CNN 2011-03-08

Mondays: not as awesome¹ as Fridays. But it does mean the start of a new week of CNN Student News! Welcome! Hello, everyone. I'm Carl Azuz. Today, we're talking about space, sports, labor² and Libya.

We begin in that north African nation of Libya, where a political uprising has turned into warfare³. Libyans are fighting against their leader, Moammar Gadhafi. They were able to fend⁴ off Gadhafi's troops in the city of Misrata. Witnesses said the rebels used machine guns, sticks, anything they could find against the military's tanks and heavy artillery⁵. Images like these seem to tell a different story. This demonstration⁶ was in Tripoli, Libya's capital, yesterday. The people here are speaking out in support of Colonel Gadhafi. Some even said they were celebrating a victory in Misrata. Meanwhile, the U.S. military is helping⁷ some of the foreigners who left Libya to get back home again. Libya is in between Tunisia and Egypt. Many Egyptians who were in Libya escaped to Tunisia. Now, the U.S. is flying them back to Egypt.

The U.S. unemployment rate is down one-tenth of a point. It went from 9 percent in January to 8.9 percent in February. That's the lowest unemployment has been since April of '09. But experts still have some concerns about the future of the U.S. economy. Samantha Hayes explains some of those concerns and breaks down some more details from this month's unemployment report.

The Obama administration was cautiously upbeat Friday after the Labor Department's February jobs report showed a slight dip in unemployment, to 8.9 percent from 9 percent in January.

More people are going to work. We're adding jobs. We're finding that there is growth in manufacturing, construction and health.

But there is also concern the rising price of food and gas could thwart⁸ any economic gains unless Americans change their ways.

Cut our dependency on foreign oil by making those investments in fuel-efficient cars, lithium batteries, wind turbines and global energy and solar power.

Private businesses added 222,000 jobs in February, the best month in a year. But the news was not good for public workers. State and local governments cut 30,000 jobs. University of Maryland economics professor Peter Morici says jobs losses in the public sector⁹ indicate an overall problem with the recovery.

If the economy were growing like it should, states like Wisconsin, New Jersey¹⁰, California, they'd have enough money, they wouldn't have to lay people off.

The jobs report also offered some good news for the hardest hit sector of the economy during the recession: construction. Thirty-three thousand jobs were added in construction and manufacturing in February, the biggest one-month gain in nearly four years. The number of uncounted unemployed¹¹, those who are not actively¹² seeking a job, remained about the same at 2.7 million. For CNN Student News, I'm Samantha Hayes.

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 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。

3 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

4 fend   

v.照料（自己），（自己）谋生，挡开，避开

参考例句：

• I've had to fend for myself since I was 14.我从十四岁时起就不得不照料自己。
• He raised his arm up to fend branches from his eyes.他举手将树枝从他眼前挡开。

5 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

6 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 thwart   

v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的)

参考例句：

• We must thwart his malevolent schemes.我们决不能让他的恶毒阴谋得逞。
• I don't think that will thwart our purposes.我认为那不会使我们的目的受到挫折。

9 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

10 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

11 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

12 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。