NPR 2008-03-21

From NPR news in washington,I'm Barbara Kline.

 

Forecasters warn of continued flooding in the Saint Louis area and in parts of Southern Missouri where at least 5 people have died and hundreds have lost their homes to flooding. From member station KSMU Missy Shelton reports.

 

Though the rain has moved out, streams and rivers continue to flow well above their banks, making it difficult for some homeowners to clean up. Missouri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder visited two homes in southwest Missouri that had been flooded. "They've lost irreplaceable pictures of the children when they were little, family mementos¹ of that nature. In both cases, those couples were holding up extraordinarily² well. And I said to them, help is on the way." Help for 70 counties and the city of Saint Louis will come in the form of federal funds for repairing damaged infrastructure³. For NPR News, I’m Missy Shelton in Springfield Missouri.

 

A major earthquake has rocked western China. The US Geological Survey reports the 7.2 magnitude quake struck Xinjiang province, a large sparsely⁴ populated area that borders Tibet.

 

Vice⁵ President Dick Cheney made a previously⁶ unpublicized visit to Afghanistan today. The vice president urged NATO countries to play a bigger role in fighting the Taliban, and called on Pakistan to crack down on militants⁸ operating along the border.

 

Two audio messages purportedly⁹ from Osama Bin¹⁰ Laden¹¹ have been released. The satellite channel Al Jazeera broadcast a recording¹² urging Palestinians to use iron and fire to end Israel’s blockade of Gaza. Earlier, a militant⁷ Islamist website posted a recording said to be of Bin Laden accusing Pope Benedict of helping¹³ a Crusade against Islam. The message warned there would be a “severe” reaction to European publications that reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. A Vatican spokesman says the accusations¹⁴ are baseless and the Pope has criticized the cartoons.

Some of Wall Street’s biggest investment firms have begun taking advantage of billions of dollars in loans from the Federal Reserve. NPR's Dave P has details.

 

The Federal Reserve disclosed Thursday that several Wall Street institutions have taken the Fed up on its offer for emergency loans. The central bank made the offer last Sunday in an effort to help keep the financial system from collapsing¹⁵. So far, the firms that've asked for help have average nearly 13.5 billion dollars in daily borrowing since the offer was made. The Fed has not disclosed which investment firms are getting the loans. However, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley said they have begun to test the lending program. The Fed says the program is similar to the one used by commercial banks and it will be offered for at least 6 months. Dave P, NPR News, Washington.

 

On Wall Street today, the Dow closed the day up at 261 point, at 12,361; the NASDAQ was up 48 points; the S&P was up 31.

 

This is NPR.

 

Space shuttle Endeavor astronauts are working outside the International Space Station for the next several hours. They are testing a new heat shield repair technique involving a kind of caulking¹⁶ gun. Damaged heat tiles led to the destruction of space shuttle Columbia and its 7 crew members in 2003.

 

Humans might not have been the first to walk on two legs, according to a new analysis of a thigh¹⁷ bone from Africa. As NPR's Christopher Joyce reports, it suggests ape-like creatures walked upright 6 million years ago.

 

Scientists have long considered upright walking as a hallmark of human evolution. But it's been difficult to determine when it first happened. A new analysis of a thigh bone in Nairobi, Kenya suggests that an ape-like creature called Orrorin was walking around on two legs 6 million years ago. That's 4 million years before our own genus Homo evolved and improved on the upright walking body design. It confirms earlier but inconclusive evidence that walking on two legs dates that far back. The bone evidence does not solve the ultimate puzzle of our upright walking, however: what caused our earliest ancestors to come down out of the trees and start living life on two legs? The research appears in this week's issue of the journal Science. Christopher Joyce, NPR News.

 

Actor Paul Scofield has died. Considered one of Britain's greatest Shakespearean actors on both stage and screen, he was best known for his film performance as Sir Thomas More in "A Man For All Seasons" for which he won an Academy Award. Scofield, who was 86 years old, had been suffering from leukemia. He died at a hospital near his home in Southern England.

 

I'm Barbara Kline, NPR News in Washington.

1 mementos   

纪念品，令人回忆的东西( memento的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The museum houses a collection of mementos, materials and documents. 博物馆保存着很多回忆录以及文献资料。
• This meant, however, that no one was able to retrieve irreplaceable family mementos. 然而，这也意味着谁也没能把无可替代的家庭纪念品从火中救出来。

2 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

3 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

4 sparsely   

adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地

参考例句：

• Relative to the size, the city is sparsely populated. 与其面积相比，这个城市的人口是稀少的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The ground was sparsely covered with grass. 地面上稀疏地覆盖草丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

7 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

8 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。

9 purportedly   

adv.据称

参考例句：

• This is purportedly the oldest tree in the world. 据称这是世界上最古老的一棵树。 来自互联网
• Mayor Oh Se-Hoon launched the campaign last year, purportedly to improve efficiency. 据悉，首尔市市长吴世勋于去年提出了这项旨在提高工作效率的计划。 来自互联网

10 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

11 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

12 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

13 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

14 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

15 collapsing   

压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The rocks were folded by collapsing into the center of the trough. 岩石由于坍陷进入凹槽的中心而发生褶皱。

16 caulking   

n.堵缝；敛缝；捻缝；压紧v.堵（船的）缝( caulk的现在分词 )；泥…的缝；填塞；使不漏水

参考例句：

• Plumbers caulk joints in pipe with lead,string or a caulking compound. 管子工用铅、绳子或专用填隙材料使管子的接头不漏水。 来自辞典例句
• Older windows and doors require maintenance -- scraping, painting and caulking. 旧门窗需要一系列维护，诸如，刮磨，上漆，勾缝。 来自互联网

17 thigh   

n.大腿；股骨

参考例句：

• He is suffering from a strained thigh muscle.他的大腿肌肉拉伤了，疼得很。
• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。