美联社新闻一分钟 2006-04-28

1. The sole survivor¹ of the Sago Mine tragedy, Randy McCloy, released a letter detailing the last hours of the 12 miners who did not make it out. In the letter, McCloy talked about trying to signal their location to rescuers with a sledgehammer, sharing air tanks and finally drifting off to sleep.

2. A Senate committee says FEMA needs to be rebuilt from scratch. The report comes just a month before hurricane season begins, and says bad leadership and inadequate² funding have left FEMA beyond repair.

3. The jurors in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial took a break Thursday after 16 hours of deliberations because one of them is sick. The jury is trying to decide if Moussaoui will be sentenced to death or receive life in prison for his role in the 9/11 attacks.

4. If you’ve got time, read the decision by the British judge who heard the Da Vinci Code copyright trial of author Dan Brown. He apparently³ inserted his own code into the judgement. Certain random⁴ letters are scattered⁵ in bold italics throughout the ruling. The judge is confirming that he left a code in the ruling.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. sledgehammer : n-count
A sledgehammer is a large, heavy hammer with a long handle, used for breaking up rocks and concrete.

2. drift off to : phrasal verb
If you drift off to sleep, you gradually fall asleep.
e.g. It was only when he finally drifted off to sleep that the headaches eased.

3. insert : verb
If you insert an object into something, you put the object inside it.
e.g. He took a small key from his pocket and slowly inserted it into the lock...

4. bold : n-uncount
Bold is print which is thicker and looks blacker than ordinary printed letters.
e.g. Use bold type for headings and bullet points for noteworthy achievements.

5. italic : adj
Italic letters slope to the right.
e.g. She addressed them by hand in her beautiful italic script.
italics : n-plural
Italics are letters which slope to the right. Italics are often used to emphasize a particular word or sentence

1 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。

2 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

3 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

4 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

5 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。