美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-08-27

 It’s Thursday August 22nd, and today's edition of CNN Student News begins in Syria. A civil war has been ranging there for nearly two and a half years. This is President Bashar al-Assad. He’s been Syria’s president since 2000. His family has been in power since 1970. In 2011, protesters started calling for a change. The Syrian government responded with force, and eventually rebel forces started fighting back. The United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the war. Each side has accused the other of using chemical weapons. Rebels are making new claims this week about the Syrian government using these weapons. Syrian officials deny that. A group from the United Nations is in Syria right now trying to determine if either side is using chemical weapons. U.N. officials say if they are being used, it would be a violation¹ of international law. 

 

 

 

From the Middle East we moved to Japan, with their new concerns surrounding the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It’s the site of one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters. Yesterday, the Japanese government was getting ready to classify a toxic² water leak at Fukushima as a serious incident. The plant’s owner, TEPCO has been trying to manage contaminated water at Fukushima since 2011. That’s when a massive earthquake struck off the coast of Japan. It triggered a tsunami³, a giant ocean wave that hit Fukushima. Three reactors⁴ went into meltdown. Regarding the current concerns, TEPCO says it’s moved radioactive water from a leaky tank to a better one. The nuclear engineer described this leak as extremely radioactive water. He said it could pose a significant health risk to workers trying to clean it up. But TEPCO says, the workers have protective clothing that will prevent exposure to radiation.

 

 

 

From the Golden State to the Gulf⁵ Coast with a volunteer stop in between. It’s time for today’s roll call. We’re going to bust⁶ it right out with the Bruins from Riverbank High in Riverbank, California. Then we’re jumping over to Germantown, Tennessee, home of the Owls⁷ from Our Lady of Perpetual Help. And Florida makes today’s roll call with the Wolf Pack from South Fort Myers High. Go Pack!

 

 

 

Next up today, the issue of climate change - global temperatures indicate that Earth has been getting warmer in recent decades. But there’s been debate about what’s causing the increase. A new report says many scientists are more certain than ever that the culprit is human activity. Tom Foreman examines the potential effects.

 

 

 

You know about climate change, the idea that basically greenhouses gases are trapping heat from outside, and you’re correct, they are now well over 90 percent saying that human activity is responsible for the preponderance of this, important to know, they’re saying there are other factors, but the preponderance of it is coming as a result of humans doing this. So, what is making - what is the result of all this? Rising oceans. 

 

Why? Because we have warmer oceans, and those warmer oceans are causing melting ice caps, and beyond that, melting of glaciers⁸ and other large ice areas in the world, for example, Greenland. And I want you to watch this amazing piece of animation⁹ from NASA here. Tracking over the past few years what’s been happening to ice up in Greenland. You see all these light blue areas around the edge there - that’s where the ice has been steadily¹⁰ melting and retreating, in this entire country of Greenland. And as you go on through the years, this is about to 2005 here, as it moves forwards, you start seeing even the middle of the country here as it starts warming up, and they are losing even more and more ice. By the time you get through this entire animation, what you see is that NASA has captured how basically this entire area has seen significant loss in ice, all of which goes out into the oceans and that’s the real key here to concern about what’s that’s going to add up to in the long run.

 

We move on beyond this, if you look at Miami down here. This is where Miami is right now. Everglades National Park, it’s a little bit hard to see, but I want you to watch - as this progresses, what they are predicting is that over the next 80 or 90 years, if nothing changes, what you would see is a real encroachment¹¹. Areas like this down here, where you have the Florida Keys, they would basically go completely under water and a lot of areas would also be affected¹² by much, much higher water levels. And even if you go to major cities, like New York City, for example - look at this. This is the island of Manhattan right here. Right now this is the edge of it, and you can see, that’s where the new edge would be. All of this out in here would be lost. What would that include? Well, the simple truth is if you had it lost all the way out there, you would see things like Wall Street essentially¹³ starting to go under water, you would see the Statue of Liberty, the island that supports it out here starting to go under water. Does that mean it will happen? No, we have a lot of time, in which people could build levees and that sort of thing to keep it back, but it does mean it would become a genuine problem if this goes on unabated, and that’s what this whole debate is about, and now there’s an even greater agreement among all these climate scientists from around the world that, in fact, humans are making some of this happen, and only humans can stop it from happening worse.

1 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

2 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

3 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

4 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。

5 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

6 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

7 owls   

n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• 'Clumsy fellows,'said I; 'they must still be drunk as owls.' “这些笨蛋，”我说，“他们大概还醉得像死猪一样。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• The great majority of barn owls are reared in captivity. 大多数仓鸮都是笼养的。 来自辞典例句

8 glaciers   

冰河，冰川( glacier的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Glaciers gouged out valleys from the hills. 冰川把丘陵地带冲出一条条山谷。
• It has ice and snow glaciers, rainforests and beautiful mountains. 既有冰川，又有雨林和秀丽的山峰。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

9 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

10 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

11 encroachment   

n.侵入，蚕食

参考例句：

• I resent the encroachment on my time.我讨厌别人侵占我的时间。
• The eagle broke away and defiantly continued its encroachment.此时雕挣脱开对方，继续强行入侵。

12 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

13 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。