CNN 2011-12-08

 Leaders in Europe are trying to prevent another debt crisis with the new money plan. This is needed because some European countries are spending much more money than they’re taking in. They’re running on huge debts. And because they are using the same currency, the euro, if one of the these governments goes under, it could hurt all their economies, the U.S. economy and others worldwide. Here are two the major players, German Chancellor¹ Angela Merkel getting out of the car here, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. These two leaders represent the two largest economies in Europe, they believe their new plan will prevent another debt crisis and stabilize² the Europe’s economies. But it still has to be ratified³ by most members of the Europe Union, and what’s unknown is if it will be and if it will work. 

Well geography is playing a part in the latest disagreement between the U.S. and Iran. These two countries are not friendly, and Iran claims it recently shut down the U.S. drone, an unmanned aircraft used by the military to gather information. Iran says the drone is flying over its air space, the U.S. says its drones don’t fly over Iranian air space, Barbra Star explains how else geography factors in and why this is bad news for U.S. intelligence if Iran is telling the truth. 

Iranian authority say they shut down a highly classified U.S. unmanned spy plane over its territory along its eastern border with Afghanistan. Iran says the drone they shut down is an RQ170, now that’s of the most secret drones in the U.S. military and intelligence arsenal⁴, a stealth drone, they can fly largely undetected gathering⁵ intelligence and targeting information. So far the U.S. using the NATO alliance against Afghanistan to issue a statement that it’s only saying, quote, “the UVA to which the Iranians are referring may be a U.S. unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and that had been working to determine its status.” That according to the statement, now U.S. officials tell CNN the fly crew operating the drone did report a loss of flight controls before the drone went down, but they are not saying it was shut down and they are not saying it’s RQ-170. The key question now is shut down or not. Do the Iranians have their hands on classified intelligence technology, if the Iranians do the U.S knows it’s not getting any of that back. Barbra Star CNN, Washington.

 

See if you can ID me? I’m a country located in southeastern Asia, just north of Malaysia. I’ve been on news recently for months of historic flooding. My largest city is also my capital, Bangkok. I’m Thailand, home to the world’s longest Serving Monarch⁶. 

1 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

2 stabilize   

vt.（使）稳定，使稳固，使稳定平衡；vi.稳定

参考例句：

• They are eager to stabilize currencies.他们急于稳定货币。
• His blood pressure tended to stabilize.他的血压趋向稳定。

3 ratified   

v.批准，签认（合约等）( ratify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The treaty was declared invalid because it had not been ratified. 条约没有得到批准，因此被宣布无效。
• The treaty was ratified by all the member states. 这个条约得到了所有成员国的批准。

4 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

5 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

6 monarch   

n.帝王，君主，最高统治者

参考例句：

• The monarch's role is purely ceremonial.君主纯粹是个礼仪职位。
• I think myself happier now than the greatest monarch upon earth.我觉得这个时候比世界上什么帝王都快乐。