NPR美国国家公共电台 NPR 2014-01-28

 Howard County, Maryland police have identified the man they believed killed two people and then himself at shopping mall Saturday. Authorities say he is a 19-year-old from College Park Maryland. Police Chief William McMahon says there still no known motive¹ but they did find a journal at the accused gunman’s home. 

 

There is journal and he does express some general unhappiness with his life but I really do not have other information about that now. That is something we are going to continue to work through. 

 

Authorities say the accused shooter was carrying ammunition² and backpack with explosives and they found more ammunition when they searched his home last night.

 

President Obama is expected to focus on issues of bipartisan concern in Tuesday’s state of the union. But as NPR’s Nathan Rott reports there are still lots to debate. 

 

White House senior advisor³ Dan Pfeiffer talked to the Sunday morning talk shows, saying that Obama will focus on less decisive issues like income inequality, education, manufacturing and energy in this week’s speech aimed in the next year. Then there is issue of upcoming debt ceiling. Pfeiffer says Obama still would allow their raising at debt ceiling to be used as the political bargaining chip. Senator Republican leader Mitch McConnell went on Fox News Sunday after Pfeiffer, saying that Obama should reassess their position.

 

It is irresponsible not to use the discussion, the request of the president to raise the debt ceiling to try to accomplish something for the country.

 

That same debate helped lead to the government shutdown last year. Nathan Rott, NPR News.

 

More unusually frigid⁴ temperatures are expected from the mid-west to the northeast over the next few days. Nova Safo reports from Chicago where weekend snowstorm preceded sub-zero temperatures.

 

Only two weeks after the polar vortex another round of Arctic weather has led officials in Chicago to close schools and modify train schedules. 350 flights were also canceled. Temperatures are expected to dip into sub-zero territory until Wednesday as low as 22 degrees below zero on Monday night. Forecasters say it will be among the longest stretchers of subzero temperatures on record, accompanied by strong winds and several inches of snow over the weekend. To make manners worse, there is a profane⁵ shortage in the mid-west. The heating fuel is in high demand and low supply partly because of unusually low temperatures. For NPR News, I am Nova Safo in Chicago.

 

Gasoline prices across the nation fell 3.5 cents a gallon over the past two weeks. Oil analyst⁶ Trilby Lundberg explains.

 

It is price cutting in the downstream half of the oil business. Refiners cut wholesale⁷ prices to their wholesale and retail⁸ customers who then turn around and cut about same amount to us.

 

And Lundberg says the sales serve regular, it is now 3.31 dollars a gallon on average.

 

This is NPR.

 

A hospital in Fort Worth, Texas has removed woman from life support following a court ruling. Marlise Munoz’s pregnant and brain dead was disconnected from life support before noon today. She was 14 weeks pregnant when his husband found her unconscious. It was agreed by family in physician center NNN now 23 weeks old could not be born alive.

 

Senegalese music star Youssou N’Dour who is Muslim is to record a song for peace with the Christian⁹ artist from Central Africa Republic, a country devastated¹⁰ by inter-religious violence. NPR’s Ofeibea Quist-Arcton has more.

 

Yousson N’Dour is an internationally acclaimed¹¹ singer with impressive potentials. The Grammy-winning Senegalese, musician and businessman, has long been associated with humanitarian¹² courses. Now N’Dour who is Muslim says he is recording¹³ a song dedicated¹⁴ to peace in Central Africa Republic with Lydie Natacha, a Christian who goes by the stage name of Idylle Mamba. She is from CAR’s capital Bangui which has been the scene of terrific and deadly violence putting mainly Muslim fighters who back the outgoing government with Christian militiamen. For the past year, predominantly Christian CAR has been crippled by a coup¹⁵ which blew into inter-religious clashes killing¹⁶ thousands of civilians¹⁷ and amputating tens of thousands more. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Accra.

 

So far tonight, at the Staple¹⁸ Center in Los Angeles, 

 

“I am gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket.”

 

Rapper producer Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have taken the Grammy for best new artist.

 

I am Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington.

1 motive   

n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的

参考例句：

• The police could not find a motive for the murder.警察不能找到谋杀的动机。
• He had some motive in telling this fable.他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

2 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。

3 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

4 frigid   

adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的

参考例句：

• The water was too frigid to allow him to remain submerged for long.水冰冷彻骨，他在下面呆不了太长时间。
• She returned his smile with a frigid glance.对他的微笑她报以冷冷的一瞥。

5 profane   

adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污

参考例句：

• He doesn't dare to profane the name of God.他不敢亵渎上帝之名。
• His profane language annoyed us.他亵渎的言语激怒了我们。

6 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

7 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

8 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

9 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

10 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。

11 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

12 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

13 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

14 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

15 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

16 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

17 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。

18 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。