美联社新闻一分钟 2006-03-08

1. Dana Reeve, the widow of actor Christopher Reeve lost her battle with lung cancer Monday night. The 44-year-old announced last August she had cancer. They have a 13-year-old son.

2. The sentencing phase for Al-Qaida member Zacarias Moussaoui continues in Alexandria, Virginia. In an interview with reporters, Moussaoui's mother says her son appears to be someone else. Moussaoui faces the death penalty or life in prison.

3. Andrew Fastow, the star witness in the Enron trial took the stand in Houston, Texas Tuesday. Fastow says he ran partnerships¹ to help the company hide millions of dollars in losses. Fastow pleaded guilty to 2 counts of conspiracy² and faces 10 years in prison.

4. A new book alleges³ baseball player Barry Bonds used steroids for at least 5 years beginning in 1998. Bonds says he won’t read the book or any articles about his alleged⁴ steroid use.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. star witness : 主要的证人

2. stand :noun [C]
US FOR witness box:
e.g. The witness took the stand (= went to the place in a court where you stand and answer questions).

3. steroid :noun [C]
a drug which increases the development of your muscles, sometimes taken illegally by people taking part in sports competitions

1 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

2 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

3 alleges   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The newspaper article alleges that the mayor is corrupt. 报纸上断言该市长腐败。
• Steven was tardy this morning and alleges that his bus was late. 史提芬今天早上迟到的说词是公车误点了。

4 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为