美联社新闻一分钟 2007-08-04

1. Emergency crews in Minnesota say they themselves are surprised more people weren't killed or seriously injured in Wednesday's bridge collapse¹. While crews continue to search through the muddy waters, officials now say only as many as eight people remain missing. That's down from an estimated 30 earlier in the week.

2. Police in Oakland are detaining 19 people arrested in a series of early morning raids. One of the raids was at an establishment called Your Black Muslim Bakery which was the subject of a story a journalist was working on before he was shot to death Thursday.

3. A 16-year-old has been sentenced to life in prison for killing² his high school principal. Eric Hainstock was armed with a revolver and a shotgun on the morning he killed John Klang last September.

4. Three men are under arrest in New York. Police say one of them set sail on a rather unusual looking vessel³. This submarine was spotted⁴ bobbing in the East River near Brooklyn along with an inflatable boat. Authorities say it doesn't appear terror-related.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. muddy: adj
containing mud

2. revolver: noun
a type of small gun. The bullets are in a case which turns around as you fire the gun, so that when you fire one bullet the next bullet is ready to be fired

3. shotgun: noun
a long gun fired from the shoulder, that shoots many small round balls at one time, used especially for killing birds or animals

4. vessel: noun
any hollow container, esp one used for holding liquids, eg a cask, bowl, bottle or cup

5. bob: verb
to move up and down when floating on the surface of water

6. inflatable boat:
充气橡皮艇

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 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

4 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。