美国有线新闻 CNN 2014-03-05

 It is the third day of the third month of 2014, happy for your taking 10 minutes for CNN student news. I am Carl Luis. It was a monstrous¹ weekend in Ukraine. We told you about the protest in the capital Kiev. The alledged ouster Ukraine's president last month. Most of those protestors want their country to have closer ties with Europe. But many Ukrainians, like the ousted² president want closer ties with Russia. And one region support for Russia is strong, that’s Crimya. It’s in South Ukraine where most citizens identify themselves as Russian. And it is where it was assumed that Russian troops came in the Ukraine over the weekend and took control of the Crimin councilor according to the US. The troop surround 3 Ukrainian military actions. There seem no combat. The US calls it is an act of Ruaggression because Russia is breaking international law by sending troops to Ukraine. Russia says there is no open confrontation³ here but it has the right to defend its people and interests in Ukraine. 

Time for the shout out. What is the most populated state in the US? If you think you know it, shout it out. Is it Florida, Texas, New York , or California? You have got three seconds, go! With around 38 million residents, California is far and way the most populous⁴ state in the US. That’s your answer and that’s your shout out. 

We have seen an extreme of rains in the south of California. While other parts of the country are shivering under snow, ice and bitter cold.  Areas in Los angles has been torched by drought, windy dry conditions, fast spread of wild fires, and when rain finally came for the recent storm system, there were not much vegetation left to soak it up. So that makes mud slides. Thankfully, no death has been reported has been made because of the rain and mudslide. The drought has been so bad that, the storms barely made a dam in the water levels. Much of the rain just are streaming out to the sea, and water reservoir is still in minimum levels. Even the forecast for more rain, even good news for some folks.

It happened in minutes. 

Fire scorched⁶ land could not hold rain so mud pour down form the hill and flows below. 

It’s bad. It looks…It’s not been this bad for a long time.

They are diving out while they can. 

Are you not taking anything with you. You just jump out of the door?

No I grab my laptop and I do not need so many things. Everything will be fine.  

Just a couple inches of raining, you can see the effect here when the ground which is burned  by the fire  can not hold all of this, and something  you may notice, it is green. It shows it has been scared by wild fire. 

A thousand homes are under evacuation order. as they say below the scorch⁵ hills.

Two months ago there was wild fire. Today, mud pours into their back yard. California has been in drought for months. The sudden rain caught the sun by surprise. Two people were found strouded in the tree trying to find a way out the wide river like angeles river. Take a closer look, it’s not just people, but there are two dogs. You can see the rescuers, the los angles fire fighters, as they carefully remove animals out of the tree one by one to the nearby rescue spot. And there is more rain coming. Bad news for . they chose not to listen to the evacuation order, there is one way in and out in the mud to dry, cause you can not get out. 

We had fire, drought, and now torrential rain. So yes, pretty much everything. 

We hit on all elements all over this place. crazy stories.

There may be not much I can do about the weather but we are doing a great job by keeping a track of it. NASA is teamed up with Japa’s Space Exploration Agency toward satellite that can track rain and snow.  It is called Global , that sounds like a fancy name, pretty fancy for satellite. 

it is designed to cycle the earth an hour and a half, observe where it is raining, and send that info back to scientist every three hours. It can tell the difference between ice, snow fall, and the different amount of each. It will help researchers keep track on the global climate and its water cycle. This is not cheap project. The satellite cost NASA 933 million dollars. It is designed to last at least three years. 

1 monstrous   

adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的

参考例句：

• The smoke began to whirl and grew into a monstrous column.浓烟开始盘旋上升，形成了一个巨大的烟柱。
• Your behaviour in class is monstrous!你在课堂上的行为真是丢人！

2 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

3 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

4 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。

5 scorch   

v.烧焦，烤焦；高速疾驶；n.烧焦处，焦痕

参考例句：

• I could not wash away the mark of the scorch.我洗不掉这焦痕。
• This material will scorch easily if it is too near the fire.这种材料如果太靠近炉火很容易烤焦。

6 scorched   

烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦

参考例句：

• I scorched my dress when I was ironing it. 我把自己的连衣裙熨焦了。
• The hot iron scorched the tablecloth. 热熨斗把桌布烫焦了。