高级英语听力 lesson 27

The Soviet¹ news agency TASS reports that an American cancer researcher has defected to the Soviet Union. According to TASS, Arnold Loskin, his wife and three children arrived in Moscow today after being granted political asylum². TASS said Loskin has defected after being fired from his job, because he opposed US foreign policy.


The upcoming summit is having an impact on the budget debate on Capitol Hill. President Reagan accused Congress of helping³ Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev by attaching arms control demands to the spending bill. The House wants the President to continue to abide⁴ by the terms of the ungratified SALT II Treaty, among other things. House leaders say the President is threatening to shut down the government unless he gets his way on arms issues. The House today approved a compromise anti-drug bill that would institute the death penalty for drug related murders. A provision threatened a filibuster⁵ to keep it from passing. Representatives dropped the provision from the original bill that would require the use of the military to patrol the border against drug smuggling⁶.


It hasn't rained until ... since Saturday in Eastern Missouri, but flooding problems continue to intensify⁷ along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers north of St. Louis. Thousands have been forced to leave their homes as flood waters continue to rise. Jim Dryden of member station KWMU in St. Louis reports. "In St. Charles Counry just to the north of St. Louis, flooding is worse now than at any time in recent history. All of the levees along the Missouri River have broken, and the towns of Portage Des Sioux and Westalton, which sit at the confluence⁸ of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, have been completely isolated⁹ by water. Ray Camp of the St. Charles County Office of Emergency Management says levees and dikes north of the confluence of the two rivers are causing those rivers to seek out new channels. Westalton is now under the water of one such new channel. That town is being evacuated¹⁰ this evening after desperate attempts to sandbag it failed. Almost the entire peninsula which sits at the confluence of the two rivers is under as much as fifteen feet of water, and is now accessible only by boat. And even though the Missouri River reached its crest¹¹ this morning and the Mississippi is expected to crest tomorrow, emergency management officials say it will be quite some time before residents of the flooded area will be able to return home. For National Public Radio, I'm Jim Dryden in St. Louis."


As President Reagan gets ready for this weekend's meeting with Soviet leader Gorbachev, commentator¹² Cal Thomas thinks that House Democrats¹³ are depriving the President of the most important thing he could take to Iceland—a clear control over US foreign policy.
House majority leader Jim Wright isn't even Speaker of the House yet, and already he is acting¹⁴ as if he were President. Wright has offered President Reagan a deal. He says he and House Democrats will delay a showdown with the White House over arms control until next year if the President will agree to terms for future consideration of constraints¹⁵ on strategic weapons and other House arms control strategies. These would include abiding¹⁶ by weapons limits in the unratified SALT II Treaty, which the Soviets¹⁷ have repeatedly violated. This type of behavior on the eve of a meeting in Iceland between the President and Mikhail Gorbachev would be unseemly enough for any member of Congress. But for major Democratic leader it is unconscionable. Why should Gorbachev feel any need to negotiate with the President if House Democrats led by Jim Wright are doing his job for him? Gorbachev, of course, is under no such pressure since members of the Politburo in one-party Russia compete only for the privilege of being the loudest ratifier¹⁸ of Gorbachev policies. Wright, who was a co-signer of a 1984 "Dear Commandant" letter to Nicaragua's Marxist dictator Daniel Ortega, in which, among other things, he deplored¹⁹ his own country's policies against the Central American nation, apparently²⁰ believes that cutting a deal with the Soviets in which we all will live in a safer world is like a mating game. One must make the right moves before the other party shows any interest. The Soviets are pressing ahead on all fronts, offensive and defensive²¹ weapons and laser technology, even while they denounce the United States for conducting research on its own strategic defense²² initiative. Will they be impressed by the good will Congressman²³ Wright thinks he is displaying by trying to tie the President's hands before Iceland? Hardly. Gorbachev will try to tie the President's feet as well. The history of this country before the Vietnam War was that the President of the United States set American foreign policy. The Congress advised and debated, but in the end it was the President who prevailed if differences arose. Now it is the Congress that is making foreign policy: on South Africa, on Central America, and, on the most dangerous level of all, with our chief adversary²⁴, the Soviet Union. There is no room for mistakes in dealing²⁵ with the Soviets, but Jim Wright and the House Democrats are making them. Gorbachev will arrive in Reykjavik well rested, knowing that much of his work will have already been done for him by Jim Wright. No wonder he's bringing his wife. There will be plenty of spare time for socializing.
Cal Thomas is a columnist²⁶ for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.


