CNN 2011-07-21

 15 days from now, your dollar may be worth less, your loans could cost more. That is, if the government runs out of money and is unable to pay its bills. With a major breakthrough increasingly out of reach, lawmakers are showing more interest in a fallback plan. The compromise measure would allow the President to raise the debt ceiling and avert¹ crisis before lawmakers agree on where the spending cuts can go. A vote on that could happen this week.

 

The fallback plan would likely pass the Democrat-controlled Senate but face a bigger challenge in the House where Republicans hold the majority. 

 

Let's get the latest now with CNN's Brianna Keilar. She's at the White House. 

 

Well, Brianna, are we any closer to a deal than we were a week ago when we talked? 

 

You know, on a comprehensive deficit² reduction plan, Kyra, it doesn't appear so. But while there were no announced meetings between the White House and congressional leaders over the weekend, there were definitely staff- level meetings and a lot of focus has to do with this fallback plan that you mentioned. 

 

It's sort of the brainchild of the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, and he's working out some details with the Senate majority leader Harry³ Reid. What it would essentially⁴ do is give the president, for all practical purposes, the ability to increase the debt ceiling with really just a minority of support from Congress. 

 

It would allow Congress to voice its disapproval⁵ and this is something that the president would have to do in three increments⁶ over time between now and the November 2012 election. 

 

But, Kyra, this doesn't address entitlement reform and certainly that idea of the tax increases, the Democrats⁷ are still demanding and the White House is still saying no to -- pardon me, that the White House also wants and Republicans are saying no to, there's still an impasse⁸ over that, just like when we spoke⁹ last week. 

 

All right, Brianna Keilar at the White House. And we'll continue to talk about it, I am sure, all this week. 

 

All right, all two developments in the Rupert Murdoch scandal. Police investigating the illegal wiretapping and bribery¹⁰ charges of a top executive in the company. We'll have more on that in just a moment. 

 

But first the resignation of Britain's top cop, the man in charge of Scotland Yard. Sir Paul Stephenson says that he did nothing wrong but regrets the criticism that -- that his police failed to do enough. 

 

However the issue of my integrity is different. Let me state clearly, I, and the people who know me, know that my integrity is completely intact. I may wish we had done some things differently, but I will not lose any sleep over my personal integrity. 

 

Let's get the latest now from London and CNN's Dan Rivers. 

 

Well, Kyra, another scalp has been claimed by this ever-growing scandal. The most senior policemen in Britain, Sir Paul Stephenson, has resigned. 

 

Meanwhile, the former chief executive of News International, of Rupert Murdoch's newspaper group here, Rebekah Brooks¹¹, she has been taken in, arrested by the police for questioning. She was detained for some 12 hours on Sunday night and finally released just after midnight. 

 

There was speculation¹² that that would have meant that she wouldn't have turned up on Tuesday afternoon, London time, to be grilled¹³ by politicians. But we're being told by her spokesman that she will be there. She won't appear together with James and Rupert Murdoch. 

 

She'll appear after them. But she will be there. She'll have to be careful about what she says and the politicians, equally, have said they will be careful about which questions they ask and how they frame those questions. They don't want to see clearly prejudice any possible trial that may come out of this. But it will be a committee session that will be viewed by millions of people, I would expect, with lots of people wanting to know who knew what, how high up the newspaper group into Rupert Murdoch's empire this scandal went -- Kyra.

1 avert   

v.防止，避免；转移(目光、注意力等)

参考例句：

• He managed to avert suspicion.他设法避嫌。
• I would do what I could to avert it.我会尽力去避免发生这种情况。

2 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

3 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

4 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

5 disapproval   

n.反对，不赞成

参考例句：

• The teacher made an outward show of disapproval.老师表面上表示不同意。
• They shouted their disapproval.他们喊叫表示反对。

6 increments   

n.增长( increment的名词复数 )；增量；增额；定期的加薪

参考例句：

• These increments were mixed and looked into the 5.56mm catridge case. 将各种药粒进行混和，装在5．56毫米的弹壳中。 来自辞典例句
• The Rankine scale has scale increments equal to the FahrenheIt'scale. 兰氏温标的温度间距与华氏温标的相同。 来自辞典例句

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 impasse   

n.僵局；死路

参考例句：

• The government had reached an impasse.政府陷入绝境。
• Negotiations seemed to have reached an impasse.谈判似乎已经陷入僵局。

9 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

10 bribery   

n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿

参考例句：

• FBI found out that the senator committed bribery.美国联邦调查局查明这个参议员有受贿行为。
• He was charged with bribery.他被指控受贿。

11 brooks   

n.小溪( brook的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks gave the business when Haas caught him with his watch. 哈斯抓到偷他的手表的布鲁克斯时，狠狠地揍了他一顿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ade and Brooks exchanged blows yesterday and they were severely punished today. 艾德和布鲁克斯昨天打起来了，今天他们受到严厉的惩罚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

13 grilled   

adj. 烤的, 炙过的, 有格子的 动词grill的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• He was grilled for two hours before the police let him go. 他被严厉盘查了两个小时后，警察才放他走。
• He was grilled until he confessed. 他被严加拷问，直到他承认为止。