美国有线新闻 CNN 2015-05-11

 CNN Student News. I'm Carl Azuz.The U.S. Federal Appeals Court ruled yesterday that the National Security Agency's collection of telephone records is illegal under the Patriot¹ Act. Lots of different parts to this.  

 

First, the Patriot Act. It was passed and signed by President George W. Bush after the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. It expanded the government's ability to investigate and keep tabs on suspected terrorists. It was renewed by President Bush and President Obama. 

 

Second, the National Security Agency. In 2013, former U.S. government contractor² Edward Snowden leaked information that the NSA had a secret program. It gathers up millions of phone records on a daily basis. Not what people say but the numbers involved and the link of the calls are collected. 

 

The Obama administration has argued that part of the Patriot Act allows the government to continue to collect that information. But it lost its case with an appeals court ruling that the NSA's program goes beyond what Congress authorized³. The part of the Patriot Act that the government said authorizes⁴ the NSA program expires in June. Lawmakers are divided over whether to reauthorize it.

 

There's a state of emergency in 12 Oklahoma counties.  

 

One reason: dangerous amounts of rain. A line of storms passed through several U.S. states earlier this week, dumping so much water that rivers and creeks⁵ have crested⁶ their banks in some areas. Oklahoma City got seven-plus inches of rain. Officials there declared a flash flood emergency for the first ever.

 

The other reason: tornadoes⁸, plural⁹. Dozens of people reported them. At least 13 people were hurt by a twister. We're not sure yet exactly how many tornadoes there were on Wednesday night. But we can tell you where they struck.

 

It's from Nebraska all the way down to Texas. And I don't have a real number. Was it a 30? Was it a 50? We don't know, because if one guy reports it from the southeast and other from the northeast, it could have been the same storm reported.  

 

So, the Weather Service will go out there and look at how many damaged swaths are out there. But I can tell you that there's a couple of tornadoes for sure, because I can show you pictures, like this one. Bearden, Oklahoma, tornado⁷ on the ground. No question about it. This was late in the evening after the storms had already gone to parts of Norman. And then here further to the north, and up Republic County, Kansas, and finally up into Harding, Nebraska.  

 

Look at that beast. That is a tornado. Luckily, no big buildings in the way, no homes, no schools, no cities in the way of that. But obviously, a lot of damage done there across parts of the country.

 

Something else, yesterday, great pictures there. Please don't do this because here's what happened yesterday, we had these called "high precipitation thunderstorms." A lot of rain, high precip.  

 

If you're looking at the storm, you can take a picture of it right there. That's no problem, you can actually see it. But as the storm wraps up, all of a sudden, you can't see it anymore because the veil of rain that you have to look through is completely obscuring your view of the tornado.  

 

You can't see that through all that rain. There's no possible way to see it. The tornado was there, you're seeing it. Then, all of a sudden, the tornado wraps around, the rain wraps around, and you can't see the tornado.

1 patriot   

n.爱国者，爱国主义者

参考例句：

• He avowed himself a patriot.他自称自己是爱国者。
• He is a patriot who has won the admiration of the French already.他是一个已经赢得法国人敬仰的爱国者。

2 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

3 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

4 authorizes   

授权，批准，委托( authorize的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The dictionary authorizes the two spellings 'traveler' and 'traveller'. 字典裁定traveler和traveller两种拼法都对。
• The dictionary authorizes the two spellings "honor" and "honour.". 字典裁定 honor 及 honour 两种拼法均可。

5 creeks   

n.小湾( creek的名词复数 )；小港；小河；小溪

参考例句：

• The prospect lies between two creeks. 矿区位于两条溪流之间。 来自辞典例句
• There was the excitement of fishing in country creeks with my grandpa on cloudy days. 有在阴雨天和姥爷一起到乡村河湾钓鱼的喜悦。 来自辞典例句

6 crested   

adj.有顶饰的，有纹章的，有冠毛的v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的过去式和过去分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点

参考例句：

• a great crested grebe 凤头䴙䴘
• The stately mansion crested the hill. 庄严的大厦位于山顶。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

8 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

9 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。