CNN 2010-07-08

Both sides appear to be trying to find a way out of this, a way where they can save face on the one hand, but also still appear to be top of issues for the constituents¹ on the other hand. And certainly what we've seen in the past couple of days is a secret meeting between Turkey's Foreign Minister as well as the Israeli Minister that's certainly seen as something that could be an interesting and important first step.

 

We don't want to get into a public shouting match with the government of Turkey. On the contrary, my prime minister said over the weekend, we want to see things went down, we want to things relax, we don't want to see an escalation² of this war of words. And so we think it's better, that Israel and Turkey conduct their discussions quietly and let's move forward.

 

There was some testing done, as he said, over the weekend. The thing is, the seas out there were so high, seven-foot seas on Saturday, at least five feet yesterday, that was a little tough to test this baby. I mean, it is massive³. Tony, I saw it from the air on Saturday. You're flying over, we were 500 feet up. That thing is more than three-and-a-half football fields long.  The thing is built to be an oil tanker⁴. It was retrofitted. It doesn't work the way normal skimmers work. It sucks up all the oil and water, and then it's supposed to separate them on board and then spit out the water.  Now, so, the testing involves checking out how well it actually can do the skimming, and also testing the maneuverability.

 

Yes, uh, he said, when I was, I went there as a spectator⁵ just to cheer on my ex buddies⁶ who I had been eating with. And actually when I was there, everyone started chanting for me, "let him eat, let him eat." And he said, and in the heat of it, I jumped on the stage hoping that maybe because of the cheers, the Nathans would actually let him eat and prove that he was the champ. But then he got arrested

1 constituents   

n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素

参考例句：

• She has the full support of her constituents. 她得到本区选民的全力支持。
• Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water. 氢和氧是水的主要成分。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 escalation   

n.扩大，增加

参考例句：

• The threat of nuclear escalation remains. 核升级的威胁仍旧存在。 来自辞典例句
• Escalation is thus an aspect of deterrence and of crisis management. 因此逐步升级是威慑和危机处理的一个方面。 来自辞典例句

3 massive   

adj.巨大的，大规模的，大量的，大范围的

参考例句：

• A massive sea search has failed to find any survivors.经过大规模的海上搜救仍未找到幸存者。
• He drank a massive amount of alcohol.他喝了大量的烈酒。

4 tanker   

n.油轮

参考例句：

• The tanker took on 200,000 barrels of crude oil.油轮装载了二十万桶原油。
• Heavy seas had pounded the tanker into three parts.汹涌的巨浪把油轮撞成三载。

5 spectator   

n.观众，目击者，旁观者

参考例句：

• A spectator threw the ball back to the players.一个观众把球掷回给球员。
• He was content to stand by as an impassive spectator.他满足于站在旁边做一个冷漠的旁观者。

6 buddies   

n.密友( buddy的名词复数 )；同伴；弟兄；（用于称呼男子，常带怒气）家伙v.（如密友、战友、伙伴、弟兄般）交往( buddy的第三人称单数 )；做朋友；亲近（…）；伴护艾滋病人

参考例句：

• We became great buddies. 我们成了非常好的朋友。 来自辞典例句
• The two of them have become great buddies. 他们俩成了要好的朋友。 来自辞典例句