CNN 2009-10-19

Criminal charges expected in that runaway¹ balloon scare. Police searched the Colorado home of the Heenes yesterday, and the family claimed their giant weather balloon got loose on Thursday. At first there were fears that their young son was actually inside of that balloon, but he was later found hiding safely at home. Authorities are looking into whether this was a hoax². The Heenes swear it wasn't.

A suicide bomber³ targets Iran's elite⁴ Revolutionary Guard killing⁵ five top commanders and at least 24 other people. That attack happened at a conference of Sunni and Shiite groups in the south-eastern city of Sarbaz. The head of Iran's parliament blames the US for the attack. No comment yet from Washington.

A reporter from News Week magazine who was imprisoned⁶ in Iran is now home with his family. An Iranian news agency reports Maziar Bahari was released from a Tehran prison on nearly 300,000 dollars bail⁷. He’d been in jail there for four months. Bahari is facing serious charges. He is one of about 100 people accused of plotting to topple Iran’s clerical leaders after then disputed presidential elections back there in June.

Hurricane Rick, oh my goodness, check this out. A monster of a storm, Category 5. It has winds of 180 miles per hour in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. That makes it the second strongest hurricane ever in that part of the world. But forecasters expect it to lose steam as it heads for Baja California and then mainland Mexico a little bit later in the week.

A showdown could be looming⁸ between the reverend Al Sharpton and Rush Limbaugh. Sharpton is threatening to sue the conservative talk show host unless he apologizes for remarks he made in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece. And in the article, Limbaugh wrote that Sharpton played a leading role in two New York race riots back in the 90s. Sharpton say those allegations are false.

1 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

2 hoax   

v.欺骗，哄骗，愚弄；n.愚弄人，恶作剧

参考例句：

• They were the victims of a cruel hoax.他们是一个残忍恶作剧的受害者。
• They hoax him out of his money.他们骗去他的钱。

3 bomber   

n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者

参考例句：

• He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
• Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。

4 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

5 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。

6 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

7 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

8 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望