CNN 2009-12-26

this week we've been asking you to send your questions about the health care reform bill, and you actually flooded us with questions. And here today to help us wade¹ through some of the answers, Julie Rovner, the health policy correspondent for National Public Radio. Good to see you.

 Good morning.

And before we get to those questions, Julie, you were one of three reporters, correspondents that had a chit chat with the president yesterday. What were his thoughts revealed to you about where health care reform was going?

Well, he was very pleased of course that the Senate was then on the verge² of passing its bill. Now of course that bill has passed this morning. He said that he thought that the House and Senate bills had a lot in common. In fact he said 95 percent. That may be a little bit overstating the case. Of course the 5 percent that the bills don't have in common are the most contentious³ issues, the public option, of course the government-sponsored plan, abortion⁴ language, how the bills would be paid for. 

So there are still a lot to be worked out between the House and Senate bills, but I think as we've seen, the president is pretty enthusiastic that perhaps Congress is really going to do something that no president and Congress have been able to do in many, many, many decades of trying, and that's...

And did he really exude⁵ kind of an optimism that he just might have a bill on his desk before perhaps the State of the Union scheduled for late January?

He did. He didn't give a timetable but, yeah, I think that's really the thought, that it will take maybe another four or five weeks to get this put together and done and to him.

OK well here are some of the questions coming from you at home, which Julie is now going to answer for us. So this from Jackie who says, "How will this health care bill help families like mine, who don't have and cannot afford to buy health insurance at this time?"

1 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

2 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。

3 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

4 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

5 exude   

v.(使)流出，(使)渗出

参考例句：

• Some successful men exude self-confidence.有些成功的人流露出自信。
• The sun made him exude sweat.烈日晒得他汗流浃背。