美联社新闻一分钟 2007-04-20

1. Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui was picked on, pushed around and laughed at while attending a northern Virginia high school. Classmates say Cho almost never opened his mouth because of speech difficulties.

2. A long day in the witness chair for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He fought off calls for his resignation over the firing of eight prosecutors². Gonzales's saying he did nothing improper³.

3. A jury is deliberating the fate of Mary Winkler, a Tennessee preacher's wife accused of shooting her husband. During the trial, Winkler said a shotgun went off by accident, but her marriage was allegedly troubled with physical and sexual abuse.

4. There's a newest sensation at an Australian zoo - a pair of two-week old Sumatran tiger cubs⁴, the rare breed weighing in at five and a half pounds. There are only 205 Sumatran cubs born in Asia and Australia in the past decade.

 

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. pick on: phrase
If someone picks on you, they deliberately⁵ criticize you unfairly or treat you unkindly. (INFORMAL)

2. push around: phrase
If someone pushes you around, they give you orders in a rude and insulting way. (INFORMAL)

3. fight off: phrase
If you fight off something, for example an illness or an unpleasant thing, you succeed in getting rid of it and in not letting it overcome you.

4. prosecutor¹: n-count
In someone countries, a prosecutor is a lawyer or official who brings charges against someone or tries to prove in a trial that they are guilty.

5. weigh in: phrase
If someone weighs in at a particular weight, for example before competition a sports competition, their weight is measured at that amount. (JOURNALISM)

1 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

2 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

3 improper   

adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的

参考例句：

• Short trousers are improper at a dance.舞会上穿短裤不成体统。
• Laughing and joking are improper at a funeral.葬礼时大笑和开玩笑是不合适的。

4 cubs   

n.幼小的兽，不懂规矩的年轻人( cub的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lioness guarding her cubs 守护幼崽的母狮
• Lion cubs depend on their mother to feed them. 狮子的幼仔依靠母狮喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。