VOA常速英语2021--世卫专家称武汉实验室泄露新冠病毒毫无根据（在线收听）

A member of the World Health Organization-led team searching for clues to the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, said Thursday that work needed to be done to trace genetic elements of the virus in bat caves. Emily Wither of Reuters reports. Peter Daszak, a zoologist and animal disease expert, said the team in Wuhan had been receiving new information about how the virus led to a pandemic. He said there was no evidence to suggest it emerged from a lab, but they were examining the potential link to bats. "The real work we are doing here is to trace back from the first cases back to an animal reservoir." One scenario being scrutinized more closely by the team is the possibility that the virus could have been circulating long before it was first identified in Wuhan at the end of 2019. The investigators have so far visited hospitals, research facilities and the seafood market where the first outbreak was identified. That's Reuters Emily Wither.

世界卫生组织领导的一个在中国武汉寻找新冠起源线索的小组成员星期四表示，需要在蝙蝠洞穴中追踪病毒的基因单元。请听路透社记者艾米莉·威瑟报道。动物学家和动物疾病专家彼得·达扎克表示，武汉的研究小组已经收到了有关新冠病毒如何引发疫情的新信息。他表示，没有证据表明新冠病毒来自实验室，但他们正在研究与蝙蝠的潜在联系。“我们在这里做的真正工作是从最初的病例追溯到动物宿主。”研究小组正在更仔细地研究的一种设想是，该病毒可能早在2019年底首次在武汉被发现之前就已经在传播。到目前为止，调查人员已经走访了医院、研究机构和发现第一次疫情的海鲜市场。我是路透社记者艾米莉·威瑟。

Tokyo Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori apologized on Thursday for sexist comments he repeatedly made about women talking too much, but said he would not resign. Reuters Emer McCarthy has more. There have been calls for Yoshiro Mori to step down after he said that female board members talked too much. The 83-year-old made the comments at a Japanese Olympic Committee meeting this week, according to a report in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. In a hastily called press conference on Thursday, the former Japanese prime minister said his comments were wrong. The saga is likely to alienate a Japanese public that's already wary about hosting the Games during the health crisis. A recent poll showed that 80 percent of the public thought it shouldn't go ahead as scheduled in July. That's Reuters Emer McCarthy.

东京奥运会负责人森喜朗周四就自己多次发表的有关女性说太多话的性别歧视言论道歉，但表示不会辞职。请听路透社记者埃默·麦卡锡带来详细报道。部分民众呼吁森喜朗下台，森喜朗此前曾表示，女性董事会成员话太多。据《朝日新闻》报道，83岁的森喜朗是在本周的一次日本奥委会会议上发表上述言论的。在周四匆忙召开的记者招待会上，这位日本前首相称自己的言论是错误的，但他仍然对自己的立场表示蔑视。这一事件很可能会疏远日本公众，他们已经对在健康危机期间举办奥运会持谨慎态度。最近的一项民意调查显示，80%的公众认为奥运会不应该在7月份如期进行。我是路透社记者埃默·麦卡锡。

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits has dropped but it remains historically high. We get more from AP's Mike Hempen. The Labor Department says 779,000 people applied for jobless aid last week, down 33,000 from the previous week. However, before the virus surfaced in March, applications never topped 700,000. The latest unemployment data showed just under 18 million people were still receiving jobless benefits in mid-January. But once vaccinations become more widely distributed and administered in coming months, economists expect growth to pick up at a sustained clip. Mike Hempen, Washington. You can find more on our website voanews.com. Reporting by remote, I'm David Byrd, VOA news.

美国寻求失业救济的人数有所下降，但仍处于历史高位。请听美联社记者迈克·亨彭带来详细报道。美国劳工部称，上周有77.9万人申请失业救济，比前一周减少3.3万人。然而，在3月份病毒出现之前，失业救济申请人数从未超过70万。最新的失业数据显示，1月中旬仍有不到1800万人领取失业救济金。但一旦疫苗在未来几个月得到更广泛的分发和管理，经济学家们预计经济增长将持续增长。迈克·亨彭，华盛顿报道您可以通过网址voanews.com浏览更多相关新闻。我是大卫·伯德，为您远程报道美国之音新闻。