CNN 2011-02-06

Fridays are awesome¹! Just like the students and teachers at Ron Clark Academy, where I had the privilege of speaking yesterday. I'm Carl Azuz, bringing you 10 minutes of headlines, leaving out the commercials. Let's go ahead and get started.

The financial crisis -- the one that sent a shockwave through the U.S. economy and led to the Great Recession -- it could have been avoided. That's what the final report from the Financial Crisis Inquiry² Commission says. This group was put together by Congress in 2009 to try to figure out the causes of the crisis. It held hearings, it interviewed hundreds of people, and released its findings yesterday. The main conclusion: the crisis was avoidable. Some political and financial leaders have argued that there was no way to see this crisis coming. But the commission says there were warning signs and those warnings were ignored or underestimated.

The report puts part of the blame on major corporations, saying they didn't run themselves properly or take into account the risks of some of their business plans. It also blames government policies under both President Bush and President Obama, and some of the actions taken by the Federal Reserve as well. These conclusions come from the majority of the commission. Three members wrote a dissenting³, or opposing report, though. They say the majority report doesn't study the causes of the crisis, that it's just a list of things that went wrong. The dissenting report also argues that even if the government had gotten involved sooner, it might not have prevented the crisis because it was a global problem.

Some of you who live in Florida or California might wish you could see snow more often. Some of you live in Florida or California because you don't want to see snow more often, and we're guessing that a lot of people in the U.S. Northeast are sick of it. That region is dealing⁴ with yet another strong winter storm. Dangerous traffic conditions, canceled flights, closed schools. Sandra Endo reports on just how much snow is falling and just how bad everything has gotten.

Paralyzing roads and bringing bone-chilling winds, another winter storm has dumped more than a foot of snow in New York's Central Park.

When the snow stopped falling at about 4 a.m., the official reading in Central Park was 19 inches, breaking a record last set in 1925.

In Massachusetts, the weight of the snow caused a partial roof collapse⁵ at this garage.

There were about 15 people inside the structure when it collapsed⁶. Most of them have made it out under their own power. Thank God everybody seems to be OK.

Officials say there was three feet of snow on top off the roof.

We've had a lot of snow and we're gonna get more. Buildings like this don't get shoveled⁷ off, and we are just at the mercy of the construction of the buildings that people are working in.

Airports across the Northeast are still trying to get back up to speed after hundreds of flights were cancelled. Airports were shut down for hours while crews worked to clear runways Thursday. And with schools closing in D.C., Maryland, Philadelphia, New York City and Boston, this storm pushed snow removal budgets over the limit. Reporting from Washington, I'm Sandra Endo for CNN Student News.

1 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

2 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

3 dissenting   

adj.不同意的

参考例句：

• He can't tolerate dissenting views. 他不能容纳不同意见。
• A dissenting opinion came from the aunt . 姑妈却提出不赞同的意见。

4 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

5 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

6 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

7 shoveled   

vt.铲，铲出（shovel的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The hungry man greedily shoveled the food into his mouth. 那个饥饿的人贪婪地、大口大口地吃。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• They shoveled a path through the snow. 他们在雪中铲出一条小路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》