CNN 2012-03-04

 Nearly one hundred tornadoes¹ touched down in the US over the past 24 hours.Claiming the lives of at least 36 people,the search for survivors² continues in the severely³ damaged Kentucky town of West Liberty.This Morgan County Sheriff's deputy almost got trapped himself.

 

We just got down.It is to build the winds then.And it's dumped stuff everywhere,and we came outside,there were a lot of people,that were injured,lying there, rotten got on the black top.

 

In Indianian,rescuers found a 20 month old baby girl in a field after an outbreak of tornadoes there.She was injured but alive,she's in hospital now.

 

A settlement has been reached over the largest oil spill in US history.BP is expected to pay out nearly 8 billion dollars in the deep water horizon disaster settlement.Fordham University Law professor,Howard Ericsson says the company is prepared to pay that kind of money,if needed.

 

They've put aside 20 billion dollars into a settlement fund.And BP hopes that this 7.8 billion dollars would come out of that settlement fund.A deal lets BP avoid a civil trail.

 

Syrian activists⁴ say the military is continuing to shell parts of the city of Homs.The Red Cross says the regime refused again today to allow humanitarian⁵ aid into the Baba Alrm neighborhood,even though with promise to do so, two days ago.

 

Washington State is holding its Republican Presidential caucus⁶ right now.CNN,Shannon Travis linked with Washington, talked with the state's GOP party chair.

 

He said that normally none of the presidential candidates come here, because Washington's primary-caucus systems used to be well after Super Tuesday and by then the nominee⁷ was pretty much almost pick but this year,obviously we know that this is a special case.

 

Polls are now open in Russia's presidential election.Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is considered to sheer win.This is CNN radio.

1 tornadoes   

n.龙卷风，旋风( tornado的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Tornadoes, severe earthquakes, and plagues create wide spread havoc. 龙卷风、大地震和瘟疫成普遍的毁坏。 来自互联网
• Meteorologists are at odds over the working of tornadoes. 气象学者对龙卷风的运动方式看法不一。 来自互联网

2 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

3 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

4 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

6 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

7 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。