CNN 2012-04-13

 It’s Wednesday, I’m Carl Azuz. This is CNN Student News. Today, we’re talking about U.S. wildfire, a deadline in Syria, a suspension in baseball and a Titanic¹ anniversary. 

 

First up, though, a shakeup in the race for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination². Yesterday, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum announced he is suspending his campaign. Santorum won nearly a dozen primary and caucus³ events. But he had less than half as many delegates as the frontrunner, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt⁴ Romney. And yesterday, Santorum said his campaign may be over, but his fight isn’t. 

 

“We made the decision to get into this race at our kitchen table, and against all the odds⁵. And we made a decision over the weekend that while this presidential race for us is over for me, and we will suspend our campaign effective today, we are not done fighting. We are going to continue to fight for those voices. We’re going to continue to fight for the Americans who stood up and gave us that air under our wings, that allowed us to accomplish things that no political expert would have ever expected.”

 

Next up, wildfires. They’re not in Texas or out west in California where these blazes are often reported. These fires are happening in the northeastern United States, places like New Jersey⁶ where this fire spread around about 1,000 acres. One official said strong winds were helping⁷ fan the flames. That was true with several of these wildfires, high winds and dry conditions helping them spread. This blaze in Connecticut covered about 60 acres. There were fires in Pennsylvania and New York this week as well. The New York fire led officials in one county to declare a state of emergency. 

 

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says the violence in Syria must stop now. He came up with a peace plan that the Syrian government had agreed to. It included a deadline for Syrian troops to leave cities and towns. That deadline was yesterday. It was not met. This YouTube video that was reportedly shot yesterday shows the city of Homs under artillery⁸ attack. In fact, there’s been surge in violence in the last few days. At least 65 people were killed in Syria yesterday. The government blames that violence on armed terrorists, and it demand that they put down their weapons. The government and rebel fighters have refused to back down until the other side does. 

 

Just the facts, Fidel Castro was born in Cuba in 1926. He led a revolution to overthrow⁹ the country’s leader in 1959. Then Castro took over Cuba’s government, turned it into a communist nation and stayed in power for nearly 50 years. During his rule, Castro was criticized for oppressing human rights and freedom of speech. 

 

That oppression led thousands of Cubans to leave their home country. Many of them came to the United States and settled in South Florida. And right now, some of that Cuban community in Miami is talking about boycotting¹⁰ the city’s Major League baseball team, the Miami Marlins. That’s because of comments that manager Ozzie Guillen made about Fidel Castro. During a recent interview, Guillen said that he respects the former communist leader. He later apologized saying his comment was misunderstood, but his team, the Marlins suspended Guillen for five games. Major League Baseball’s commissioner¹¹ supported that decision. He said, quote, “Mr. Guillen’s remarks have no place in our game.” The Marlin’s manager said he’s hoping to make amends¹² fro what happened. 

 

“I’m very, very, very sorry about the problem, about what happening. And I will do everything to make him better.”

 

College professor said that Guillen had the right to make those comments about Fidel Castro. The professor said the problem is he Guillen is Miami. That’s a place where people are particularly sensitive about Castro. That leads to today’s question on our blog. Just because you can say something, should you? Check it out at cnnstudentnews.com. 

 

A new report says the rate of American teens who give birth is at the lowest level since 1946. These findings are based on the number of births in a group of 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 19. The national rate in 2010 was just over 34. That means for every thousand women in that age group, 34 of them had a baby. It’s 9% lower than in 2009. One researcher says it’s hard to pinpoint¹³ why the rate went down, but experts suggest education programs about abstinence and contraception are part of the reason. The U.S. is still behind other industrialized nations when it comes to teen birth rates. For example, Canada’s rate is 14 per every thousand, compared to 34 in the United States.

1 titanic   

adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的

参考例句：

• We have been making titanic effort to achieve our purpose.我们一直在作极大的努力，以达到我们的目的。
• The island was created by titanic powers and they are still at work today.台湾岛是由一个至今仍然在运作的巨大力量塑造出来的。

2 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

3 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。

4 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

5 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

6 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。

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 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。

9 overthrow   

v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆

参考例句：

• After the overthrow of the government,the country was in chaos.政府被推翻后，这个国家处于混乱中。
• The overthrow of his plans left him much discouraged.他的计划的失败使得他很气馁。

10 boycotting   

抵制，拒绝参加( boycott的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• They're boycotting the shop because the people there are on strike. 他们抵制那家商店，因为那里的店员在罢工。
• The main opposition parties are boycotting the elections. 主要反对党都抵制此次选举。

11 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

12 amends   

n. 赔偿

参考例句：

• He made amends for his rudeness by giving her some flowers. 他送给她一些花，为他自己的鲁莽赔罪。
• This country refuses stubbornly to make amends for its past war crimes. 该国顽固地拒绝为其过去的战争罪行赔罪。

13 pinpoint   

vt.准确地确定；用针标出…的精确位置

参考例句：

• It is difficult to pinpoint when water problems of the modern age began.很难准确地指出，现代用水的问题是什么时候出现的。
• I could pinpoint his precise location on a map.我能在地图上指明他的准确位置。