美国国家电台 NPR 2012-10-25

 Mitt¹ Romney is trying to win hearts and minds this hour in Nevada, a battleground state still recovering from one of the worst foreclosure and unemployment rates in the nation. His running mate Paul Ryan was in Ohio, where he promised a new White House would bring better days.

 

Mitt Romney and I believe in true compassion² and upward mobility³, and we are offering a vision based on real reforms for lifting people out of poverty.  

 

Also in Ohio, a state crucial to President Obama's reelection bid, Vice⁴ President Joe Biden is courting the women's vote.

 

One of our central missions is to make sure my daughter, his daughters, my four granddaughters have every single opportunity my sons have. 

 

The Democrats⁵ are seizing on the latest political gaffe⁶ involving Republican Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock. He said God intended pregnancies⁷ that resultfrom rape⁸, a statement he later thought to clarify. The Romney campaign has said it disagrees with Mourdock, but it is still supporting his senate bid.

 

Federal Health officials the risk of meningitis will decline over the next 16 days among people who have received injections of a potentially contaminated steroid. NPR's Richard Knox reports no patient should have received the tainted⁹ drug since October 26th. 

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people who received it before then have no more than a one in five chance of developing meningitis now. That goes down with time, by November 8th, six weeks after the recall, the risk will fall to no more than 1/100. These are maximum risks, the CDC says. Most patients' risk will be much lower. The CDC says nobody should get anti-fungal drugs if they don't have symptoms of infection. One exception, people would elevate it by blood cells in their spinal¹⁰ fluid. Doctors might consider treating them to lower their risk of stroke. Richard Knox, NPR News.

 

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Feds Policy Making Federal Open Market committee, has concluded two days of meetings in Washington. Steve Beckner of Market News International reports that the group is holding off on injecting any further monetary¹¹ stimulus¹² into the economy for now. 

 

Bernanke concedes there is only so much even an aggressive central bank like the Fed can do. So the Fed is taking a wait-and-see approach just over a month after launching a third round of bond buying to lower long-term interest rates and further delaying short term rate hikes. But the Fed is leaving the door open for more quantitative¹³ easing, calling unemployment elevated and predicting inflation will stay low. It reaffirms plans to buy $40 billion of mortgage-back securities per month till it sees substantial job market improvement and says it could buy more. It vows¹⁴ again to hold rates down even after the economic recovery strengthens. For NPR News, I'm Steve Beckner, in Washington. 

 

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow was down six points at 13,097.

 

You are listening to the NPR News. 

 

Some big companies posted stronger profits. Boeing has risen nearly 2% after reporting better than expected profits because of a jumping commercial plane deliveries. Shares of the social network site Facebook were lifted as well by news that it grew its mobile advertising¹⁵ revenue in the third quarter. The market has also reacted to upbeat economic indicators¹⁶ from China. But as we are saying the Dow is down 17 points at 13,72; Nasdaq off five points at 2,985; and the S&P 500 down slightly at 1,410;

 

Another news, the Justice Department has filed the lawsuit¹⁷ accusing Mississippi of violating the due process rights of juveniles¹⁸. The Federal government says officials in the state operate a school-to-prison pipeline¹⁹. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports the state system mostly hurts children who are African-American or disabled. 

 

Civil rights lawyers at the Justice Department say too many children in Mississippi are handcuffed and arrested at school without any probable cause. Other kids can wait more than two days for hearing or are never informed of their rights to a lawyer. Justice says this violates the children's fourth, fifth and fourteenth amendment²⁰ rights under the U.S. Constitution. Federal authorities started investigating in December 2011. They say they sued because they couldn't reach an agreement with state and local agencies in Mississippi to cure the problems. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

 

Authorities say the so-called millennium²¹ bomber²² has been sentenced to 37 years in prison for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport. The Algerian native Ahmed Ressam was arrested in December of 1999. 

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 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

3 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

4 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。

5 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 gaffe   

n.（社交上令人不快的）失言，失态

参考例句：

• I had no idea of the gaffe which I was committing.我不清楚我犯了什么错误。
• He made an embarrassing gaffe at the convention last weekend.他在上周末的会议上出了洋相，狼狈不堪。

7 pregnancies   

怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象，战时人口正该补充。
• She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。

8 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

9 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》

10 spinal   

adj.针的，尖刺的，尖刺状突起的；adj.脊骨的，脊髓的

参考例句：

• After three days in Japan,the spinal column becomes extraordinarily flexible.在日本三天，就已经使脊椎骨变得富有弹性了。
• Your spinal column is made up of 24 movable vertebrae.你的脊柱由24个活动的脊椎骨构成。

11 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

12 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

13 quantitative   

adj.数量的，定量的

参考例句：

• He said it was only a quantitative difference.他说这仅仅是数量上的差别。
• We need to do some quantitative analysis of the drugs.我们对药物要进行定量分析。

14 vows   

誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿

参考例句：

• Matrimonial vows are to show the faithfulness of the new couple. 婚誓体现了新婚夫妇对婚姻的忠诚。
• The nun took strait vows. 那位修女立下严格的誓愿。

15 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

16 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

17 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

18 juveniles   

n.青少年( juvenile的名词复数 )；扮演少年角色的演员；未成年人

参考例句：

• Do you think that punishment for violent crimes should be the same for juveniles and adults? 你对暴力犯罪的惩罚对于青少年和成人应一样吗？ 来自生活英语口语25天快训
• Juveniles Should we not exactly in need of such strength and conviction? 少年的我们难道不正是需要这种力量和信念吗？ 来自互联网

19 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

20 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

21 millennium   

n.一千年，千禧年；太平盛世

参考例句：

• The whole world was counting down to the new millennium.全世界都在倒计时迎接新千年的到来。
• We waited as the clock ticked away the last few seconds of the old millennium.我们静候着时钟滴答走过千年的最后几秒钟。

22 bomber   

n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者

参考例句：

• He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
• Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。