti-Semitism and “collective violence” suffered by Jews through the centuries. NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli has this from Rome.

 

In his Good Friday homily in St. Peter’s Basilica, Father Raniero Cantalamessa said the proximity⁷ of the Jewish Passover and Easter this year prompted him to think about Jews and draw comparisons with current attacks on the church. Reading from a letter from a Jewish friend, the preacher said he was following “with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful of the whole world”. In the presence of weary Pope Benedict, Cantalamessa said: “The use of stereotypes⁸, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt⁹ to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.” This year’s Holy Week has been marred¹⁰ by accusations¹¹ at the church and the pope himself covered up cases of clerical sex abuse of minors¹². The Vatican lashed¹³ back, accusing the media of trying to smear¹⁴ the pope at all costs. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.

 

The Israeli military’s confirming another string of missile attacks against Palestinian militants¹⁵. Warplanes pounded the Gaza Strip overnight after the Jewish state came under a cross-border rocket attack. No casualties have been reported. The Associated Press reports Hamas leaders in Gaza have contacted armed factions¹⁶ in an apparent attempt to curb¹⁷ strikes.

 

Thousands of rescuers in China working feverishly¹⁸ to free more than 150 miners who’ve been trapped underground for more than five days, today there was some hope, some signs of life.

 

This is NPR News.

 

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s announcing new airport security guidelines for travelers heading to the United States. Those guidelines replace procedures that singled out all travelers from 14 mostly Muslim nations for additional screening. We have more details now from NPR’s Brian Naylor.

 

Administration officials say the new security screening is based on threats and intelligence rather than nationality. For instance, if a traveler’s known to have spent time in a certain country and meets other characteristics, such as age, she may be subject to additional screening before being allowed to board a flight to the US. The new procedures replace those that were put into effect immediately after the Christmas Day incident when a Nigerian man flying to Detroit tried to set off a bomb hidden in his underwear. Travelers from 14 nations were then subject to pat-downs and additional screening. Napolitano says the new procedures will apply to all passengers traveling to the US. Brian Naylor, NPR News, Washington.

 

The FBI’s investigating threatening letters sent to more than 30 governors by an anti-government group. In the letters, the governors are told to leave office or they would be removed. Authorities say while there was no direct threat of violence in the letters, they're concerned the messages might prompt others to act violently.

 

Actor John Forsythe whose long career spanned film, stage and television has died after a battle with cancer. Forsythe is perhaps best remembered for television roles such as Charles Townsend in Charlie’s Angels.

 

“I took them away from all that and now they work for me. My name is Charlie.”

 

John Forsythe was 92 years old.
 

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

3 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

4 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

5 wrangles   

n.（尤指长时间的）激烈争吵，口角，吵嘴( wrangle的名词复数 )v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• We avoided wrangles and got down to business. 他们避免了争吵开始做正事。 来自辞典例句
• They hope to see politicians in exciting wrangles and to get some fun out of politics. 他们期望政治人物进行有趣的战斗，期望从政治中获得娱乐。 来自互联网

6 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。

7 proximity   

n.接近，邻近

参考例句：

• Marriages in proximity of blood are forbidden by the law.法律规定禁止近亲结婚。
• Their house is in close proximity to ours.他们的房子很接近我们的。

8 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

10 marred   

adj. 被损毁, 污损的

参考例句：

• The game was marred by the behaviour of drunken fans. 喝醉了的球迷行为不轨，把比赛给搅了。
• Bad diction marred the effectiveness of his speech. 措词不当影响了他演说的效果。

11 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

12 minors   

n.未成年人( minor的名词复数 )；副修科目；小公司；[逻辑学]小前提v.[主美国英语]副修，选修，兼修( minor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors. 法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had three minors this semester. 这学期他有三门副修科目。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 lashed   

adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• The rain lashed at the windows. 雨点猛烈地打在窗户上。
• The cleverly designed speech lashed the audience into a frenzy. 这篇精心设计的演说煽动听众使他们发狂。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 smear   

v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑

参考例句：

• He has been spreading false stories in an attempt to smear us.他一直在散布谎言企图诽谤我们。
• There's a smear on your shirt.你衬衫上有个污点。

15 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

16 factions   

组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别

17 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。

18 feverishly   

adv. 兴奋地

参考例句：

• Feverishly he collected his data. 他拼命收集资料。
• The company is having to cast around feverishly for ways to cut its costs. 公司迫切须要想出各种降低成本的办法。