CNN 2009-08-17

Hello to you all, I'm T. J Holmes. Yes, good morning everybody! I'm Betty Nguyen. Thanks so much for joining us. Alright, Let's get you our top stories right now.

John Yettaw, an American sentenced to seven years with hard labor¹ in Myanmar, he is arriving right there, as you see it, in Bangkok. He had been arrested for going to the home of a pro-democracy leader Aung Sun Suu kyi, who is under house arrest. Now, Virginia Senator Jim Webb negotiated his release from a Myanmar jail and it is the first time in more than a decade that a member of Congress has visited Myanmar.

Wanna get you this news as well. A 7. 0 magnitude earthquake has struck off the western coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island. Now there is no word yet on any possible damages or injuries and no immediate³ tsunami⁴ warning. So we are watching very closely at that part of the world for you. We'll bring you developments.

Also keeping an eye on a couple of tropical storms. You see the big guy and the little lady in this picture. Essentially⁵, they are churning in the Atlantic. Tropical storm Ana, she is headed towards the Virgin² Islands, that's the one alone on the left of your screen. You could see a little formation, a little spinning going on there. Our Reynolds Wolf tells us Bill which is one, the big boy in the back there, tells us he has the potential to possibly become a Category three hurricane and already some warnings and watches have been posted for some parts of Florida.

Also President Obama and his family visiting the Grand Canyon⁶ today. Last night, he held another town hall meeting in Colorado where he went after critics of his health care goals. He called some of the nuts against his reform plan, and I quote here "dishonest".

Take it to Taiwan now. Some much needed international aid arriving in villages just cut off by mudslides and flooding. Typhoon Morakot battered⁷ the island last week, triggering the worst weather disaster there in 50 years. That storm is blamed for killing⁸ at least 120 people. But thousands of survivors⁹, they are temporarily in shelters at this moment and many of them still in villages and they are trying to be rescued by volunteers. So we are on top of that story as well.

And this, about 2000 firefighters are on the scene of this blaze in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of 11 wildfires burning right now out west. The Lockheed fire has burned nearly 7000 acres since Wednesday, and forced nearly 3000 people to evacuate¹⁰. It's now about 30% contained.

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

3 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

4 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

5 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

6 canyon   

n.峡谷，溪谷

参考例句：

• The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
• The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。

7 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

8 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

9 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

10 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。