CNN 2011-06-04

The start of new month, the start of new day. CNN student news. Hi, I'm Carl Azuz and I'm delivering you ten minutes of commercial free headlines.

First up, we are talking about a new low for the price of homes in the United States during the first quarter, the first three months of 2011. Home prices dropped more than 5% from where they were last year. That's according to a new report that came out yesterday. And comparison gets even worse when you go back a little farther. The housing market hit its highest point 5 years ago in 2006. Compared to that, that highest point, prices of homes have dropped almost 33%. Home prices are down, so what, might not be something you think about every day, but some of your parents are paying close attention. Home prices affect a lot of other industries like banks, like construction. So that's one of the big indicators¹ that experts used to figure out how the US economy is doing. And prices have gone through a kind of double dip, they went down after that peak in 2006, then they went back up a little bit around 2009, some government programmes designed to encourage people to buy houses help with that increase. But now they are dropping again, and one expert says it doesn't look like that's going to change anytime soon.

Officials in Germany are warning people there not to eat raw cucumbers, leaf lettuces² or tomatoes. The reason, an outbreak of the E.coli. That is a bacteria that can be transmitted through contaminated³ food or water, especially raw vegetables. Reports have connected at least 16 deaths to the outbreak, hundreds of other people have gotten sick. German authorities are trying to contain the outbreak. In the meantime, scientists are trying to figure out where it's started. They don't have that answer yet, they think it could be traced back to produce from Spain. Germany buys more Spanish fruits and vegetables than any other country. And the concerns about those foods could cost Spain food industry millions of dollars

1 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

2 lettuces   

n.莴苣，生菜（ lettuce的名词复数 ）；生菜叶

参考例句：

• My lettuces have gone to seed. 我种的莴苣已结子。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Are these lettuces home-grown or did you buy them in the market? 这些生菜是自家种的呢，还是你在市场上买的？ 来自辞典例句

3 contaminated   

把…弄脏，污染( contaminate的过去式 )； 玷污，毒害，腐蚀（人的思想或品德）

参考例句：

• The drinking water has become contaminated with lead. 饮用水被铅污染了。
• The site was found to be contaminated by radioactivity. 发现此地受放射线污染。