美联社新闻一分钟 2007-04-24

1. Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin has died at the age of 76. He is credited with engineering the collapse¹ of the Soviet² Union and introducing a market economy to the former communist state.

2. Thousands of Virginia Tech students paid solemn tribute today to the victims of last week's massacre³. A bell rang for those who died and moments of silence were observed before classes resumed at the university.

3. For the fresh vote of confidence from President Bush, Alberto Gonzales is vowing⁴ to remain as Attorney General despite lingering questions over his department's firing of eight federal prosecutors⁵.

4. And a French newspaper is reporting that follow-up tests on backup urine samples by Tour de France winner Floyd Landis have turned up traces of synthetic⁶ testosterone.

 

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. credit: verb
If people credit someone with an achievement or it is credit to them, people say or believe that they were responsible for it.

2. engineer: verb
If you engineer an event or situation, you arrange for it to happen in a clever or indirect way.

3. solemn: adj
Someone or something that is solemn is very serious rather than cheerful or humorous.

4. urine: n-uncount
Urine is the liquid that you get rid of from your body when you go to the toilet.

5. testosterone: n-count
Testosterone is a hormone⁷ found in men and male animals, which can also be produced artificially.

1 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

2 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

3 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

4 vowing   

起誓，发誓（vow的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• President Bush is vowing to help Minneapolis rebuild its collapsed bridge. 布什总统承诺将帮助明尼阿波利斯重建坍塌的大桥。
• President Bush is vowing to help Minneapolis rebuild this collapse bridge. 布什总统发誓要帮助明尼阿波利斯重建起这座坍塌的桥梁。

5 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

6 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。

7 hormone   

n.荷尔蒙，激素，内分泌

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body.这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。