NPR 2009-12-23

Senate leaders have worked out an agreement for a vote on final passage to the Democrat's health care bill. Senate majority Leader Harry¹ Reid says the vote will take place early on Christmas Eve at around 8 a.m. It had been tentatively scheduled for that evening. Senate Democrats² are sounding more confident about their efforts to get the bill passed. They cleared the latest hurdle³ this morning when they won another key test vote and then they were cheered as they entered the press conference on Capitol Hill.

Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana says Senate's passage to the bill is near.

"We're not the first to attempt such reforms but we will be the first to succeed."

Another test vote, this one to shut off debate is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. If approved, it would then have to be reconciled with an already passed bill before, rather, with an already passed health bill before it can become law. Republicans are still attacking the deal-making that helped to give Democrats the 60 votes they needed to move the bill forward. GOP Leader Mitch McConnell says the process was a mess.

A freshman⁴ member of the House of Representative is switching parties. Congressman⁵ Parker Griffith of Alabama says he is switching from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. Griffith spoke⁶ to reporters at his home in Northern Alabama today. He has a largely conservative voting record.

For a third day in a row stocks are higher, rather President Obama's plan to move Guantanamo Bay detainees to a rural prison in Illinois is being both praised and criticized in the public hearing on the issue today. The administration wants to buy an under utilized⁷ state prison in Thomson Illinois, about 150 miles west of Chicago to house the detainees. NPR's David Schaper reports.

The Obama administration would move fewer than 100 / Guantanamo detainees and as many as 1,600 other federal inmates⁸ to the nearly vacant Thompson Correctional Center. Supporters claim it would create 3,000 new jobs.

"It's absolutely huge."

Russ Simpson of the Tri-county Economic Development Alliance calls it the opportunity of a lifetime.

"It's the something northwest of Illinois has never seen, in terms of economic development possibilities and possibly may never come again."

But Beverly Pearls opposes moving suspected terrorists to Illinois.  

"They hate us, they wanna cut our heads off and to bring them near my children and grandchildren, I resent it."

Pearls and other critics are protesting in what maybe the only public hearing on the plan to move Guantanamo detainees to Thomson, Illinois. David Schaper, NPR News.

Stocks are higher today following news that sales of existing homes last month jumped far more than analysts⁹ had expected on Wall Street at the close. The Dow was up 50 points at 10,464. The NASDAQ Composite Index is up 15 points at 2,253, and the S&P 500 was up four points at 1,118.

This is NPR News.

Falling prices and a popular tax credit to being hailed for, helping¹⁰ push sales of previously¹¹ owned homes to their largest yearly gain on the record. The National Association of Realtor says sales jumped last month by a record 44% compared to ...

...is a deadline for agreeing to ship most of its low enrich uranium out of the country in exchange for fuel for Tehran research reactor¹². Washington has threatened harsher sanctions against the country. Iran, the world's fifth largest oil exporters, has claimed its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. The West contends Iran is working toward building nuclear weapons.

Europe's Eurostar train linking London with Paris and Brussels resumed service today after being suspended for three days. Thousands of holiday travelers were stranded¹³. Eleanor Beardsley reports from Paris.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy summoned the head of France‘s rail operator and ordered him to get the Eurostar moving again. Sarkozy called the situation “unacceptable for travelers”. Problems started Friday after five trains failed inside the channel tunnel, trapping more than 2,000 passengers for hours. Exhausted¹⁴ passengers appeared on British and French TV broadcast, complaining that they had been left underground from more than 15 hours without food, water or any clear idea of what was going on. Facing stiff criticism, Eurostar   is pledging to do its best to get everyone home by Christmas.  The jointly¹⁵ owned French, British and Belgium Company says the unusually dry snow got past the train's snow-screens and shorted out the locomotive’s electrical systems in the warmer air of the tunnel. For NPR News, I'm Eleanor Beardsley in Paris.

Crude oil futures¹⁶ prices ended the session higher today. Crude oil was up 68 cents a barrel to close at $74.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

I'm Jack¹⁷ Speer, NPR News in Washington.

1 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

2 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》

3 hurdle   

n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛

参考例句：

• The weather will be the biggest hurdle so I have to be ready.天气将会是最大的障碍，所以我必须要作好准备。
• She clocked 11.6 seconds for the 80 metre hurdle.八十米跳栏赛跑她跑了十一秒六。

4 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

5 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 utilized   

v.利用，使用( utilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In the19th century waterpower was widely utilized to generate electricity. 在19世纪人们大规模使用水力来发电。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The empty building can be utilized for city storage. 可以利用那栋空建筑物作城市的仓库。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

11 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

12 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

13 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。

14 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

15 jointly   

ad.联合地，共同地

参考例句：

• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。
• She owns the house jointly with her husband. 她和丈夫共同拥有这所房子。

16 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。

17 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。