美国国家电台 NPR 2012-10-21

 The presidential candidates have no public events scheduled this weekend, instead they are getting ready for Monday night's third and final debate. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports Romney is preparing in Boca Raton, Florida.

 

Monday's presidential debate is about foreign affairs, but at a rally in Daytona Beach last night, Mitt¹ Romney stuck to purely² domestic issues, saying President Obama has no plans for another four years in office.

 

The president has no jobs agenda. We keep on asking him. What are you going to do to create jobs? He has nothing new. He says well we are going to forward. Forewarned is a better term, I think.

 

Paul Ryan joined Romney at this beach site rally on the board rock. The vice³ presidential candidate gave a shout-out to American made harness, which are swarming⁴ the streets of Daytona this weekend for the motorcycle festival  called Biketoberfest. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Daytona beach, Florida.

 

President Obama is preparing for the debate at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland. 

 

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has just increased the death toll⁵ from the fungal meningitis outbreak, 23 people have now died from the illness, linked to tainted⁶ steroid injections, prepared at a compounding pharmacy⁷ in Massachusetts. The number of sick people also rose to 283. The facility that made the shots  is facing state and federal investigations⁹, and it's the target of lawsuits¹⁰. The CDC says nearly all of the people who may have been exposed to the tainted steroid injections have been contacted. 

 

In Libya, authorities say they have captured the well-known spokesman, a former strong man Moammar  Gaddafi. NPR's Leila Fadel reports that in the past, claims of his capture were proven faults.

 

The Foreign Minister's office issued a statement saying Libyan forces had captured Moussa Ibrahim, the face of the Gaddafi regime during the war last year. The statement said Ibrahim was captured in the town of Tarhouna, some forty miles south of the capital. He's been transported to Tripoli for an investigation⁸. If true, the man who was the mouthpiece of Gaddafi regime, he had regular press conferences for the foreign press in Tripoli Hotel during the war, was captured on the anniversary of the dictator's death. Ibrahim's Facebook page said the reports were false. Since the fall of Tripoli last year, Ibrahim went into hiding and his whereabouts were unknown. Leila Fadel, NPR News.

 

This is a day of mourning in Lebanon following a bomb attack yesterday in Beirut that killed eight people, including the country's intelligence minister. The Lebanese prime minister is blaming neighboring Syria which has been accused before of trying to start a terror campaign in Lebanon, using bombs and assassinations¹¹. 

 

Customs officials in HongKong uncovered a major fine this week, nearly $ 3.5 million in illegal ivory tusks¹² and ornaments¹³. These were containers shipped from Kenya and Tanzania and concealed¹⁴ in scraps¹⁵ of plastic. HongKong officials found out because they got a tip from Chinese officials. 

 

You are listening to NPR News.

 

On Friday, the stock market had its worst day since June. Steve Beckner of Market News International reports disappointing corporate¹⁶ profits from General Electric, McDonald and Microsoft battered¹⁷ Wall Street yesterday. 

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 1.5% Friday. The Brother Gages fell even worse with the Standard & Poor's 500 losing one and two thirds percent. The Nasdaq Composite was the poorest performer falling well over 2%. During the week, upbeat economic numbers lent support to equities¹⁸ and countered some of the bad earnings¹⁹ news. For the week, the Dow was up slightly, while the S&P is up 0.3%, but the Nasdaq is down more than 1%. For NPR News, I'm Steve Beckner. 

 

NFL Commissioner²⁰ Roger Goodell is stepping aside from hearings involving football players accused of taking money to deliberately²¹ injure opposing players. Four members of the New Orleans Saints were suspended over the bounty²² program. They have appealed. Goodell's now recused himself from the matter and he's appointed the former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to hear it instead. Goodell says he has not talked to Tagliabue about Saint's bounty program and that Tagliabue has not been part of the NFL disciplinary process.

 

French emergency crews are evacuating²³ people from hotels near the Catholic Shrine²⁴ of Lourdes. Heavy rain is flooded nearby river causing havoc²⁵ for hundreds of religious pilgrims. And the Lourdes' grotto²⁶ is the site where in 1858 that Virgin²⁷ Mary is said to have appeared to a teenaged girl. The site attracts about 6 million visitors every year.

1 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

2 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 swarming   

密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。
• The beach is swarming with bathers. 海滩满是海水浴的人。

5 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。

6 tainted   

adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏

参考例句：

• The administration was tainted with scandal. 丑闻使得政府声名狼藉。
• He was considered tainted by association with the corrupt regime. 他因与腐败政府有牵连而名誉受损。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

8 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

9 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

10 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

11 assassinations   

n.暗杀( assassination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Most anarchist assassinations were bungled because of haste or spontaneity, in his view. 在他看来，无政府主义者搞的许多刺杀都没成功就是因为匆忙和自发行动。 来自辞典例句
• Assassinations by Israelis of alleged terrorists habitually kill nearby women and children. 在以色列，自称恐怖分子的炸弹自杀者杀害靠近自己的以色列妇女和儿童。 来自互联网

12 tusks   

n.（象等动物的）长牙( tusk的名词复数 )；獠牙；尖形物；尖头

参考例句：

• The elephants are poached for their tusks. 为获取象牙而偷猎大象。
• Elephant tusks, monkey tails and salt were used in some parts of Africa. 非洲的一些地区则使用象牙、猴尾和盐。 来自英语晨读30分（高一）

13 ornaments   

n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The shelves were chock-a-block with ornaments. 架子上堆满了装饰品。
• Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments. 一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 concealed   

a.隐藏的，隐蔽的

参考例句：

• The paintings were concealed beneath a thick layer of plaster. 那些画被隐藏在厚厚的灰泥层下面。
• I think he had a gun concealed about his person. 我认为他当时身上藏有一支枪。

15 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

16 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

17 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

18 equities   

普通股，股票

参考例句：

• These are invested mainly in the OECD bonds and equities. 这些资产主要投资于经济合作及发展组织的债券与股票市场。
• They are also advantage of the global rebound in equities. 它们还在利用全球股市反弹的机会。

19 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

20 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

21 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

22 bounty   

n.慷慨的赠予物，奖金；慷慨，大方；施与

参考例句：

• He is famous for his bounty to the poor.他因对穷人慷慨相助而出名。
• We received a bounty from the government.我们收到政府给予的一笔补助金。

23 evacuating   

撤离，疏散( evacuate的现在分词 )； 排空（胃肠），排泄（粪便）； （从危险的地方）撤出，搬出，撤空

参考例句：

• The solution is degassed by alternately freezing, evacuating and thawing. 通过交替的冻结、抽空和溶化来使溶液除气。
• Are we evacuating these potential targets? 能够在这些目标地域内进行疏散吗？

24 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

25 havoc   

n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city.地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• This concentration of airborne firepower wrought havoc with the enemy forces.这次机载火力的集中攻击给敌军造成很大破坏。

26 grotto   

n.洞穴

参考例句：

• We reached a beautiful grotto,whose entrance was almost hiden by the vine.我们到达了一个美丽的洞穴，洞的进口几乎被藤蔓遮掩著。
• Water trickles through an underground grotto.水沿着地下岩洞流淌。

27 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。