CNN 2009-07-20

Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen. Here's a quick check on what is happening today.

Yeah, sixteen people killed when a helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan. It's according to NATO, five others were hurt, no word on those five conditions. It happened during a takeoff at a Kandahar airfield¹. NATO says the helicopter wasn't a military helicopter. Also that all of the dead are civilians², no word on the cause just yet. But NATO says this was not a result of any enemy fire.

"This is really difficult because this is the third, er, helicopter or plane accident in just two days because also today we are getting from the U. S military that a U. S military helicopter made an emergency landing in the eastern province of Kunar in Afghanistan. And yesterday we had an F-15E Strike Eagle crashed into the ground in central Afghanistan, both two members on board killed. Now when we asked spokesmen⁴ both for NATO and the US military "what are the causes of these crashes? ", they all insist none of these 3 incidents involved hostile fire.

What a week it was for health care and healthcare reform. It was almost weird⁵ unless we have some ways to John . We had an emergency press conference on Friday about the President, now we have a press conference coming to us. . . I shouldn't say press conference; he spoke³ on Friday. Press conference is coming up on Wednesday, Just the way he is reacting to what happened last week; does this, is it clear that there's a reason for alarm at the White House?

Yes there is a reason for alarm. That's a great way to put. But the President does not add an event in his schedule unless there's a political reason to do so. On Friday afternoon, the President came out and what did he say? He said everybody calm down. Why did he do that? Because the health care debate went off the rails this past week. Because the Congressional Budget Office says, guess what? This costs more than you think and it doesn't bring down the long-term trajectory⁶ of rising health care costs. And that means the president's plan's in a little bit of trouble right now. Not time to panic but certainly the time to push the alarm button as you put it.  So the President came out on Friday. His weekly address this weekend is about health care. Now a prime time news conference. Look, the President's poll⁷ numbers have come back down to earth. But he still has the most political capital in the American politics. And he is going to have to use some of it, Betty and TJ, to get his signature priority--right now health care reform--back on track.

1 airfield   

n.飞机场

参考例句：

• The foreign guests were motored from the airfield to the hotel.用车把外宾从机场送到旅馆。
• The airfield was seized by enemy troops.机场被敌军占领。

2 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 spokesmen   

发言人，代言人( spokesman的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The White House spokesmen are in for a rough time. 白宫发言人现已深陷困境。
• The reporters fired away at the spokesmen. 记者们向发言人连续不断地发问。

5 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

6 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

7 poll   

n.民意测验，民意调查，选举投票

参考例句：

• The result of the poll won't be known until midnight.选举结果要到午夜才能揭晓。
• They expected a heavy poll.他们期望会有很高的投票数。