美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-01-31

 Let's just open it up, make it based on performance. If the women can't meet the standards then they don't get to graduation from the program to do the mission. 

To have women serving in infantry¹ though, could impair² the mission essential task of those units, and that's been proving in study after study. 

When I first got back from Iraq, I had people asking me if I was allowed to carry a gun because I was only a girl. 

We are moving forward with a plan to eliminate all unnecessary gender³-based barriers to service.

It's * nature upper body strenth and physical movements and speed and endurance and so forth⁴. 

Here's the short version. The U.S. military is changing it's policy to let women serve in combat units. And this is not going to happen immediately, those jobs will open up over time. And some military units can request an exception although officials say they have to explain why. You might think "wait a minute, don't women serve on the front lines". The answer to that is yes. In Iraq and Afghanistan female soldiers ended up in fire fights. They were serving in front line units. But they weren't officially serving in combat units. That's what we are talking about here. Still, that fact hasn't some women in the past from fighting. Back to the American revolution and civil war, some women disguised themselves as men so they could fight on the battle field. Now, obviously the opinions on this are split. And one of the big  the critics are pointing at is the ability for women and men to meet the same training standards.

We are going to see, as we have already seen, as the expansion of roles of women, steady downward pressure on military qualification, reduction, then strength, redurance requirement in order to get numbers up.

While it is certainly true that not all women can do all of the requirements, neither can all men. The import thing here is to make sure that right people in the right jobs, and any body who have the qualifications can serve in whatever positions they are best suited for. 

When you look through some of the comments on CNN.com, you can see how divided people are on this. For example, one commenter said "warfare⁵ is not a gender-neutral playing field, this is going to get a lot of people killed". Someone on the other side said "this is good, everyone should be able to fight for their country no matter the gender". 

If you live in the mid-western or north-eastern U.S., we don't have to tell you how cold it is. For the rest of you, yes, it's freezing. On top of New Hampshire's Mount Washington, the tempreture 22 below zero, the wind chill- minus 85. The winter weather has caused some crazy events out their. Chicago fire-fighters were hosing down a burning warehouse⁶. Now if you look at these pictures, you are going to see what looks like an ice palace. The water from the hoses ended up encasing the place in inches of ice. Check this I-report from Minnesota, you've heard about frying an egg on the sidewalk to prove how hot it is, this pretty much exact oppsite.

Just to prove how cold it is, even here in the backyard a little shield from some of the elements. We did a couple things. We brought a damp T-shirt outside and it took less than five minutes for it to become this rigid⁷. That's one example to show how quickly things can freeze out here. We also put * in a little cup of water, it won't come out now, it is frozen in there solid. Less than 90 minutes that one took, we set that in 90 minutes ago.

1 infantry   

n.[总称]步兵(部队)

参考例句：

• The infantry were equipped with flame throwers.步兵都装备有喷火器。
• We have less infantry than the enemy.我们的步兵比敌人少。

2 impair   

v.损害，损伤；削弱，减少

参考例句：

• Loud noise can impair your hearing.巨大的噪音有损听觉。
• It can not impair the intellectual vigor of the young.这不能磨灭青年人思想活力。

3 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

4 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

5 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。

6 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

7 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。