美联社新闻一分钟 2007-04-22

1. Memorial services are taking place today for some of the Virginia Tech students who died in Seung-Hui Cho's violent rampage. There was a day of mourning across Virginia for the victims yesterday. It included a moment of silence on the Virginia Tech campus at noon.

2. New photos of Fidel Castro. Pictures of the Cuban leader in meeting with the head of a visiting Chinese Communist Party delegation¹ are the latest sign that Castro is becoming increasingly active more than eight months after having emergency surgery.

3. In Huston, NASA officials are trying to figure out how a contractor² got past security with a pistol³. William Phillips used the weapon to kill a co-worker before turning the gun on himself.

4. The dream trip into space is over for a billionaire software engineer who once won a junior cosmonaut contest. A Russian space capsule brought Charles Simonyi back to Earth today along with a Russian and an American who spent seven months in space.

 

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. contractor : n-count
A contractor is a person or company that does work for other people or organization.

2. capsule: n-count
A space capsule is the part of a spacecraft in which people travel, and which often separates from the main rocket.

1 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

2 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

3 pistol   

n.手枪

参考例句：

• He drew his pistol and aimed at the enemy soldier.他拔出枪对准敌兵。
• The escaped criminal fell at the sound of a pistol.手枪一响，逃犯应声倒下。