VOA慢速英语2015 找到失踪亚航飞机上的尸体

 

Bodies Recovered From Missing AirAsia 找到失踪亚航飞机上的尸体

Indonesian officials have recovered bodies from the sea near the wreckage¹ of an AirAsia passenger jet. The airplane crashed during a storm on Sunday.

Indonesian television showed rescue helicopters pulling bodies from the Java Sea, in waters about 160 kilometers from Borneo Island. The first images of the bodies showed they were not wearing protective life jackets. 

Rescue workers had recovered only about one fourth of the passengers and crew at nightfall. They found the bodies soon after discovering the wreckage. It included what appeared to be an orange life jacket, a red and white emergency door, and other objects.

Searches from the air also showed what appeared to be a very large object under the surface of the water. It is believed to be the main body of the airplane.

Late Tuesday, AirAsia confirmed that the wreckage was its lost plane.  The passenger jet disappeared on Sunday about halfway² through what was supposed to be a two-hour flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.

The head of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes, said he is, in his words, “absolutely devastated” at the news. Earlier he said on Twitter that his heart “is filled with sadness for all the families involved.” He added that, “words cannot express how sorry I am.”

Putin's critic received suspended sentence

A court in Russia has found political activist³ Alexei Navalny guilty of defrauding⁴ a French company of at least $500,000. 

The court sentenced the 38-year-old lawyer to a suspended prison sentence of three-and-one-half years. Russian government lawyers had sought a sentence of 10 years. Navalny’s brother Oleg was also found guilty. He received the same sentence, but was ordered to jail.

VOA reporter Daniel Schearf said that outside the court, some people were likening the jailing of Oleg Navalny to a tactic⁵ used by the former Soviet⁶ Union. The goal was to attack the family instead of making a hero of the person Soviet officials wanted to silence. 

The court was first supposed to announce judgment⁷ on January 15, but moved up the date without explanation. A Facebook page created to organize a protest on that day had attracted tens of thousands of supporters.

 Alexei Navalny left the courthouse after the judgment was announced. He urged his supporters to continue their protests.  He had been under house arrest since February for taking part in a protest not approved by the government.

He led huge demonstrations⁸ against Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2011 and 2012. Navalny was found guilty of financial wrongdoing in July 2013 in an unconnected case and sentenced to five years in prison.  But his sentence was suspended several months later.

That same year, he finished in second place in Moscow’s mayoral elections. 

UN urged Myanmar to give citizenship⁹ to Rohingya minority

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution urging Myanmar to give citizenship and equal rights to the country’s Rohingya minority.

The General Assembly expressed what it called “serious concern” about Myanmar’s treatment of the minority group. Many Rohingya are Muslim.

About 140,000 Rohingya live in dirty, overcrowded camps in Rakhine state. As many as 280 people have died there in religious unrest since June of 2012.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, does not recognize the existence of the Rohingya ethnicity. Instead, government officials and many local people say there are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

The U.N. resolution urged Myanmar to give Rohingya what it called full citizenship. It also asked that they be permitted to identify themselves as Rohingya. Currently, the government demands that they be called Bangali. The U.N. urged Myanmar to provide Rohingya with “equal access” to services -- and to let them return to their communities with government protection.

Words in This Story

defrauding – v. tricking or cheating someone in order to get money; using fraud in order to get money from a person or organization 

tactic – n. an action or method that is planned and used to achieve a particular goal

silence – n. a lack of sound or noise

1 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

2 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

3 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

4 defrauding   

v.诈取，骗取( defraud的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Second is the actor regards defrauding of the wealth as object. 第二，行为人以骗取钱财为目的。 来自互联网
• Therefore, DELL has the motive and economic purpose of intentionally defrauding the Chinese consumers. 因此，戴尔公司存在故意欺诈中国消费者的动机和经济目的。 来自互联网

5 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。

6 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

7 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

8 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

9 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。