英国新闻听力 25

BBC News with Fiona McDonald.

As the European Union considers sending troops to Congo where a rebel offensive has displaced tens of thousands of civilians¹, Britain has warned that any deployment² could take weeks. The French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said any long-term solution to the conflict lay in dialogue between the leaders of Congo and neighboring Rwanda which the Congolese government accuses of supporting the rebels.

"We must find a political solution, not a humanitarian³ insulation⁴. Part of the solution is certainly to press Mr. President Kagame and President Kabila to talk to each other and hopefully some representative of the Congo were sent to Kigali and today (and) I talked to Minister of Foreign Affairs and that I'm going to talk to Mr. President Kagame. So it's the beginning."

Here in Britain a senior BBC executive has resigned following a national outcry over the broadcasting of lewd⁵ telephone calls by two of its highest-paid entertainers. The executive Lesley Douglas leaves her post as head of the BBC's domestic station Radio 2. Here is our British affairs correspondent Janet Barry.

Lesley Douglas said she took full responsibility for the row over the prank⁶ phone calls where two presenters⁷ on the domestic BBC station Radio 2 left messages on the answer phone of a well-known British actor Andrew Sachs. The presenters Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand made sexual comments about Mr. Sachs' granddaughter. Russell Brand resigned from the BBC yesterday and the BBC decided⁸ today to suspend Jonathan Ross without pay for three months. The prank phone calls have so far prompted over 35,000 complaints from the Prime Minister downwards⁹.

The Roman Catholic Church has issued new guidance, saying candidates for the priesthood should undergo psychological tests to screen out those unable to control their sexual urges. The document approved by Pope Benedict follows a series of sexual-abuse scandals that have rocked the church in recent years. From Rome, here is Duncan Kennedy.

Under the new guidelines, trainee¹⁰ Catholic priests must, in future, consent to inquiries¹¹ by mental health professionals. The guidelines state that, what they call, too many mental shortcomings come to the surface only after ordination¹², and recognizing this in time will, they say, prevent so many tragedies. One cardinal¹³ said that the celibate¹⁴ candidate with what he called, rooted homosexual tendencies, must be excluded from the priesthood, not because he commits a sin but because homosexuality is a deviation¹⁵ that prevents him from doing his job.

Figures just out from the United States government show the country's economy contracted in the third quarter of this year by one third of one percent, its sharpest fall in seven years. Consumer spending fell for the first time since 1991. The figures make a recession in America seem more likely.

World News from the BBC.

Health officials in South Africa say a new strain of virus was responsible for four deaths from haemorrhagic fever in Johannesburg last month. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases said tests have confirmed that the virus was new in terms of its genetic¹⁶ make-up. It was highly lethal¹⁷ and there was no vaccine¹⁸.

A court in the American city of Miami has found the son of the former Liberian president Charles Taylor guilty of torture and involvement in summary executions in the West African nation. Prosecutors¹⁹ have told the court that Charles Taylor junior had been involved in an elite²⁰ paramilitary unit in his father's government between 1999 and 2002. Our West Africa correspondent Will Ross reports.

Both father and son have fallen from positions of great power and now face the possibility of lengthy²¹ spells behind bars. Charles McArthur Emmanuel, better known as "Chuckie" Tailor, was born in the U.S. but moved to Liberia when his father seized power there in 1997. In his early 20s, Chuckie Tailor was made the head of the notorious Anti-Terrorist Unit, or ATU. This elite pro-government military division was widely feared in Liberia and there is no doubt that it was responsible for the torture of many people.

The Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip have released 17 jailed members of the rival Palestinian faction²² Fatah and what they say is a good-will gesture before reconciliation²³ talks. Announcing the releases, the senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh described the detainees for the first time as political prisoners. He called for the Fatah-controlled authorities in the West Bank to reciprocate²⁴.

Scientists say they've been able for the first time to prove that human activity is contributing to the warming of both the Arctic and Antarctic. British researchers say their analysis shows that increasing temperatures at the Polar Regions cannot be explained by nature causes alone, but by the additional impact of greenhouse emissions²⁵.

