美联社新闻一分钟 2005-09-03

1. The National Guard arrives in force in flood-ravaged² New Orleans, bringing food, water and weapons to relieve suffering and restore order.

2. Facing criticism, President Bush tours the Gulf³ Coast, conceding the Federal response to Hurricane Katrina so far is not acceptable.

3. Negotiators in Iraq hold new talks on fine-tuning the country's draft constitution, hoping to still win Sunni Arab approval for the charter.

4. Machinists at Boeing walk out on strike, halting its production of commercial airplanes after a failure to agree on a new contract.

5. And Russia's Putin meets with mothers of Beslan siege victims, saying no government can guarantee total protection from terrorism.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. ravage¹
ravage ravages⁴ ravaging⁵ ravaged
A town, country, or economy that has been ravaged is one that has been damaged so much that it is almost completely destroyed.
For two decades the country has been ravaged by civil war and foreign intervention⁶.
...the ravaged streets of Sarajevo.
...Nicaragua's ravaged economy.
VB: usu passive

2. fine-tune
fine-tune fine-tunes fine-tuning fine-tuned
If you fine-tune something, you make very small and precise changes to it in order to make it as successful or effective as it possibly can be.
We do not try to fine-tune the economy on the basis of short-term predictions.
Computers allow the plans to be fine-tuned and to be altered quickly.
VB

fine-tuning
There's a lot of fine-tuning to be done yet.
N-UNCOUNT

3. siege
1 siege sieges
A siege is a military or police operation in which soldiers or police surround a place in order to force the people there to come out or give up control of the place.
We must do everything possible to lift the siege.
They are hopeful of bringing the siege to a peaceful conclusion.
The journalists found a city virtually under siege.
N-COUNT: also under N

See also state of siege

4. in force
If people do something in force,they do it in a large member

1 ravage   

vt.使...荒废，破坏...；n.破坏，掠夺，荒废

参考例句：

• Just in time to watch a plague ravage his village.恰好目睹了瘟疫毁灭了他的村庄。
• For two decades the country has been ravaged by civil war and foreign intervention.20年来，这个国家一直被内战外侵所蹂躏。

2 ravaged   

毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫

参考例句：

• a country ravaged by civil war 遭受内战重创的国家
• The whole area was ravaged by forest fires. 森林火灾使整个地区荒废了。

3 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。

4 ravages   

劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹

参考例句：

• the ravages of war 战争造成的灾难
• It is hard for anyone to escape from the ravages of time. 任何人都很难逃避时间的摧残。

5 ravaging   

毁坏( ravage的现在分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫

参考例句：

• It is believed that in fatigue there is a repeated process of ravaging the material. 据认为，在疲劳中，有一个使材料毁坏的重复过程。
• I was able to capture the lion that was ravaging through town. 我能逮住正在城里肆虐的那头狮子。

6 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。