VOA慢速英语2010年-IN THE NEWS - More Wins for Tea Party

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

This week, in the United States, dissident Republicans succeeded again in defeating more established candidates within their party. Seven states and the nation's capital held primary elections on Tuesday to choose candidates for the November elections.

There were more victories for supporters of the Tea Party movement. This movement centers on cutting taxes and government spending. It brings together conservatives and libertarians -- strong believers in individual liberty.

The name comes from the Boston Tea Party, a colonial tax protest in seventeen seventy-three.

This week, attention centered on the victory of a supporter in the small eastern state of Delaware.

CHRISTINE O'DONNELL: "Don't ever underestimate the power of We, the People!"

The Republican Party candidate for Delaware's Senate seat, Christine O'Donnell, talks to Tea Party supporters last week before her primary election win

Christine O'Donnell won the Republican nomination¹ for the Senate seat formerly² held by Vice³ President Joe Biden. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin supported her. But many people never expected Ms. O'Donnell to defeat Representative Mike Castle. Now, many say she is too conservative to appeal to Democrats⁴ and independent voters.

Public opinion surveys show that voters are angry at Congress -- and unhappy even with their own member of Congress.

Candidates supported by Tea Party activists⁵ won primaries earlier this year in Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Nevada and Utah. But the biggest test yet will come when they face Democrats on November second.

Voters will decide all seats in the House of Representatives and thirty-seven of the one hundred seats in the Senate. Republicans are fighting to retake Congress from the Democratic Party of President Obama and make gains in state elections.

Peter Brown at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut finds that about one in eight voters support the Tea Party movement. He says the big question is whether the activists will be as successful in getting people to vote in November as in the Republican primaries.

Christine O'Donnell speaks to supporters on the night of her primary election victory over Representative Mike Castle

Also this week, the Census⁶ Bureau reported that the nation's official poverty rate was fourteen and three-tenths percent last year. It rose by just over a full percentage point from two thousand eight.

Almost forty-four million people were in poverty, the third year of increase. The number included one in five children.

The poverty rate was the highest since nineteen ninety-four. But the number of people was the largest since estimates began in nineteen fifty-nine.

One-fourth of blacks and Hispanics were in poverty. So were twelve and a half percent of Asians and almost nine and a half percent of non-Hispanic whites.

A family of four that earned less than about twenty-two thousand dollars last year was considered to be living below the poverty line.

Also, the number of people with health insurance decreased last year -- the first drop since records began in nineteen eighty-seven. Almost seventeen percent of the population lacked coverage⁷.

People can lose insurance when they lose their jobs or change to part-time work. The health care law passed by Congress in March aims to get almost every Americans insured in the coming years.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.
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Includes reporting by Avi Arditti, Jim Malone and Nico Colombant
 

1 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。

2 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 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。

7 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。