美联社新闻一分钟 2006-07-20

1. A cruise ship carrying more than 1,000 Americans left Beirut this morning enroute to Cyprus. It's the first mass U.S. evacuation from Lebanon since Israeli airstrikes began last week. Roughly 8,000 Americans in the region want to be evacuated¹.

2. Florida officials say a child is among at least 20 people seriously injured when the Crown Princess cruise ship suddenly tilted² sharply to one side shortly after setting sail from Port Canaveral, Florida late yesterday afternoon. The ship apparently³ has steering⁴ problems.

3. More than 270 people are still missing in the wake of a killer⁵ tsunami⁶ that hit Indonesia on Monday. The death toll⁷ now stands at 531. The giant wave, which was triggered by a magnitude 7.7 undersea earthquake, smashed into a 110-mile stretch of Java's coastline.

4. Skies are cloudy along the North Carolina coast, but wind and rain from Tropical Storm Beryl is still several miles offshore⁸ and the system is heading north. The National Hurricane Center says Beryl is likely to parallel the East Coast instead of heading onshore and is not likely to go into a hurricane.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. enroute: adv
Enroute to a place means on the way to that place.

2. set sail: phr
When a ship sets sail, it leaves a port.

3. trigger: vb
If something triggers an event or situation, it causes it to begin to happen or exist.

4. in the wake of: phr
If one thing follows in the wake of another, it happens after the other thing is over, often as a result of it.

5. parallel: vb
If one thing parallels another, they are the same distance apart along their whole length.

1 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

2 tilted   

v. 倾斜的

参考例句：

• Suddenly the boat tilted to one side. 小船突然倾向一侧。
• She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。

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 steering   

n.操舵装置

参考例句：

• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
• Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵，口吻也马上变得温和了。

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 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

7 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

8 offshore   

adj.海面的，吹向海面的；adv.向海面

参考例句：

• A big program of oil exploration has begun offshore.一个大规模的石油勘探计划正在近海展开。
• A gentle current carried them slowly offshore.和缓的潮流慢慢地把他们带离了海岸。