美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-04-02

 Feels good to say it’s Friday. Thank you for closing out the week with CNN Student News. We’re diving in(拱进来) today with a premise(前提；提论): Public opinion can influence political leaders. Basically, the more people push for something, the better chance it has of happening, and vice¹ versa. After December school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, there was a lot of talk about the possibility of new gun laws in America. Some people who want those laws declared yesterday a national day of action. That’s what President Obama is pushing for.

 

... two months or three months after something as horrific as what happened in Newtown happens, and we’ve moved on other things? That’s not who we are. Shame on us if we forgot it.

 

Some ideas have been proposed like a ban on assault weapons, but those proposals haven’t gotten enough support in Congress to become law. Opponents argue that the proposals are not the most effective way to reduce gun violence. And recent polls suggest that public support for major new gun laws is dropping. We would head from Washington D.C to Washington State, next. Earlier Wednesday morning, officials near Seattle started getting calls about a noise that sounded like thunder.

 

I was pretty scared I got out there with a flashlight and then just kept hearing a rambling² and watching more and more of a falling waves of ….

 

It’s a pushing avid³. It was a roaring. But that much of it - no, no.

 

What happened was a landslide⁴, a huge landslide. No one was injured, but at least one home was destroyed and more than a dozen others were threatened. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused it. But the CNN meteorologist said these houses are on the seismic⁵ fault(地震断层) that can shift on rare occasions.

1 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

2 rambling   

adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的

参考例句：

• We spent the summer rambling in Ireland. 我们花了一个夏天漫游爱尔兰。
• It was easy to get lost in the rambling house. 在布局凌乱的大房子里容易迷路。

3 avid   

adj.热心的；贪婪的；渴望的；劲头十足的

参考例句：

• He is rich,but he is still avid of more money.他很富有,但他还想贪图更多的钱。
• She was avid for praise from her coach.那女孩渴望得到教练的称赞。

4 landslide   

n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利

参考例句：

• Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
• An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。

5 seismic   

a.地震的，地震强度的

参考例句：

• Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
• The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。