CNN 2012-01-05

Hello and a very happy New Year,I'm Carl Azuz,welcoming you to the first CNN Student news program of 2012,hope you all had great holidays and you're ready to dive back into the headlines.First up,today marks the first major political event on the US presidential campaign trail this year,it's the Iowa caucuses².President Obama is likely the democratic nominee³ but which republican will ultimately run against him,that's what's gonna be decided⁴ by these primaries and caucuses.The republican candidates have been campaigning for months.Now the voters will start to weigh in.Some states hold primaries,that's where each voter casts a single private ballot⁵.Other states have public meeting called caucuses.In Iowa,candidates or their representatives can make speeches at these caucuses to try to rally some last minute support.Then voters pick which candidates they prefer.Sometimes they write it down on a piece of paper,other times it's a show of hands.Three other states are holding primaries in January starting with New Hampshire next week.South Carolina and Florida are later on in the month.Iowa gets to go first with its caucuses today.The question you might be asiking is how much influence does the Hawkeye state has on the race for the White House.Jessica is gonna look back at the impact of Iowa's caucuses on some past presidential campaigns.In Iowa,a win can thrust a candidate into the national spotlight,thank you Iowa while a loss can kill a campaign's momentum,just ask_.I wanna congratulate the other candidates or Howard Dean,and then we're going to Washington DC to take back the White House.But in terms of picking a winner,whether it's the President or a party's nominee,the record for Iowa caucuses is mixed.On the republican side,Ronald Reagan lost here in 1980,so did George.H.W.Bush in 1988.Eventua republican nominee Bob in 1996 and President George.W.Bush in 2000 both claimed victories in the state.You may remember just 8 years later Mike won the caucuses.I love Iowa a whole lot.But John McCain went on to become the GOP nominee.For the democrates,the original Iowa upset went to Jimmy Carter in 1976 when the litte known Georgia governor made a suprisingly strong finish here lauching his political rise to the White House.we need to reorganize completely the executive branch of government.In 1984_went from Iowa caucus¹ winner to democratic party nominee.In 1988,Iowa democrats⁶ chose_over eventual⁷ nominee Michael.And four years later Bill Clinton was humbled⁸ with less than 3 percent of the caucus vote.Native son senator Tom won that year.Democratic nominee John Kerry won the caucuses in 2004.Thank you Iowa for making me the comeback Kerry.And more recently,senator Barack Obama staged a caucus upset that catapulted him to the front of the pack,recall that senator Hillary Clinton was considered all but a_until then.Hi,this is Mechele Bachmann calling.What the Iowa caucuses're good at is winnowing⁹ down the field,the old saying is there're only three tickets out of Iowa.It's who comes in second,who comes in third as well as who comes in first and if somebody else does surprisingly well,it could well launch their campaign,it's happened before.Political upstarts have a chance here because caucus goers really do as they saykick the tires.What I wanna know is that if you get republican house and republican senator in 2 years,will you fulfill¹⁰ all those promises.The answer isyes.And Iowans take this work seriously which is why the media and the country follows what happens here so closely

1 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

2 caucuses   

n.（政党决定政策或推举竞选人的）核心成员( caucus的名词复数 )；决策干部；决策委员会；秘密会议

参考例句：

• Republican caucuses will happen in about 410 towns across Maine. 共和党团会议选举将在缅因州的约410个城镇进行。 来自互联网

3 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

6 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》

7 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

8 humbled   

adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低

参考例句：

• The examination results humbled him. 考试成绩挫了他的傲气。
• I am sure millions of viewers were humbled by this story. 我相信数百万观众看了这个故事后都会感到自己的渺小。

9 winnowing   

v.扬( winnow的现在分词 )；辨别；选择；除去

参考例句：

• The petrel came winnowing in from afar on the sea. 海燕从遥远的地方振翼飞来。 来自辞典例句
• He is winnowing wheat now. 他现在正在簸小麦。 来自辞典例句

10 fulfill   

vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意

参考例句：

• If you make a promise you should fulfill it.如果你许诺了，你就要履行你的诺言。
• This company should be able to fulfill our requirements.这家公司应该能够满足我们的要求。