NPR美国国家公共电台 NPR 2014-08-28

 US officials are confirming an American man has died in fighting in Syria. NPR's Nina Taporaston says the man has been identified as Douglas McKain of San Diego, where she says was not entirely¹ clear whose side he was on.

 

The White House knows that there are some 150 Americans who have left US and actually gone to fight in Syria. What's unclear is who they are fighting for. Are they fighting for the Free Syrian Army, which is a group that the Obama administration has not only said it supports, but has said that  it would look at training further so that it can fight groups like the Islamic State? Or are they actually fighting for these groups that are associated either with the Islamic State, which is a designated terrors group? or a group called Juba Arinosa, which is basically Al Calda's army in Syria?

 

Islamic's extremists have claimed that McKain was fighting for them when he died. 

 

Pentagon says seven nations are joining the US at providing weapons to curtish forces in Iraq as they battle Islamic State militants². The Pentagon briefing today spokesman Adam Joncurvy said more nations are expected to contribute in coming days. NPR's Tom Bolman has this report. 

 

The US already has provided some small arms to the Curtish fighters, as reported their operations with air strikes in northern Iraq. Now other nations, including Italy, France and United Kingdom, are providing what the Pentagon called "virtuelly needed arms and equipment" to battle Islamic State, also called ISIL. Here's Adam Curby.

 

These multi-national efforts, which has been cordinated with the government of Iraq in Bagdad, would greatly support curtish forces in battling the brutal³ terrorists they face from ISIL. 

 

Curby said the new weapons include small arms and imnation, but Curtish leader say they still had not received what they need, motor, artilary and armed vehicles. Tom Balman, NPR news, Washington.

 

President Obama seeking to make amends⁴ with the nation's veterans told an audience  in Charlette, North Carolina today that his administration will expand access to medital health care, to work to help lower home-gone health care for veterans. Trusting the American agents national convention, the president also said even if these US wars wined down, military readiness were remained a priority.

 

So even if our wars in Afganistan comes to an end, we will stay vigil. We'll continue to make sure that our military has what it means. And as today's generation of service members keeps us safe and as they come home,  we also have to meet our responsibilities to them.

 

Scandal over lagging medical treatment for veterans resolved in VA secretary ES been forced to step down from the agency.

 

Americans appear to be doing a better job of managing their credit card debt, that's based on figures from quite an amount of agencies TransUnion. The company says it's now as fine as the rate of US credit card payments, at least 90 days overdue⁵ is falling. On Wall Street the DOW was up 29 points. This is NPR.

 

American Airlines announced today it will immediately be pulling its fare some online travel site, operated by Orbits. The airline citing the fact that the two companies have failed to reach a deal would allow the carrier to compete with low-cost airlines. American watch merge⁶ with US Airways⁷ was now the world's largest carrier. American Air says it plans to pull its fares off orbits effective September 1st.

 

Super attendents of the country's second biggest school system is announcing he will suspend contracts for a program that aim to give Apple iPads to the system's 650,000 students, an ultimate cost of 1 billion dollars. NPR's KG has more.

 

Super attendent John Dacy sent the Los Angelas Unified⁸ School District Board a letter after local media reported that public record show Dacy has established close ties with the iPad projects winning bidders⁹ before bids were requested. Under a contract to prove last year, Apple sold the district 75,000 iPads. Pearson and education content provider won the bid for supplying the tablets with software. Internal memo¹⁰ show Dacy and his chief deputy  have close relationships with people from both companies. The iPad program has been questioned for its cost as well its bidding process. Contracts are expected to resume several issues, including a more transparent¹¹ bidding process, are resolved.  KG, NPR news.

 

US fast food chain Burger King says its recent 11 billion dollar deal to buy Canadian company Tim Hortons, creating what will be the world's third biggest fast food franchaise, were designed to allow Burger King to move its corporate¹² headquarters out of the US to potentially rid tax savings¹³, would also allow fast food expansion of Tim Hortons into the US market. Burger King says two brands would continue to operate at stand alone chains.

1 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

2 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。

3 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

4 amends   

n. 赔偿

参考例句：

• He made amends for his rudeness by giving her some flowers. 他送给她一些花，为他自己的鲁莽赔罪。
• This country refuses stubbornly to make amends for its past war crimes. 该国顽固地拒绝为其过去的战争罪行赔罪。

5 overdue   

adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的

参考例句：

• The plane is overdue and has been delayed by the bad weather.飞机晚点了，被坏天气耽搁了。
• The landlady is angry because the rent is overdue.女房东生气了，因为房租过期未付。

6 merge   

v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体

参考例句：

• I can merge my two small businesses into a large one.我可以将我的两家小商店合并为一家大商行。
• The directors have decided to merge the two small firms together.董事们已决定把这两家小商号归并起来。

7 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

8 unified   

(unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的

参考例句：

• The teacher unified the answer of her pupil with hers. 老师核对了学生的答案。
• The First Emperor of Qin unified China in 221 B.C. 秦始皇于公元前221年统一中国。

9 bidders   

n.出价者，投标人( bidder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Bidders should proceed only if they intend on using a PayPal account to complete payment. Bidders的唯一形式，应继续只当他们在使用贝宝帐户，以完成付款打算。 来自互联网
• The other bidders for the contract complained that it had not been a fair contest. 其他竞标人抱怨说该合同的竞标不公平。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 memo   

n.照会，备忘录；便笺；通知书；规章

参考例句：

• Do you want me to send the memo out?您要我把这份备忘录分发出去吗？
• Can you type a memo for me?您能帮我打一份备忘录吗？

11 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

12 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

13 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。