BBC News.

1 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。

2 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

3 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

4 insulation   

n.隔离；绝缘；隔热

参考例句：

• Please examine the insulation of the electric wires in my house.请检查一下我屋子里电线的绝缘情况。
• It is always difficult to assure good insulation between the electric leads.要保证两个电触头之间有良好的绝缘总是很困难的。

5 lewd   

adj.淫荡的

参考例句：

• Drew spends all day eyeing up the women and making lewd comments.德鲁整天就盯着女人看，说些下流话。
• I'm not that mean,despicable,cowardly,lewd creature that horrible little man sees. 我可不是那个令人恶心的小人所见到的下流、可耻、懦弱、淫秽的家伙。

6 prank   

n.开玩笑，恶作剧；v.装饰；打扮；炫耀自己

参考例句：

• It was thought that the fire alarm had been set off as a prank.人们认为火警报警器响是个恶作剧。
• The dean was ranking the boys for pulling the prank.系主任正在惩罚那些恶作剧的男学生。

7 presenters   

n.节目主持人，演播员( presenter的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Each week presenters would put the case for their favourite candidate. 每个星期主持人推出他们最喜欢的候选人。 来自互联网
• Karaoke was set up to allowed presenters to sing on the stage. 宴会设有歌唱舞台，可让出席者大演唱功。 来自互联网

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 downwards   

adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地）

参考例句：

• He lay face downwards on his bed.他脸向下伏在床上。
• As the river flows downwards,it widens.这条河愈到下游愈宽。

10 trainee   

n.受训练者

参考例句：

• The trainee checked out all right on his first flight.受训者第一次飞行完全合格。
• Few of the trainee footballers make it to the top.足球受训人员中没有几个能达到顶级水平。

11 inquiries   

n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending further inquiries. 他获得保释，等候进一步调查。
• I have failed to reach them by postal inquiries. 我未能通过邮政查询与他们取得联系。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 ordination   

n.授任圣职

参考例句：

• His ordination gives him the right to conduct a marriage or a funeral.他的晋升圣职使他有权主持婚礼或葬礼。
• The vatican said the ordination places the city's catholics in a "very delicate and difficult decision."教廷说，这个任命使得这个城市的天主教徒不得不做出“非常棘手和困难的决定”。

13 cardinal   

n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的

参考例句：

• This is a matter of cardinal significance.这是非常重要的事。
• The Cardinal coloured with vexation. 红衣主教感到恼火，脸涨得通红。

14 celibate   

adj.独身的，独身主义的；n.独身者

参考例句：

• He had defended the institution of a celibate priesthood.他捍卫了独身牧师制度。
• The instinct of the celibate warned him to hold back.单身汉的本能告诫他回头是岸。

15 deviation   

n.背离，偏离；偏差，偏向；离题

参考例句：

• Deviation from this rule are very rare.很少有违反这条规则的。
• Any deviation from the party's faith is seen as betrayal.任何对党的信仰的偏离被视作背叛。

16 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

17 lethal   

adj.致死的；毁灭性的

参考例句：

• A hammer can be a lethal weapon.铁锤可以是致命的武器。
• She took a lethal amount of poison and died.她服了致命剂量的毒药死了。

18 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

19 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。

20 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

21 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

22 faction   

n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争

参考例句：

• Faction and self-interest appear to be the norm.派系之争和自私自利看来非常普遍。
• I now understood clearly that I was caught between the king and the Bunam's faction.我现在完全明白自己已陷入困境，在国王与布纳姆集团之间左右为难。

23 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

24 reciprocate   

v.往复运动；互换；回报，酬答

参考例句：

• Although she did not reciprocate his feelings, she did not discourage him.尽管她没有回应他的感情，她也没有使他丧失信心。
• Some day I will reciprocate your kindness to me.总有一天我会报答你对我的恩德。

25 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。