NPR 2012-03-25

 Republican voters in Louisiana weigh in on the party's field of presidential hopefuls today. Hopes are high in Rick Santorum's campaign after Mitt¹ Romney crushed opponents in Illinois. NPR's Don Gonyea is in Lafayette, Louisiana for the vote. He reports that despite very good weather, so far voter turnout has been low. Speaking to voters there, Gonyea has learned that even though their candidate is behind in delegates, Santorum’s supporters believe that he can run and win against Barack Obama in November.

 

They say Romney has not wrapped up the nomination² yet. So they are voting for Santorum out of their conviction, and person after person has told me that, that Santorum is the guy who is better equipped to take on Barack Obama - President Obama in the fall. That's what I’m hearing over and over. They don't quite want to hear the delegates mess just yet. 

 

NPR's Don Gonyea reporting from Lafayette, Louisiana.

 

A few hours from now, President Obama will land in Seoul, South Korea for an international summit on nuclear security. NPR's David Schaper has more.

 

The Seoul Nuclear Security Summit is focused on taking steps to better protect nuclear materials and facilities and preventing them from falling to the wrong hands. Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says he doubts the summit will produce any kind of historic new doctrine³. The goal, he says, is to get about a dozen countries to make specific promises about how they will reduce nuclear danger.

 

“Though Obama is going to a summit, a half way around the world where he is really sort of playing small ball in the way. But it's an absolutely crucial small ball for the safety of the planet.”

 

O'Hanlon says it’s also no accident that the summit is being held in South Korea, even though North Korea's nuclear program is not specifically on the summit agenda. David Schaper, NPR News.

 

The former CEO of the commodities broker⁴ MF Global is denying that he directed the misuse⁵ of client money before the firm filed for bankruptcy⁶ last fall. From member station WNYC, Ilya Marritz reports Jon Corzine's statements contradict a newly surfaced email from one of his former employees.

 

The email was obtained by a House committee which is called the staffer Edith O’Brien to testify next week. A snippet from this message seems to say that Jon Corzine personally directed the withdrawal⁷ of 200 million dollars from the accounts of MF Global customers in the firm's final days. Securities laws require that customer money be held separately from other accounts, but more than a billion dollars of MF Global clients’ cash is still considered missing. Corzine, through an attorney, says he never gave any instruction to misuse customer funds. For NPR News, I'm Ilya Marritz in New York.

 

The people of Mexico are giving Pope Benedict an emotional welcome. He says he is praying for all in need.

 

This is NPR News.

 

Across the nation, thousands continue to rally to the cause of Trayvon Martin, the Sanford, Florida teenager who died in a scuffle with a neighborhood watch volunteer. That volunteer, George Zimmerman, has acknowledged firing his gun, and his lawyer says it was in self-defense. The black teenager was not armed, and the Justice Department is investigating. Meanwhile, Indiana researchers say they have found that if the individual is holding a gun, in some cases he may have a higher expectation that another person is too. Sean Bueter of member station WBOI in Fort Wayne, Indiana explains.

 

The study asked subjects to look at multiple photos of people holding everyday objects and identify whether or not there was a gun in the picture. They were asked to do this once while holding a neutral object and again while holding a toy gun. It turns out respondents holding a gun had a significantly higher tendency to perceive guns in the test photos, even if no weapon was present. Purdue psychology⁸ professor Jessica Witt says the results are disconcerting. She says most of the time, human perception works just fine.

 

“But then when it doesn't work the way it's supposed to in a case of misperception of the environment, then some horrible things can happen.”

 

The research will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. For NPR News, I'm Sean Bueter in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

 

A large fishing vessel⁹ has been spotted¹⁰ adrift in the Pacific off the coast of British Columbia. Authorities say it's from Japan and likely swept away by the tsunami¹¹ that devastated¹² Japan last year. It's believed no one is on board, and there are fears it could pose a navigational hazard.

 

I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington.

1 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

2 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

3 doctrine   

n.教义；主义；学说

参考例句：

• He was impelled to proclaim his doctrine.他不得不宣扬他的教义。
• The council met to consider changes to doctrine.宗教议会开会考虑更改教义。

4 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

5 misuse   

n.误用，滥用；vt.误用，滥用

参考例句：

• It disturbs me profoundly that you so misuse your talents.你如此滥用自己的才能，使我深感不安。
• He was sacked for computer misuse.他因滥用计算机而被解雇了。

6 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

7 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

8 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

9 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

10 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

11 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

12 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。