NPR 2010-12-01

A Pentagon report being released this hour says nearly three quarters of service members polled believe that allowing gays to serve openly in the military will have little to no impact, but the report says there is a significant minority that opposes the plan now before the Senate. NPR’s Tom Bowman has a preview.

The report polled more than 100,000 men and women in uniform about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, the 1993 law that bars gays and lesbians from serving openly. Seventy percent of them said gays serving openly would have either a positive, mixed or no effect on the military. The remaining 30 percent were opposed, but those polled in combat arms branches, such as Infantry¹ and Armor, had much higher rates of opposition². About 50 percent in army combat arms were opposed and nearly 60 percent of Marines and combat arms opposed allowing gays to serve openly. Still, the report says that most of those in combat arms say they work with someone believed to be gay and it caused no problems. Tom Bowman, NPR News, the Pentagon.

No major breakthroughs in today’s first postelection meeting between the White House and congressional leaders, but as NPR’s Ari Shapiro reports, the meeting highlighted certain issues expected to be the most hotly contested in the coming months.

Everyone agrees that the top priority right now is renewing the Bush-era tax cuts that expire at the end of the year. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was at the meeting.

“It is the view of 100 percent of Senate Republicans and a number of Senate Democrats³ as well that the tax rates should not be bifurcated⁴; in other words, that we ought to treat all taxpayers⁵ the same.”

President Obama said after the meeting he and other Democrats disagree.

“I believe and the other Democrats who — in the room believe that this would add an additional $700 billion to our debt in the next ten years.”

He only wants to extend tax cuts below a quarter million dollars of income. The president said his Treasury⁶ secretary and budget director will lead a negotiating team to break through the logjam before the end of the year. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, the White House.

The teenage gunman who shot himself during a hostage standoff in Wisconsin yesterday died this morning. Marinette police say Samuel Hengel, who was a sophomore⁷, held 23 students and a teacher hostage yesterday afternoon. Several hours later, police stormed a classroom at the high school and Hengel shot himself. Authorities say the team made no demands or requests during the standoff.

Disappointing news on housing prices and concerns about Europe’s debt crisis are sending stocks lower. Asian markets also fell. Investors⁸ are expecting China to raise interest rates to combat inflation. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down slightly at 11,053; NASDAQ down 18 points at 2,507.

This is NPR.

Students attacked parked police vans during a protest of government education reforms in Italy today. The demonstrations⁹ brought traffic to a standstill across many cities in that country. NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli reports from Rome the unrest is another blow to the troubled government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi beset¹⁰ by scandals and a weak economy.

Hundreds of vans and lines of police in full riot gear formed a safety cordon¹¹ around the lower house of parliament, where deputies were voting on the education reform bill. Thousands of students blocked traffic as they marched through the city center, chanting slogans such as “Education On Its Knees” and threw eggs, vegetables, bottles and fireworks at parliament. Similar protests took place in Milan, Turin, Naples, Venice, Palermo and Genoa. In the past week, protestors briefly¹² occupied some of Italy’s major monuments, the Colosseum, Pisa’s Leaning Tower, St. Mark's Basilica in Venice and the Brunelleschi Dome¹³ in Florence. Today, Prime Minister Berlusconi defended the bill, saying “real students stay home to study; those demonstrating are leftist troublemakers¹⁴ and dropouts.” Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.

Wikileaks website is back up after it was attacked for the second time in two days by hackers¹⁵ who blocked access in the US and Europe. The whistle-blowing group released another batch¹⁶ of secret documents without authorization¹⁷ over the weekend.

Drugs appear to be a bigger factor in deadly auto¹⁸ accidents than initially¹⁹ thought in the US. The government says drugs were found in the system of one in five drivers killed on the road last year. Drugs were reported in nearly 4,000 drivers killed in 2009.

1 infantry   

n.[总称]步兵(部队)

参考例句：

• The infantry were equipped with flame throwers.步兵都装备有喷火器。
• We have less infantry than the enemy.我们的步兵比敌人少。

2 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

3 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 bifurcated   

a.分为两部分

参考例句：

• Over the past 15 years the marketplace for art books has bifurcated. 过去15年里，卖艺术类书籍的市场逐渐分化。
• This bifurcated view was reflected in how U.S. officials described the trip. 这种一分为二的观点也反映在美国官员自己对访华之行的描述上。

5 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

6 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

7 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

8 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

9 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

10 beset   

v.镶嵌；困扰，包围

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• The plan was beset with difficulties from the beginning.这项计划自开始就困难重重。

11 cordon   

n.警戒线，哨兵线

参考例句：

• Police officers threw a cordon around his car to protect him.警察在他汽车周围设置了防卫圈以保护他。
• There is a tight security cordon around the area.这一地区周围设有严密的安全警戒圈。

12 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

13 dome   

n.圆屋顶，拱顶

参考例句：

• The dome was supported by white marble columns.圆顶由白色大理石柱支撑着。
• They formed the dome with the tree's branches.他们用树枝搭成圆屋顶。

14 troublemakers   

n.惹是生非者，捣乱者( troublemaker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was employed to chuck out any troublemakers. 他受雇把捣乱者赶走。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She had automatically labelled the boys as troublemakers. 她不假思索地认定这些男孩子是捣蛋鬼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

16 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

17 authorization   

n.授权，委任状

参考例句：

• Anglers are required to obtain prior authorization from the park keeper.垂钓者必须事先得到公园管理者的许可。
• You cannot take a day off without authorization.未经批准你不得休假。

18 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

19 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。