美联社新闻一分钟 2005-08-11

1. A defiant¹ Iran resumes full operations at its uranium conversion² plant, its latest brinkmanship with the West over its nuclear ambitions.

2. In Iraq five more American service members are killed in a latest violence there while gunmen in Baghdad kidnap a senior Iraqi official.

3. President Bush signs a huge highway bill totally nearly 300 billion dollars including cash for thousands of lawmaker pet projects.

4. Ahead of next week's Gaza pullout, Israeli troops hold a final drill to prepare for some of the withdrawal's worst possible scenario³s.

5. And a daring rescue saves a trapped climber who tried to scale Pakistan's so-called killer⁵ mountain in the western Himalayas.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. brinkmanship
brinkmanship
Brinkmanship is a method of behaviour, especially in politics, in which you deliberately⁶ get into dangerous situations which could result in disaster but which could also bring success. (JOURNALISM)
A game of political brinkmanship has begun at Westminster with the political careers of some cabinet ministers on the line.
N-UNCOUNT

2. scenario
1 scenario scenarios⁴
If you talk about a likely or possible scenario, you are talking about the way in which a situation may develop.
...the nightmare scenario of a divided and irrelevant⁷ Royal Family...
In the worst-case scenario, you could become a homeless person.
Try to imagine all the possible scenarios and what action you would take.
N-COUNT

3. scale
9 scale scales scaling scaled
If you scale something such as a mountain or a wall, you climb up it or over it. (WRITTEN)
...Rebecca Stephens, the first British woman to scale Everest...
The men scaled a wall and climbed down scaffolding on the other side.
VB
= climb

1 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

2 conversion   

n.转化，转换，转变

参考例句：

• He underwent quite a conversion.他彻底变了。
• Waste conversion is a part of the production process.废物处理是生产过程的一个组成部分。

3 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

4 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

5 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

6 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

7 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。