CNN 2011-02-13

Let's buckle¹ up and go Cross Country. Here's some stories from around the US. First stop, St. Paul, Minnesota, where nearly 200 middle school girls from the Laura Jeffrey Academy put on zombie-like makeup² and costumes to re-enact Michael Jackson's "Thriller³." They performed at a college yesterday to wrap up their quarter-long drama and physical ed class.

All right, San Francisco for a rare sight. Pot of killer⁴ whales swimming in waters near the Golden Gate Bridge. A nice surprise for a group of tourists on a whale-watching excursion. As many as 14 orcas came within 30 feet of the boat.

And how about Bowling⁵ Green, Ohio? Amy Seiffert has been wearing this simple gray dress every day since November 15th. Why? Well, her goal is to help raise money for victims of sex trafficking. Amy says she will wear the dress until the end of May.

Let's Zone In on San Antonio, Texas. Forget the Alamo for a couple of minutes. The big battle now is between a defrocked beauty queen and the pageant⁶ directors who took her tiara. They claim she got too fat to reign⁷, among a number of other reasons. So we're hearing both sides. Here's Eileen Gonzalez of KSAT.

Beauty queen Domonique Ramirez is in tears over the drama that stripped her of her crown.

I'm 17 years old, I shouldn't have to be slandered⁸ like this, and my future shouldn't have to be ruined over this.

It's a he said, she said sort of dispute. Miss San Antonio Pageant directors claim Domonique violated rules showing up to events with her boyfriend holding her hand. They also say she gained weight and didn't prepare sufficiently⁹ for the Miss Texas pageant. But they say the main reason is that she was unreliable.

She did not make it to functions that she was scheduled for, that she agreed to do. She didn't, sometimes she didn't show up at all and didn't even call and tell you she wasn't coming. Or if she would come, she would come an hour and a half late.

They're bringing stuff up from the past and making stuff up that is not even true.

Pageants¹⁰ directors had already passed the crown to runner- up Ashley Dixon, but Ramirez's lawyer filed a restraining order.

Domonique is going to fight to the bitter end, and she will retain her reign.

For now, the position of Miss San Antonio is in a holding pattern. Ramirez's lawyer claims Domonique still has the crown. Pageant directors say she doesn't. Nothing will be done until the legal case is settled.

The court date is set for next week. If all this drags on too long, San Antonio might not send anyone to the Miss Texas pageant in July.

All right. A new sex scandal boiling up on Capitol Hill and it's already cost a congressman¹¹ his job. It's because of the shirtless beef cake photo that you're taking a look at right there.

New York Republican Chris Lee resigned after the photo and some tawdry details at the Internet.

CNN's Deb Feyerick outside Lee's home in Amperes¹², New Jersey¹³.

My guess is he's not going to step out and talk to you and the cameras, Deb.

Well, he's definitely not going to step out and talk to us. As a matter of fact, the last reported sighting was as he was leaving Capitol Hill and someone asked him where he was going and he basically had no comment except to say this is something that he needed to figure out between he and his wife.

Now Chris Lee, he apparently¹⁴ lied about his age, he lied about being divorced, he lied about his job. The one thing he did tell the truth about is what his name was. Well, apparently this was not the first time he had reached out to a woman on Craigslist as some of those e- mails suggest.

What seemed like a promising¹⁵ career for this up-and-rising Republican ended in just a matter of hours. He had served Congress for two years, but once this hit the Internet on Gawkers, once those photos came out, it took about three hours for him to actually resign.

Now the House Speaker John Boehner apparently did not force him out. However, it did appear that this was something that he simply could not survive. He issued a statement saying how sorry he was, saying how he needed to fix this, that he would do everything he could to make this all right.

Now the e-mails apparently were sent from a G-mail account linked to his personal Facebook page. His spokesman had earlier said that perhaps that e-mail account was hacked¹⁶ into. However, the e-mails to this woman on Craigslist were sent before that hacking¹⁷ was reported and the picture that was sent was from a BlackBerry which you can clearly see in that photograph.

Now folks here in western New York, really they're pretty disappointed. One of the main reasons is this was a businessman who was really trying to rebuild the area and bring businesses to this part of Buffalo¹⁸. That's why there's sort of a sense of loss and sadness.

You always come home and there'd be messages to what he was doing and, you know, updating you on progress or whatever, and for him to do something like this and throw it all away was sad.

Sad state of affairs when you have someone that you are supposed to respect publicly lets you down.

Really we need qualified¹⁹ people in Congress to represent us and, I mean, everybody makes mistakes and nobody seems to be able to live with what they do.

1 buckle   

n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲

参考例句：

• The two ends buckle at the back.带子两端在背后扣起来。
• She found it hard to buckle down.她很难专心做一件事情。

2 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

3 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。

4 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

5 bowling   

n.保龄球运动

参考例句：

• Bowling is a popular sport with young and old.保龄球是老少都爱的运动。
• Which sport do you 1ike most,golf or bowling?你最喜欢什么运动，高尔夫还是保龄球？

6 pageant   

n.壮观的游行；露天历史剧

参考例句：

• Our pageant represented scenes from history.我们的露天历史剧上演一幕幕的历史事件。
• The inauguration ceremony of the new President was a splendid pageant.新主席的就职典礼的开始是极其壮观的。

7 reign   

n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势

参考例句：

• The reign of Queen Elizabeth lapped over into the seventeenth century.伊丽莎白王朝延至17世纪。
• The reign of Zhu Yuanzhang lasted about 31 years.朱元璋统治了大约三十一年。

8 slandered   

造谣中伤( slander的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She slandered him behind his back. 她在背地里对他造谣中伤。
• He was basely slandered by his enemies. 他受到仇敌卑鄙的诋毁。

9 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

10 pageants   

n.盛装的游行( pageant的名词复数 )；穿古代服装的游行；再现历史场景的娱乐活动；盛会

参考例句：

• It is young people who favor holding Beauty pageants. 赞成举办选美的是年轻人。 来自互联网
• Others say that there's a fine line between the pageants and sexual exploitation. 其他人说，选美和性剥削之间只有非常细微的界线。 来自互联网

11 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。

12 amperes   

n.安培( ampere的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The current from these parallel generators will add up to make a total flow of 500 amperes. 这些并联的发电机所产生的电流累计在一起，总电流达到 500 安培。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Rectifier units with a capacity of 20 to 25 amperes for each charging circuit are acceptable. 每条充电线路可容纳容量为20―25安培的整流装置。 来自辞典例句

13 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

14 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

15 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

16 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

17 hacking   

n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动

参考例句：

• The patient with emphysema is hacking all day. 这个肺气肿病人整天不断地干咳。
• We undertook the task of hacking our way through the jungle. 我们负责在丛林中开路。

18 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

19 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。