NPR 2011-10-05

 President Obama's pitching his multi-billion-dollar jobs creation plan in Texas this day, challenging Congress's Republican leaders to put the whole package to a vote rather than focusing on sections of the legislation. He's firing back at House Republican Leader Eric Cantor, who said that as the bill stands, he won't even let it get to a vote in the House. Meanwhile, the chamber¹ is voting on a resolution to extend funding to keep the government operating for the next six weeks.

 

New Jersey² Governor Chris Christie is not running for president. NPR's Mara Liasson reports that Christie, who made the announcement just a short time ago, was literally³ begged by many Republicans to get into the race.

 

Governor Christie said he got entreaties⁴ from all over the country to run for president. But in the end, he decided⁵ that now was not his time to make a bid for the White House.

 

"In the end, the factor, the deciding factor, was it did not feel right to me in my gut⁶ to leave now when the job here is not finished, and I could never get by that."

 

Christie denied that any other considerations made a difference. But despite the hunger in the GOP for an alternative to the current field of presidential candidates, Christie may have had a hard time getting into the race so late, and his moderate views on immigration and global warming may have been a hard sell to conservative Republican primary voters. Mara Liasson, NPR News.

 

Orders of factories by businesses in the US have declined 0.2%, those numbers from August. That's according to the Commerce Department. But as Danielle Karson reports, other categories show manufacturing activity is holding steady. 

 

The headline number dropped because orders for cars and auto⁷ parts fell. But dig deeper, and the report shows businesses putting orders for more capital goods like industrial machinery⁸, communications equipment and computers. That's important because it shows companies are sticking with their expansion plans. Aaron Smith is an economist⁹ with Moody's Analytics.

 

"The numbers pretty much seal the deal. The data points to an economy that is growing not strongly. But the data should ease concern that the economy is slipping into a recession."

 

Given the well gyrations in the stock market, economists¹⁰ say investors¹¹ seem to be ignoring the positive data. One cautions "if we're not careful, we're going to talk ourselves into a recession." For NPR News, I'm Danielle Karson in Washington.

 

A tentative contract reached between Ford¹² and the United Auto Workers union this morning calls for more than 5,700 new jobs at the automaker and nearly five billion dollars in factory investments. Today, the company's Vice¹³ President of Manufacturing John Fleming did not say where people would be hired, but most of them are expected to earn entry-level pay. 

 

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 116 points, more than 1%, at 10,540.

 

You're listening to NPR News.

 

The discovery that the universe's expansion is accelerating has earned three scientists the Nobel Prize in Physics. They are Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess. Perlmutter of the University of California, Berkeley says he actually found out he was a Nobel laureate from a Swedish reporter who called before dawn this morning. Looking for reaction to the news, he and his fellow recipients¹⁴ will share a prize of 1.5 million dollars.

 

Drinking and driving leads to about 11,000 deaths per year. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the problem of adults driving after drinking too much is going down. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports there's been a 30% drop since 2006. 

 

Young men, aged¹⁵ 18 to 34, make up only about 11% of the population. But when it comes to drinking and driving, they are behind the wheel and about 1/3 of the cases, and the CDC says drunk drivers have usually had more than a few drinks. Eighty-five percent of the time, there're binge drinkers who've had four or more drinks in a night. In recent years, some states have stepped up sobriety checking points, designated driver programs and increased enforcement of the zero-tolerance laws. Another strategy: in-car breathalyzers mandated¹⁶ for drivers who've been convicted of drunk driving. The CDC says these initiatives have helped to deter¹⁷ drunk driving, though they say with 112 million episodes last year were still at risk on the roads. Allison Aubrey, NPR News, Washington.

1 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

2 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

3 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

4 entreaties   

n.恳求，乞求( entreaty的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He began with entreaties and ended with a threat. 他先是恳求，最后是威胁。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The tyrant was deaf to the entreaties of the slaves. 暴君听不到奴隶们的哀鸣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

7 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。

8 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

9 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

10 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 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

12 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

13 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

14 recipients   

adj.接受的；受领的；容纳的；愿意接受的n.收件人；接受者；受领者；接受器

参考例句：

• The recipients of the prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者的姓名登在报上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The recipients of prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者名单登在报上。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

15 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

16 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

17 deter   

vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住

参考例句：

• Failure did not deter us from trying it again.失败并没有能阻挡我们再次进行试验。
• Dogs can deter unwelcome intruders.狗能够阻拦不受欢迎的闯入者。