NPR 2011-06-27

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone.

The Souris River is cresting¹ in Minot, North Dakota even as thousands struggle with the impact of the surging river water. In Sawyer, North Dakota, restaurant owner Connie Arnhold says that she's doing everything she can to protect her business.

"I have two daughters that live in Minot with my grandchildren and their husbands. Both of their houses are gone. It is up to their roof, and other thousands of others' homes as well. So it is very very scary."

Restaurant owner Connie Arnhold.

National Weather Service meteorologist Ken³ Simosko says that the weather will probably cooperate as the region hopes for a retreat of the river.

"There will be improving weather and improving stages, but we're still above the record stage and above major stage, and that's going to continue for the forseeable future, probably for a couple weeks."

The river has damaged thousands of homes.

Vice² President Biden told Ohio Democrats⁴ this weekend that the Obama administration will not agree to spending cuts that would make middle-class America "carry the whole burden of deficit⁵ reduction."

"They're just straight up telling the American people. They're not pretending to cut taxes of the middle-class. They're not pretending to preserve Medicare."

On Fox News Sunday, No.2 Senate Republican Jon Kyl said that in budget talks the GOP will not give in to higher taxes.

"It you want to kill the economy, raise taxes. Are we going to vote to absolutely put another anchor around the neck of the economy, which is struggling to try to recover here. Absolutely not."

President Obama is taking over Washington's stalled budget talks with a White House meeting with Senate leaders tomorrow.

Minnesota's Democratic governor and Republican legislative⁶ leaders are holding another day of talks this afternoon in an attempt to resolve a budget stalemate. Minnesota Public Radio's Matt Sepic has more.

Governor Mark Dayton and Republicans who control the legislature have been at odds⁷ for months over how to close an estimated five-billion-dollar gap in Minnesota's two-year budget. The governor wants to raise income taxes on top earners. Republicans say they can erase⁸ the deficit just by cutting spending. If there's no deal by Friday, nearly all state services would cease, state parks would close, so would many daycare centers that get public money and 36000 state workers would be laid off. State government shut down once before in 2005, and at that time Minnesota prisons, police and other services deemed essential to public safety continued operating. That scenario⁹ is likely if there's another shutdown. For NPR News, I'm Matt Sepic in St. Paul.

The latest victim of insurgent¹⁰ violence in Afghanistan is an eight-year-old girl. Security officials there say insurgents¹¹ gave the child a bomb concealed¹² in a bag and told her to take it to police forces. Authorities say the insurgents detonated the bomb as the girl approached police. She was killed.

This is NPR.

The Syrian army is in control in Jisr al-Shughour after violent clashes with anti-government protesters. The Syrian government and the opposition¹³ are trading charges about brutality¹⁴. NPR's Deborah Amos has more.

The Syrian government invited a small group of journalists in. They have a story that they want to tell, which is they say that there was a group of armed men who opened fire, who were trying to take over this town. That's why they blocked us to get to Jisr al-Shughour, and they're bringing us to buildings that had been burned. It's still conflicted to tell. The military spokesman today told us that there were no peaceful protesters, while the mayor here told us that there was, but they were infiltrated¹⁵ by armed gunmen. The Syrian government has been trying to tell the story for a while. We are the third who have come up in Jisr al-Shughour to look at the buildings, to talk to people here and, as Syrians said, to tell their side of the story.

NPR's Deborah Amos in Syria.

In New York, a huge turnout for the Gay Pride parade. NPR's Margot Adler says it's become a celebration of the state's new same-sex marriage law.

Before the parade started, Governor Cuomo talked a lot about sort of the same thing he said when the bill first passed basically that this was part of a long progressive tradition in New York. That had to do with, you know, feminism and had to do with the beginning of the union movement, and this was all of a part.

NPR's Margot Adler.

I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington.

1 cresting   

n.顶饰v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的现在分词 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点

参考例句：

• The old man stood with his back to the fire, cresting up erect. 老人背火昂然而立。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Various shapes of returns like triangular, semi-circular are available for cresting your own office. 极富创意的办公桌，有着不同形装如三角形、半圆形、曲尺形及四边形，以创造您个人品位的办公室。 来自互联网

2 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。

3 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

4 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》

5 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

6 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

7 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

8 erase   

v.擦掉；消除某事物的痕迹

参考例句：

• He tried to erase the idea from his mind.他试图从头脑中抹掉这个想法。
• Please erase my name from the list.请把我的名字从名单上擦去。

9 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

10 insurgent   

adj.叛乱的，起事的；n.叛乱分子

参考例句：

• Faruk says they are threatened both by insurgent and government forces.法鲁克说，他们受到暴乱分子和政府军队的双重威胁。
• The insurgent mob assembled at the gate of the city park.叛变的暴徒聚在市立公园的门口。

11 insurgents   

n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The regular troops of Baden joined the insurgents. 巴登的正规军参加到起义军方面来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Against the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents, these problems are manageable. 要对付塔利班与伊拉克叛乱分子，这些问题还是可以把握住的。 来自互联网

12 concealed   

a.隐藏的，隐蔽的

参考例句：

• The paintings were concealed beneath a thick layer of plaster. 那些画被隐藏在厚厚的灰泥层下面。
• I think he had a gun concealed about his person. 我认为他当时身上藏有一支枪。

13 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。

14 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

15 infiltrated   

adj.[医]浸润的v.（使）渗透，（指思想）渗入人的心中( infiltrate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The headquarters had been infiltrated by enemy spies. 总部混入了敌方特务。
• Many Chinese idioms have infiltrated into the Japanese language. 许多中国成语浸透到日语中。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》