万花筒 2012-09-15&09-18 芝加哥教师大罢工 35万学生受影响

 Good evening. It has been a tough summer in the nation's third largest city. 360 murders in Chicago so far this year. And now in the city schools, the fall season is off to a very tough start.

This morning, the Teachers Union, in the city of Chicago went out on strike. It leaves students scrambling¹ for a place to go, at least parents with no options. Just as the Union says, it had no other option. And like any big city population in our country, nothing is simple. It's a complicated situation with hundreds of thousands of innocent victims. There was a big protest rally late today called by the Union there in Chicago, and we start off our coverage² with our chief education correspondent Rehema Ellis in Chicago. Rehema, tell us what's going on there?

Brian, the crowd is starting to thin somewhat, but thousands of teachers have been walking in the streets of downtown Chicago. And police were so concerned about it, they cordoned³ off(布置警戒线戒严) the street, right in the middle of this big city's rush hour, causing a lot of concern for many people. But this is right near the headquarters of where the city school administration is conducting business. And the business at hand right now is how do they get all of these thousands of teachers who are on the streets back into the classrooms. It has been a thorny⁴ issue. They had hoped in negotiations⁵ leading up to this for weeks and months that this was something they would be able to avoid, to make certain that they would get the hundreds of thousands of students back in negotiations leading up to this for weeks and months that this was something that we'll be able to avoid to make certain that they would get the hundreds of thousands of students back into the classroom.

1 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

3 cordoned   

v.封锁，用警戒线围住( cordon的过去式 )

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the area until the bomb was defused. 警方封锁了这个地区直到炸弹被拆除为止。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 thorny   

adj.多刺的，棘手的

参考例句：

• The young captain is pondering over a thorny problem.年轻的上尉正在思考一个棘手的问题。
• The boys argued over the thorny points in the lesson.孩子们辩论功课中的难点。

5 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。