美国有线新闻 CNN 2012-09-19

 Hi, I’m Marlene Esparza, U.S. boxingOlympian, and we’re celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, and you are watchingCNN Student News. 

You sure are. Hi, everyone, I’m Carl Azuz,we are going to have more from Marlene Esparza coming up, but we are startingtoday with some global headlines. First up, we’re heading up to Afghanistan.The U.S.-led coalition¹ is gradually transferring control to Afghan authorities,but he war is not over, and there are still tens of thousands of Americanforces there. On Sunday, four U.S.troops were killed by Afghan police. These attacks are sometimes called “Greenon Blue” violence, when coalition troops are fired on by their supposing Afghanallies. Two other Americans were killed on Friday when a group of 15 insurgentsraided this military base. Six jets were destroyed in that attack as well. 14of the raiders were killed. The other was wounded and captured. 

 

Next, we are moving toward the Korea peninsula and Japan. Over in this part of theworld, hurricanes are called typhoons, and the 16th one this year barreledthrough over the weekend. It’s called Typhoon Sanba. Forecasters said the stormwas heading towards South  Korea yesterday. It made landfall on theJapanese island of Okinawa Sundaymorning. The storm’s eye was nearly half the length of the island, there wereno immediate² reports of damage. Okinawa isbuilt to handle powerful typhoons since it’s in an area where they happen sooften. 

 

Finally, we are heading to the U.S. city of Chicago. The country’s third largest schooldistrict was not in class last week because the teachers union was on strike.Union officials and teacher representatives met to discuss the latest contractproposal. The teacher reps had the power to either stop the strike or to keepit going. But the meeting was still under way when we were producing this showyesterday evening, but you can get the latest details at cnnstudentnews.com.

 

In 50 days, Americans will head to thepolls to vote for president. The two main candidates represent the country’stwo main political parties, but how did these groups get started? Tomorrow weare going to take a look at the Democrats³. Today, Tom Foreman explores theorigins of the modern Republican Party. 

 

The modern Republican Party absolutely owesits origin to the fight over slavery. In the mid-1800s, in that tumultuous time right before the Civil War, manypolitical activists⁴ were worried about slavery spreading into the westernterritories, and they didn’t think the other parties would do much about it.The Democrats or the Whigs, so they said, let’s form our own party, and we’llcall it the Republicans, as a salute⁵ to former American leaders long ago who’dcalled themselves Republicans. In fact, at one point, almost every politicianin this country called themselves a type of Republican, but that was the oldRepublicans. Now we’re talking about the new Republicans. By 1861, they hadtheir first president, Abraham Lincoln. Slavery soon fell, as we all know. TheWhigs soon disbanded, and the Republicans began this long steady march into power. Even back then, they talked aboutissues like immigration and religion and basic values and having a strongbusiness climate. That’s why one newspaper back then that liked them said wewill call this the Grand Old Party, the GOP. We still hear that to these days.Their voting base was largely in rural areas and the West. That’s stillpartially true. And those people proved really adept⁶ at using the ElectoralCollege system to produce presidents. Even sometimes they couldn’t get thepopular vote. Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, many more, they produced alot of presidents, but then along comes World War I, and the party has thesedeep policy divisions over what to do. Herbert Hoover shows up, ushers⁷ in the Great Depression, and the Republicans goscurrying off into retreat. And that’s where they stay for quite some time.It’s 20 years, until Dwight Eisenhower finally get the White House back forthem again. However, since 1969, they’ve been pretty much back to their winningways. During that period of time, Republicans have held the Oval Office almosttwice as many years as the Democrats.

1 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

2 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

3 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

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 salute   

vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮

参考例句：

• Merchant ships salute each other by dipping the flag.商船互相点旗致敬。
• The Japanese women salute the people with formal bows in welcome.这些日本妇女以正式的鞠躬向人们施礼以示欢迎。

6 adept   

adj.老练的，精通的

参考例句：

• When it comes to photography,I'm not an adept.要说照相，我不是内行。
• He was highly adept at avoiding trouble.他十分善于避开麻烦。

7 ushers   

n.引座员( usher的名词复数 )；招待员；门房；助理教员v.引，领，陪同( usher的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Seats clicked, ushers bowed while he looked blandly on. 座位发出啪啦啪啦的声响，领座员朝客人们鞠躬，而他在一边温和殷勤地看着。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• The minister then offers a brief prayer of dedication, and the ushers return to their seats. 于是牧师又做了一个简短的奉献的祈祷，各招待员也各自回座位。 来自辞典例句