美国有线新闻 CNN 2012-10-19

 President Barack Obama, Republican presidential nominee¹ Mitt² Romney in 90 minute debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, but the set up for this one was different than their first debate two weeks ago. This time it was a town hall format³. That means instead of the candidates just answering questions from a moderator, they were asked questions directly by members of the audience. And for last night’s debate, those questions came from people who hadn’t yet made up their minds about whom they would be voting for in November. This second presidential debate covered domestic and foreign policy issues, here is a look at some of the questions and some of the candidates’ answers.

As a 20-year old college student, all I hear from professors, neighbors and others is that when I graduate, I would have little chance to get employment. What can you say to reassure⁴ me, but more importantly, my parents that I’ll be able to sufficiently⁵ support myself after I graduate?

 

The key thing is to make sure you can get a job when you get out of school. And what’s happened over the last four years, it’s been very, very hard for America’s young people. I want you to be able to get a job. I know what it takes to get this economy going. With half of college kids graduating this year without a college - without a job and without a college level job, that’s just unacceptable. And likewise, you get more and more debt on your back. So, more debt and less jobs. I’m going to change that. I know what it takes to create good jobs again.

 

The most important thing we can do is to make sure that we are creating jobs in this country, but not just jobs, good paying jobs, ones that can support a family. And what I want to do is build on the 5 million jobs that we’ve created over the last 30 months in the private sector⁶ alone, and there are a bunch of things that we can do to make sure your future is bright. Number one, I want to build manufacturing jobs in this country again.

 

In what new ways do you intend to rectify⁷ the inequalities in the workplace? Specifically regarding females, making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?

Women are increasingly the breadwinners in the family. This is not just a women’s issue, this is a family issue, this is a middle class issue. And that’s why we’ve got to fight for it. It also means, that we’ve got to make sure that young people like yourself are able to afford the college education.

 

We are gonna have to have employers in the new economy, in the economy I’m going to bring to play that are going to be so anxious to get good workers, they are going to be anxious to hire women. In the last four years, women have lost 580,000 jobs. That’s the net of what’s happened in the last four years. We are still down 580,000 jobs.

 

See if you can ID me. I’m a position in the US presidential cabinet. I’m fourth in line to the presidency⁸. My primary job is to give the president advice on foreign policy and then carry out the president’s policy.

 

I’m the Secretary of State, a position currently held by Hillary Clinton.

 

Secretary Clinton says another part of her job is to be in charge of security at American diplomatic facilities, that means US embassy and consulate¹⁰ buildings in other countries. One of those facilities, the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was the target of a terrorist attack last month. Four Americans were killed and there have been a lot of accusations¹¹ and questions about whether there was enough security at the consulate, and about which government officials should be held accountable.

 

I take responsibility. I’m in charge of the State Department. 60,000 plus people, all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice⁹ president certainly wouldn’t be knowledgeable¹² about specific decisions that are made by security professionals.

 

A group of center Republicans responded to Secretary Clinton statement. They called it, a laudable gesture, but said the security of Americans serving the nation around the world is ultimately the job of the president.

 

1 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

2 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

3 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。

4 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

5 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。

6 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

7 rectify   

v.订正，矫正，改正

参考例句：

• The matter will rectify itself in a few days.那件事过几天就会变好。
• You can rectify this fault if you insert a slash.插人一条斜线便可以纠正此错误。

8 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

9 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。

10 consulate   

n.领事馆

参考例句：

• The Spanish consulate is the large white building opposite the bank.西班牙领事馆是银行对面的那栋高大的白色建筑物。
• The American consulate was a magnificent edifice in the centre of Bordeaux.美国领事馆是位于波尔多市中心的一座宏伟的大厦。

11 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

12 knowledgeable   

adj.知识渊博的；有见识的

参考例句：

• He's quite knowledgeable about the theatre.他对戏剧很有心得。
• He made some knowledgeable remarks at the meeting.他在会上的发言颇有见地。