美国有线新闻 CNN 2015-06-05

 Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of CNN Student News. Ten minutes of current events coverage¹ is coming your way. 

 

First up, a shake-up at the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA). This is a part of the department of Homeland Security. The TSA is responsible for protecting America’s transportation systems, and its acting² administrator³, Melvin Carraway, has been reassigned to another job. Why? 

 

Undercover agents recently tried to smuggle⁴ illegal items, like fake explosives, at TSA checkpoints. In almost all of the tests, TSA failed to find them. It’s since been directed to take a number of steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again. A Homeland Security spokesperson says these reports never look good out of context, but that they are important in the continual evolution of airline security.  

 

The Department of the Homeland Security discovered TSA officers failed 95% of the time during undercover operations. The officers fail in the 67 out of 70 tests to detect mock explosives and weapons at airport security checkpoints. 

 

“These are anomalies that TSA screeners and/or their equipment should locate and at least flagged for additional screening.”

 

The Department’s Red Team posed as passengers, attempting to pass through the checkpoint with the mock weapons. “I put a detonator and put the plastic explosive.” Back to 2008, CNN was there for similar covert⁵ operations. That time, it was TSA testing its own officers.” “You can’t see it in there?” “Yeah, you can check.”

 

At the checkpoint, the tester wandered and padded down right where the fake explosive device was concealed⁶, but the screener missed it. It was not until the tester lifted up his shirt. “Oh, I see it now.”

 

In response to the troubling failures, Secretary Johnson said in a statement that he is immediately directing the TSA to revise its screening procedures, conduct training, and re-evaluate their screening equipment. 

 

“This is grown completely out of control. It isn’t doing the job we need to. What we need to do is to be able to connect the dots, get intelligence information, go after people who pose a risk; and they can’t do it with the current system.” 

 

The deadline came and went, and on Sunday night the Patriot⁷ Act expired. The law was initially⁸ passed a month after Sep 11th, 2011 terrorists attacks on the US. Its goal — to prevent terrorism. One method that it used to collect certain phone data of millions of Americans was controversial. You can get a sense of that among the Senator Republicans. 

 

“Even the authors of the Patriot Act say that the Patriot Act in no way gives authority to the president to collect all of your phone records all of the time.” 

“We shouldn’t be disarming⁹ unilaterally, as our enemies grow more sophisticated and aggressive.” 

 

“Isn’t this program as critical as it’s even been since its inception¹⁰, given the fact that the Middle East is literally¹¹ is on fire and we are losing everywhere.” 

 

There is new legislation tied to data collection, though. It’s called the US Freedom Act. The House passed it weeks ago. The Senate did last night. President Obama is expected to sign it. Under the new law, telecommunications companies would keep the data on American’s phone records, and the federal government can get it if it has a targeted warrant. Because the law gives the government six months to transition from the old system to the new, its telephone data collection could continue during that time.

1 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

2 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

3 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

4 smuggle   

vt.私运；vi.走私

参考例句：

• Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
• She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。

5 covert   

adj.隐藏的；暗地里的

参考例句：

• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。
• The army carried out covert surveillance of the building for several months.军队对这座建筑物进行了数月的秘密监视。

6 concealed   

a.隐藏的，隐蔽的

参考例句：

• The paintings were concealed beneath a thick layer of plaster. 那些画被隐藏在厚厚的灰泥层下面。
• I think he had a gun concealed about his person. 我认为他当时身上藏有一支枪。

7 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。

8 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

9 disarming   

adj.消除敌意的，使人消气的v.裁军( disarm的现在分词 )；使息怒

参考例句：

• He flashed her a disarming smile. 他朝她笑了一下，让她消消气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We will agree to disarming troops and leaving their weapons at military positions. 我们将同意解除军队的武装并把武器留在军事阵地。 来自辞典例句

10 inception   

n.开端，开始，取得学位

参考例句：

• The programme has been successful since its inception.这个方案自开始实施以来一直卓有成效。
• Julia's worked for that company from its inception.自从那家公司开办以来，朱莉娅一直在那儿工作。

11 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。