The Superpower leaders left Iceland this weekend without moving their nations noticeably closer to peace. But at the same time another interaction between Americans and Soviet citizens was just getting started in the USSR. It is a meeting of Northern people, an Arctic attempt at understanding. From Anchorage, reporter Joanna Urick has more on the Alaska Performing Arts for Peace.
Before Leaving for the Soviet Union, sixty Alaskans from throughout the state gathered in a log cabin on a lake outside of Anchorage to rehearse.
"I see people from Moscow. I see people from Leningrad."
As John Pingyer, a Upic Eskimo reads his lines, he's thinking about an ancient Upic ceremony called "the Bladder Festival," in which people from different villages gather together. At the end of the week-long rituals they take the bladders from seals their hunters have taken during the past year and inflate²⁷ them so they'll float. Then they return the seal bladders to the ocean.
"There's a lot of symbolism behind the ceremony. And one of the strongest symbolism that we're using in this Bladder Festival is ... togetherness of people, as one part of one big village or a community, and then we use it to portray²⁸ the closeness of people, which is the peace."
The Bladder Festival forms the dramatic framework for a show involving more than sixty people from Alaska. The Alaska Performing Arts for Peace will take their show through a succession of cities, towns and villages in the Soviet Union, culminating in the reunification of Siberian Upic Eskimos, people who have lived along the coast of the Bering Sea, until the Cold War moving freely back and forth²⁹ between the continents. At times, they can see one another hunting on the ice, but actual contact has been forbidden since the coming of military installations following World War II. The Alaska villages of Wonga on St. Lawrence Island is actually closer to Siberia than to the US mainland. Seventy-year-old Aura Gologrogin, who accompanies the Wonga comedy players on the tour, remembers the last time she visited friends and relatives on the Siberian coast. She's looking forward to meeting them again.
"Yeh, it is like a big family reunion. I was thinking if I could meet some of the people that I know long time ago, since I have been there when I was younger. In 1940 I go over and stay there for nine days and they were so nice people. And I want to meet them again."
This tour is not just an Eskimo reunion. Along with some thirty Eskimos are chorus, cloggers, fiddlers and black gospel singers.
"Each culture has something unique to offer, and that's what we have here. Each culture has something unique to offer, and that uniqueness will be pulled together as one. And that one body is what we are sharing with the Soviet Union."
Shirley Staten is one of five gospel singers from Anchorage looking forward to another reunion with the small group of Russians, descendants of Black Americans who emigrated to Moscow during the Depression.
"And we're going to sit around and sing gospel music, and I am just ... I mean that's the highlight of the trip."
"We are going to sing in chorus. Then we can start together in Russian. It seems like that's the way it's going to work."
Organizer Digby Belger says it's taken two difficult years to make the tour of the Alaska Performing Artists for Peace a reality. And in that time, there have been dramatic ups and downs in US-Soviet relations.
"In some way, this might be a nice time to go. And you know, if ... I really feel that the more tension between us, the more that we really need to communicate. And people to people exchange is a very good way to do that."
The Alaska Performing Artists for Peace's month-long tour will take them from Moscow in the west to the Chukchi Peninsula in the east coast of Siberia. They'll return to the United States November 2nd. In Anchorage, this is Joanna Urich.
 

1 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

2 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

3 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。

4 abide   

vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受

参考例句：

• You must abide by the results of your mistakes.你必须承担你的错误所造成的后果。
• If you join the club,you have to abide by its rules.如果你参加俱乐部，你就得遵守它的规章。

5 filibuster   

n.妨碍议事，阻挠；v.阻挠

参考例句：

• A senator dragged the subject in as a filibuster.一个参议员硬把这个题目拉扯进来，作为一种阻碍议事的手法。
• The democrats organized a filibuster in the senate.民主党党员在参议院上组织了阻挠议事。

6 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

7 intensify   

vt.加强；变强；加剧

参考例句：

• We must intensify our educational work among our own troops.我们必须加强自己部队的教育工作。
• They were ordered to intensify their patrols to protect our air space.他们奉命加强巡逻，保卫我国的领空。

8 confluence   

n.汇合，聚集

参考例句：

• They built the city at the confluence of two rivers.他们建造了城市的汇合两条河流。
• The whole DV movements actually was a confluence of several trends.整个当时的DV运动，实际上是几股潮流的同谋。

9 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

10 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。

11 crest   

n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖

参考例句：

• The rooster bristled his crest.公鸡竖起了鸡冠。
• He reached the crest of the hill before dawn.他于黎明前到达山顶。

12 commentator   

n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员

参考例句：

• He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛，是个好的解说者。
• The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。

13 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

15 constraints   

强制( constraint的名词复数 )； 限制； 约束

参考例句：

• Data and constraints can easily be changed to test theories. 信息库中的数据和限制条件可以轻易地改变以检验假设。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• What are the constraints that each of these imply for any design? 这每种产品的要求和约束对于设计意味着什么？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

16 abiding   

adj.永久的，持久的，不变的

参考例句：

• He had an abiding love of the English countryside.他永远热爱英国的乡村。
• He has a genuine and abiding love of the craft.他对这门手艺有着真挚持久的热爱。

17 soviets   

苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式）

参考例句：

• A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
• The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。

18 ratifier   

n.批准者

参考例句：

19 deplored   

v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They deplored the price of motor car, textiles, wheat, and oil. 他们悲叹汽车、纺织品、小麦和石油的价格。 来自辞典例句
• Hawthorne feels that all excess is to be deplored. 霍桑觉得一切过分的举动都是可悲的。 来自辞典例句

20 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

21 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。

22 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

23 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

24 adversary   

adj.敌手，对手

参考例句：

• He saw her as his main adversary within the company.他将她视为公司中主要的对手。
• They will do anything to undermine their adversary's reputation.他们会不择手段地去损害对手的名誉。

25 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

26 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

27 inflate   

vt.使膨胀，使骄傲，抬高（物价）

参考例句：

• The buyers bid against each other and often inflate the prices they pay.买主们竞相投标，往往人为地提高价钱。
• Stuart jumped into the sea and inflated the liferaft.斯图尔特跳到海里给救生艇充气。

28 portray   

v.描写，描述；画(人物、景象等)

参考例句：

• It is difficult to portray feelings in words.感情很难用言语来描写。
• Can you portray the best and worst aspects of this job?您能描述一下这份工作最好与最坏的方面吗？

29 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。