美联社新闻一分钟 2006-03-30

1. Baghdad police found 17 bodies under a bridge Wednesday. The men had been handcuffed and then shot. Hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in sectarian violence and by death squad¹s operating inside the Shiite-dominated ministry³ since the February 22nd bombing of an important Shiite shrine⁴.

2. Closing arguments are today in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. The jury will decide if Moussaoui receives the death penalty or life in prison. He is the only person charged in the U.S in the 9/11 attacks.

3. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was flown back to his homeland after escaping custody⁵ in Nigeria and spending several days on the run. Taylor's facing trial for war crimes.

4. And people gather from Brazil to Mongolia to watch a solar eclipse Wednesday. A solar eclipse is a rare moment when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up perfectly⁶ to cover the sun. The last total eclipse happened three years ago.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. handcuff :verb [T often passive] (INFORMAL cuff)
to put handcuffs on someone:
e.g. He arrived in court handcuffed to two police officers.

2. death squad :group noun [C]
an unofficial armed group who look for and illegally kill particular people, especially the enemies of a political party

3. custody :noun [U]
the state of being kept in prison, especially while waiting to go to court for trial:
e.g. A man is being held in police custody in connection with the murder.

4. on the run :
trying to escape or hide, especially from the police
e.g. After a month on the run, the prisoners were finally recaptured by the police.

5. eclipse:noun [C]
when the sun disappears from view, either completely or partly, while the moon is moving between it and the Earth, or when the moon darkens while the shadow (= darkness) of the Earth moves over it:
e.g. On Wednesday there will be a partial eclipse of the sun.

1 squad   

n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组

参考例句：

• The squad leader ordered the men to mark time.班长命令战士们原地踏步。
• A squad is the smallest unit in an army.班是军队的最小构成单位。

2 squads   

n.（军队中的）班( squad的名词复数 )；（暗杀）小组；体育运动的运动（代表）队；（对付某类犯罪活动的）警察队伍

参考例句：

• Anti-riot squads were called out to deal with the situation. 防暴队奉命出动以对付这一局势。 来自辞典例句
• Three squads constitute a platoon. 三个班组成一个排。 来自辞典例句

3 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

4 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

5 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。