美联社新闻一分钟 2007-08-18

1. The search for six missing miners in Utah has been suspended indefinitely. The move comes after three rescue workers were killed during a cave-in Thursday night. Officials say they don't know if there is a way to continue searching safely.

2. Hurricane Dean has been upgraded to a Category 3 storm. Dean knocked out power on the islands of St. Lucia and Martinique. At least three deaths are being blamed on the storm.

3. At least two strong aftershocks have rattled¹ the Peruvian region rocked by an 8.0 earthquake Wednesday. The death toll² from that quake has risen to more than 500. Peru's president estimates it will take 10 days to have the situation approaching normalcy.

4. After a roller-coaster week, Wall Street closed up today. The rebound³ comes after the Fed cut its key discount rate a half percentage point Friday morning.

WORDS IN THE NEWS


1. category: noun
a group of people or things that are all of the same type（这里指飓风等级）

2. knock out:
to damage something so that it does not work

3. power: noun
electricity that is used in houses, factories etc

4. normalcy: noun
the state or fact of being normal

5. roller-coaster: adj
marked by numerous ups and downs

6. Wall Street:
the American stock market

7. the Fed:
美国联邦储蓄委员会

8. discount rate:
the interest rate that a country's central bank charges to other banks （贴现率）

1 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

2 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

3 rebound   

v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回

参考例句：

• The vibrations accompanying the rebound are the earth quake.伴随这种回弹的振动就是地震。
• Our evil example will rebound upon ourselves.我们的坏榜样会回到我们自己头上的。