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1. Rescue crews in Indonesia are racing to try to find survivors from a 6. 3 magnitude earthquake. So far at least 3, 500 people are known dead and thousands more are injured.
2. President Bush has told graduates at West Point, they will be the ones who will win the war on terror. He gave the commencement address today and said the country is counting on them more than any other group of young people.
3. The self-proclaimed Minutemen who are watching over the US-Mexico border are taking matters into their own hands this weekend. They are building a fence hoping that will help keep illegal immigrants out.
4. A castle in Romania that has ties to Dracula has changed hands. The country has given it back to the family who owned it from the communist government seized the property in the 1940s. According to local lore, Vlad the Impaler, who inspired the mythical character Dracula, once used the castle during his incursions in Transylvania
WORDS IN THE NEWS
1. commencement : n-var
Commencement is a ceremony at a university, college, or high school at which students formally receive their degrees or diplomas. (AM; in BRIT, use graduation)
2. count on phrasal verb
If you count on someone or count upon them, you rely on them to support you or help you.
e.g. I can always count on you to cheer me up.
3. Minuteman : noun
An armed man pledged to be ready to fight on a minute's notice just before and during the Revolutionary War in the United States.
4. change hands : phrase
When something changes hands, its ownership changes, usually because it is sold to someone else.
e.g. The firm has changed hands many times over the years.
5. Dracula
The title character of Dracula, a novel from the late nineteenth century by the English author Bram Stoker. Count Dracula, a vampire, is from Transylvania, a region of eastern Europe now in Romania. He takes his name from a bloodthirsty nobleman of the Middle Ages. To lay the vampire Dracula's spirit to rest, one must drive a wooden stake through his heart.
6. lore : n-uncount
The lore of a particular country or culture is its traditional stories and history.
e.g. the Book of the Sea, which was stuffed with sailors' lore.
7. impale : verb
To impale something on a pointed object means to cause the point to go into it or through it.
e.g. Researchers observed one bird impale a rodent on a cactus.
8. incursion : n-count
If there is an incursion into a country, enemy soldiers suddenly enter it. (FORMAL)
e.g. armed incursions into border areas by rebel forces.
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