CNN 2011-04-22

Bringing you today’s commercial-free headlines from around the globe, this is CNN Student News. Hi, everyone, I am Carl Azuz, getting things started on this Tuesday, April 19th.

We've been talking about some of the economic debates involving President Obama and Congress, federal budgets, deficits¹, the debts ceiling. Other groups have been paying attention to those debates ,too.And one group Standard & Poor’s says because those debates have so much uncertainty² associated with them. That is the reason why Standard and Poor’s lowered its outlook for America’s long-term debt.

Okay, what does that mean? Standard and Poor's, or S&P, is one of three main agencies that examine debt issues. It assigns ratings to governments or companies and investors³ use those ratings to help decide where they want to put their money.

The US has a AAA rating from S&P that’s the highest you can get and that didn't change. What S&P did change was its long-term rating, its outlook for America’s debt. That went from stable to negative.

Basically, the agency says it could be risk here to make long-term investments in the United States. And that could mean less money coming into the government.

The rating change did not go over well on Wall Street. US stock market taking a big deep right after the S&P announcement.

Next up, flame’s burning across the state of Texas. When it comes to wild fires, the situation can change fast. That’s what makes it difficult to report on them and more importantly difficult to fight them.

That’s what more than 1400 people are doing right now in Texas, trying to get these blazes under control but nearly three weeks of super dry weather have basically turned the ground into kindling⁴ ,and wind spreads the flames around.

Texas has 254 counties. All but two have been affected⁵ by these fires. There are a number of causes. Some of them are acts of nature, like lightening strikes ,but officials say most are acts of man,anything from stray sparks, from welding a fence, to burning debris⁶, to setting a campfire.

1 deficits   

n.不足额( deficit的名词复数 )；赤字；亏空；亏损

参考例句：

• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Many of the world's farmers are also incurring economic deficits. 世界上许多农民还在遭受经济上的亏损。 来自辞典例句

2 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

3 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

4 kindling   

n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• There were neat piles of kindling wood against the wall. 墙边整齐地放着几堆引火柴。
• "Coal and kindling all in the shed in the backyard." “煤，劈柴，都在后院小屋里。” 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

6 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。