美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-02-18

 Welcome to CNN student news, I'm Carl Azuz, it's Thursday but the political world is still buzzing¹ about president Obama's state of the union address. These speeches can give an idea of what issues of president wants to focus on. Tuesday night, he talked a lot about the economy specifically creating jobs for the American middle class. It's something that Senator² Marco Rubio discussed in a Republican³ response. What is there so much attention on this?

"In 2009, when he took the oath⁴ for the first time, about 113 million Americans were employeed, and that number was already dropping dramatically as we came out of the Bush years. And it kept dropping until February of 2010 when it hit its lowest point, then we began this long, slow, grind⁵, backup to where we are today. Right now, we have 1.2 million more jobs than we did when president Obama first took office. That's not nearly as robust⁶ as people would like to see, but more importantly, think about this. The job we lost over here simply weren't as good as the job we gained back over here. I'm going to explain what I'm talking about, Rutgers University did the study where they talked to a lot of people who had lost jobs and then regained⁷ other jobs, they found that 22% of those people that the jobs that they have now pay abou the same as the jobs they lost before. Beyond that, another 24% said they're being paid more than they were before. But now looked at this number, because this is the big one, more than half the people say their new job pays less than their old job. These are the people who really are struggling out there, they are working as hard as they can and they just can not move ahead in anyway, shape or form."

Next story today, remember that massive⁸ blizzard⁹ that hit the northeastern U.S last weekend. Look at this video from Connecticut and watch how much snow is building up around this clock post. This is just one night, some parts of the state got up to three feet of snow. In the city of Waterbury, all of the schools have been closed since the blizzard hit. You might think, that sounds alright, but when the city asked for help, shoveling the snow, a lot of the students showed up to pitch in.

"Because this our community, everybody needs to help out, and we're all a family."

"You've got teachers here, you've got adults here, as you can see, you've got a bunch of students here. So, you know, this is, you know, I'm amazed at the turnout, to be honest with you."

"Life if you had been staying in the house for like four days straight without school, so we just want to come help, especially those elementary schools."

1 buzzing   

adj.嗡嗡响的v.发出嗡嗡声( buzz的现在分词 )；（发出）充满兴奋的谈话声[闲话，谣言]；忙乱，急行；用蜂鸣器（发信号）

参考例句：

• The computer made a buzzing noise that she found off-putting. 计算机发出的嗡嗡声让她心烦。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Bees are humming [buzzing] around from flower to flower. 蜜蜂在花丛中嗡嗡地飞来飞去。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 senator   

n.参议员，评议员

参考例句：

• The senator urged against the adoption of the measure.那参议员极力反对采取这项措施。
• The senator's speech hit at government spending.参议员的讲话批评了政府的开支。

3 republican   

n.拥护共和政体的人； adj.共和政体的，（Republican）共和党人，（Republican）共和党的

参考例句：

• Some families have been republican for generations.有些家庭世代都支持共和党。
• A third candidate has entered the contest for the Republican nomination.第三个候选人已经加入角逐共和党提名的行列。

4 oath   

n.誓言，誓约，咒骂，诅咒语

参考例句：

• They swore an oath to carry out their duties faithfully.他们宣誓忠实履行自己的职责。
• They swore an oath of loyalty to the country.他们宣誓要报效祖国。

5 grind   

n.（常贬义）用功的学生，书呆子；vt.磨，磨碎

参考例句：

• Would you please grind a pound of coffee for me? 请给我磨一磅咖啡好吗？
• Do you find learning English a grind?你觉得学英语是一件苦差事吗？

6 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

7 regained   

复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地

参考例句：

• The majority of the people in the world have regained their liberty. 世界上大多数人已重获自由。
• She hesitated briefly but quickly regained her poise. 她犹豫片刻，但很快恢复了镇静。

8 massive   

adj.巨大的，大规模的，大量的，大范围的

参考例句：

• A massive sea search has failed to find any survivors.经过大规模的海上搜救仍未找到幸存者。
• He drank a massive amount of alcohol.他喝了大量的烈酒。

9 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。