美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-06-18

We are live on the power lines in Colorado and you see up close why wild fires like nothing else in nature are. Also,tonight California's dream of hi-speed bullet trains is turning into a slow motion multibillion dollar nightmare. Guess what, your tax dollars paying some of the freight. Later, why is this man smiling while today's murder trialBoston's Whitey Bulger, my old neighbor, laughter out loud as witness describeda chilling death threat allegedly made, yet he still a hero to some. I will talk to another old neighbor about why.

We begin though in Colorado where crews have a good day, but still very far from containing the largest wild fire ever seen in the state. High temps, high rain not helping¹ and your houses about 400 of them now in ashes. Worse each of these serves as a kind of tinderbox catching² sparks then fueling the flames onward³ and those flames move fast. Watch this footage from British Columbia.It's amazing perspective. One frankly⁴, you are not supposed to see and stilllive. Watch out quickly that temperature shoots up from 100 to nearly 900 degrees in less than 15 seconds. If you were standing⁵ here, this would be thelast thing you ever see.

In a moment, you hear from people who getnearly that close time and time again as job award for some as a calling.

First, the latest on this fire right nowfrom Martin Savidge who joins us live from Colorado Springs. Martin.

Evening, John. Yes, we are standing outside of the incident command center. This is centrally where they have been calling the shots on historic fire for the last three days and most of that time the news has not been good. But today, finally, finally there is at least a glimmer⁶ of hope and a lot of that has to do with the fact well would the weather. And the weather had been a problem for so long. Now sadly, the weather has turned out to be actually a pretty good thing today. It was cloud overhead. That's how started off. That's good for a number of reasons. It drops the humidity levels,actually raises those, drops the temperature and wind. The wind has subsided⁷ somewhat.That was the best of all of them. Late this afternoon, the sky has opened up.Now, we should tell you that when you get rain like this. It is a good thing as far as helping to douse⁸ some of the hot spots, but the problem is, it brought a lot of lightening and that is a huge problem in this area. Because even though the ground has been dampened, much of the brush is tinder dry. And so even once the rain has passed by. It means that fuel is eventually going to dry out,pretty quick here John. And as the result of that, it is possible that we could be back into a high threat fire circumstance in just a matter of hours after the rain. But we were out there today. There are no walls of fire. Let me just put that to risk. But what they did today was that they were able to get containment⁹ at about 30 percent. That is of course very good. Yesterday they were practically at zero and there are, also known news they had been able to at least call off some mandatory¹⁰ evacuations, at least for Colorado Springs. At least for some folks, they can't begin to go back home. Not for those who have been in the most devastated¹¹ areas. They are going to have to wait a while. But,for those areas on the fringe that were evacuated¹² as precautions, those people can start to go back home. The other good news is forest fire crew can begin to get some risk but I will warn you John this fire is not out by any means. 30 percent containment means 70 percent of it is not under control and even though it is down to hot spots that have to be mopped up, any one of those could flare¹³ and there are neighborhoods, subdivisions packed that are on the outer edge of this fire that they could still be threatening. So good news,turning a corner, significant progress but remember, there had been at least two deaths and there are fears more deaths could be discovered as people and authorities move into these neighborhoods after the flames. John.

1 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。

2 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

3 onward   

adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先

参考例句：

• The Yellow River surges onward like ten thousand horses galloping.黄河以万马奔腾之势滚滚向前。
• He followed in the steps of forerunners and marched onward.他跟随着先辈的足迹前进。

4 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 glimmer   

v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光

参考例句：

• I looked at her and felt a glimmer of hope.我注视她，感到了一线希望。
• A glimmer of amusement showed in her eyes.她的眼中露出一丝笑意。

7 subsided   

v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上

参考例句：

• After the heavy rains part of the road subsided. 大雨过后，部分公路塌陷了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• By evening the storm had subsided and all was quiet again. 傍晚， 暴风雨已经过去，四周开始沉寂下来。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 douse   

v.把…浸入水中，用水泼；n.泼洒

参考例句：

• Men came with buckets of water and began to douse the flames.人们提来一桶桶水灭火。
• He doused the flames with a fire extinguisher.他用灭火器把火焰扑灭。

9 containment   

n.阻止，遏制；容量

参考例句：

• Your list might include such things as cost containment,quality,or customer satisfaction.你的清单上应列有诸如成本控制、产品质量、客户满意程度等内容。
• Insularity and self-containment,it is argued,go hand in hand.他们争论说，心胸狭窄和自我封闭是并存的。

10 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

11 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

12 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

13 flare   

v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发

参考例句：

• The match gave a flare.火柴发出闪光。
• You need not flare up merely because I mentioned your work.你大可不必因为我提到你的工作就动怒。