CNN 2009-02-27

Good morning, happy Thursday to you. From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Reggie Aqui. Thanks for checking in. Here is a quick look at what's making news right now.

President Obama laid out an aggressive agenda for the nation on Tuesday night. And then this morning a few minutes ago, we learn some new details about the president's three-trillion dollar budget proposal. A part of the president's budget will be a 634-billion-dollar healthcare reserve fund. As far as education goes, Obama is considering eliminating the Federal Mentoring¹ Program created by the Bush Administration to save nearly 50 million dollars.

Meanwhile, new jobless claims have taken an unexpected jump. 667 thousand Americans filed for first-time unemployment claims last week. That's an increase of 36,000, experts predicted the number to drop. The number of people continuing to claim unemployment on a weekly basis is 5.1 million, which is the highest since the department began keeping records in 1967.

Also some big losses for America's largest automaker, GM, just announced this morning a 9.6-million-dollar net loss and that it burns through more than five billion dollars in cash. This comes on the day that GM's executives return to Washington to ask for even more bailout money. Since receiving the first installment² of the bailout cash, GM has received another 9.4 million in federal assistance and last week asked for an additional 16.6 billion.

Investigators³ are trying to figure out what went wrong during yesterday's deadly plane crash near Amsterdam's main airport. The flight data in cockpit voice recorders have been recovered. They are now being analyzed⁴. That Boeing 737 slammed into a field while trying to land and broke into three pieces. Both pilots are believed to be among the nine people killed.

We are looking at a slight dip in the price of gas. AAA reports national average for a gallon of unleaded regular is now $1.88. That's down a penny from Wednesday. In the last eleven days, the price of gas has dropped nearly eight and a half cents.

So that's a quick look at what's happening right now. Please stick with us here at CNN.com and CNN.com/live for your updates throughout the day.

1 mentoring   

n.mentoring是一种工作关系。mentor通常是处在比mentee更高工作职位上的有影响力的人。他/她有比‘mentee’更丰富的工作经验和知识，并用心支持mentee的职业（发展）。v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• One of the most effective instruments for coaching and mentoring is the "role rehearsal" . 辅导和教学的最有效的手段之一是“角色排练。” 来自辞典例句
• Bell Canada called their mentoring system a buddy-buddy system. 加拿大贝尔公司称他们的训导系统是伙伴—伙伴系统。 来自互联网

2 installment   

n.(instalment)分期付款；(连载的)一期

参考例句：

• I shall soon pay the last installment of my debt.不久我将偿付我的最后一期债款。
• He likes to buy things on the installment plan.他喜欢用分期付款法购买货物。

3 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》