美国国家电台 NPR 2012-08-09

 President Obama is spending the next two days in the battleground state of Colorado, where he is expected to address a crowd in Denver shortly. Kirk Siegler of member station KUNC reports polls in Colorado show the president and his GOP rival former Governor Mitt¹ Romney in a dead heat.

 

Mr. Obama will speak at a college campus in downtown Denver where the campaign says the president will lay out a plan to restore economic security for middle-class Coloradans. Independent Denver political consultant² Eric Sondermann says a four-stop swing through Colorado was unprecedented³ for a sitting president.

 

“For the Obama campaign, it's a little bit of a firewall or an insurance policy. If they can hold on to a Colorado and add a Nevada on top of it, they can then afford to lose an Ohio or a Virginia.”

 

Mr. Obama also has campaign events scheduled in Aurora⁴, western Colorado as well as the Republican stronghold of Colorado Springs and the Uniontown of Pueblo⁵. For NPR News, I'm Kirk Siegler in Denver.

 

Earlier, Romney attacked the president's record on the economy again as he campaigned today in Des Moines, Iowa. He promised to make one issue the top priority if elected to office.

 

“My priority is jobs. My priority is more jobs and more take-home pay for middle-income Americans.”

 

He also accused President Obama of stripping work requirements from welfare. 

 

The Syrian prime minister is taking refuge in Jordan. Local officials say Riad Hijab arrived today, completing his defection that has proven to be an embarrassing blow to President Bashar al-Assad's government. The Syrian rebellion says Hijab had been hiding in Syria for the last two days, and Jordanian officials say the prime minister and 35 family members crossed into Jordan at dawn.

 

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan reports that civilian⁶ casualties caused both by insurgents⁷ and the NATO-led coalition⁸ have fallen for the first time in five years. But NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Kabul that UN officials warned that Afghan civilian deaths and injuries, nevertheless, remain unacceptably high.  

 

The UN mission reports a 53% increase in targeted killings⁹ of community leaders, government officials and other civilians¹⁰. But overall, the mission says civilian deaths and injuries the first half of this year declined by 15%, compared to the same period last year. UN officials add that roadside bomb attacks have also dropped, although they remain the leading cause of civilian casualties. The report found that nearly 30% of the conflict-related deaths and injuries were women and children. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber¹¹ in eastern Kunar province attacked a NATO patrol on its way to attend a meeting at the governor's compound. Officials say three coalition troops were killed as well as an Afghan civilian. Several others wounded. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Kabul.

 

This is NPR.

 

The new Egyptian administration is facing its biggest test yet in its handling of a security crisis in the Sinai Peninsula. The Islamist President Mohammed Morsi has fired his intelligence chief and governor of northern Sinai after suspected militants¹² killed 16 soldiers. He’s also dismissed the head of the presidential guards and reshuffled the security hierarchy¹³ in Cairo. The decisions were announced hours after Egypt launched its bloodiest¹⁴ air strike in years against militants in Sinai, parts of which plunged¹⁵ into lawlessness after the Mubarak regime was toppled. 

 

The first female film critic at a major American newspaper has died. Judith Crist died yesterday at the age of 90. As NPR's Neda Ulaby reports, Crist was known during her heyday¹⁶ as the most hated critic in Hollywood. 

 

One director called her “Judas Crist.” Billy Wilder, the director of “Some Like It Hot,” said Crist reviewing a film was like getting a neck massage¹⁷ from the Boston Strangler. She could be unsparing, even brutal¹⁸. She called “The Sound of Music” “Icky-sticky.” But Judith Crist also championed the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg when they first started out. She became the New York Herald¹⁹ Tribune's film Critic in 1963, a first for a women. Being a film critic had been a dream for her since seeing Charlie Chaplin in “The Gold Rush” as a child. Judith Crist was also the founding film critic for New York Magazine and the first regular movie reviewer for the Today show on NBC. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

 

Well, Toyota says it may shift some Lexus production from Japan to North America, bringing more jobs. The CEO says in the last eight months, Toyota has announced 3,500 new positions and an investment worth more than 1.5 billion.

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 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

3 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

4 aurora   

n.极光

参考例句：

• The aurora is one of nature's most awesome spectacles.极光是自然界最可畏的奇观之一。
• Over the polar regions we should see aurora.在极地高空,我们会看到极光。

5 pueblo   

n.（美国西南部或墨西哥等）印第安人的村庄

参考例句：

• For over 2,000 years,Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States.在长达2，000多年的时间里，印第安人统治着现在美国西南部的大片土地。
• The cross memorializes the Spanish victims of the 1680 revolt,when the region's Pueblo Indians rose up in violent protest against their mistreatment and burned the cit

6 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

7 insurgents   

n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The regular troops of Baden joined the insurgents. 巴登的正规军参加到起义军方面来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Against the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents, these problems are manageable. 要对付塔利班与伊拉克叛乱分子，这些问题还是可以把握住的。 来自互联网

8 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

9 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

10 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

11 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。

12 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

13 hierarchy   

n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层

参考例句：

• There is a rigid hierarchy of power in that country.那个国家有一套严密的权力等级制度。
• She's high up in the management hierarchy.她在管理阶层中地位很高。

14 bloodiest   

adj.血污的( bloody的最高级 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的

参考例句：

• The Russians were going to suffer their bloodiest defeat of all before Berlin. 俄国人在柏林城下要遭到他们的最惨重的失败。 来自辞典例句
• It was perhaps the bloodiest hour in the history of warfare. 这也许是战争史上血腥味最浓的1个小时。 来自互联网

15 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

16 heyday   

n.全盛时期，青春期

参考例句：

• The 19th century was the heyday of steam railways.19世纪是蒸汽机车鼎盛的时代。
• She was a great singer in her heyday.她在自己的黄金时代是个了不起的歌唱家。

17 massage   

n.按摩，揉；vt.按摩，揉，美化，奉承，篡改数据

参考例句：

• He is really quite skilled in doing massage.他的按摩技术确实不错。
• Massage helps relieve the tension in one's muscles.按摩可使僵硬的肌肉松弛。

18 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

19 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。