美联社新闻一分钟 2006-03-02

1. New video obtained exclusively by the Associated Press shows a FEMA briefing 19 hours before Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf¹ Coast. Then chief Michael Brown shows a clear sense of urgency as he briefed the president and other officials. "This is, to put it mildly, the big one I think" However, 4 days later, the president told ABC news that no one could have predicted the scope of this storm -- a seemingly direct contradiction to the briefing.

2. President Bush travelled to India on Wednesday to try to secure a nuclear deal with New Delhi. Earlier in the day, as many as 100,000 people protested against Bush and denounced the administration’s policies.

3. The wife of single mine survivor² Randal McCloy talked to the Associated Press about her husband’s recovery and their future life. "There is no medical explanation why he lived. There's not gonna be one. He's a miracle." But Anna McCloy says her husband doesn’t yet know he was the only one out of 13 to survive the explosion in the West Virginia mine.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. briefing :noun [C or U]
information that is given to someone just before they do something, or a meeting where this happens:
e.g. They received (a) thorough briefing before they left the country.

2. then :adjective [before noun]
(at) that time (in the past or in the future):
e.g. I wanted to live in the city, but my then husband (= the man who was my husband at that time) preferred the country.

3. contradiction :noun [C or U]
something that has aspects that are illogical or inconsistent with each other
e.g. You say that you're good friends and yet you don't trust him. Isn't that a bit of a contradiction?

1 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。

2 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。