NPR美国国家公共电台 2013-04-23

　　From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

 

　　Exactly, one week after the terrorist attack during the Boston Marathon, bells tolled¹ across the commonwealth² of Massachusetts. Just before that, the state came to a standstill for about a minute. At 2:50pm eastern when the first of two bombs exploded during one of the world's premier³ sporting events and horrified⁴ many around the globe.

 

　　One bell rang out in Medford Massachusetts Krystle Campbell, the 29-year-old restaurant manager killed at the Marathon, where she was cheering on a friend. The attack also took the lives of an eight-year-old boy and a 23-year-old graduate student from China. A memorial service reportedly will be held tonight at Boston University for Lingzi Lu.

 

　　The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has been charged by federal authorities with using a weapon of mass destruction resulting in the deaths of three people. Nineteen-year-old  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arraigned⁵ at his bedside in a Boston hospital where he has been treated for gunshot wounds. NPR's Craig Windham reports the Justice Department says Tsarnaev could face the death penalty if convicted.

 

　　Tsarnaev is a naturalized U.S. citizen so White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says he  can not be tried by a military commission as several congressional Republicans have suggested.

 

　　It comes to United States citizens, it's against the law to try them in military commissions.

 

　　Carney says Tsarnaev will be prosecuted⁶ in federal court.

 

　　Since 9/11 we have used the federal court system to convict and incarcerate⁷ hundreds of terrorists.

 

　　Carney says President Obama is being kept up today on the progress of the probe into the Boston bombings. But Carney would not say what if anything Tsarnaev may be communicating to investigators⁸. Craig Windham, NPR News, Washington.

 

　　Halliburton says it's close to reaching an out court settlement with private oil spill victims. NPR's Debbie Elliott says the contractors¹⁰ involved in a complex trial over who is responsible for the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

 

　　Halliburton was the cement contractor⁹ for BP on the deep water horizon drilling rig that exploded three years ago, killing¹¹ 11 workers and spilling more than four million barrels of oil into the Gulf¹² of Mexico. The two companies have blamed the other for a bad cement job that failed to plug the well. Halliburton says it has participated in court facilitated settlement discussions to resolve a substantial portion of private claims. Talks that chief financial officer Mark McCollum said are at an advanced stage during a conference call with investors¹³. BP has reached a multi-billion dollar deal with private plaintiffs. Both companies are also defending civil claims from the U.S. Justice Department and Gulf Coast states. Debbie Elliott, NPR News.

 

　　Dow is up 26 points.

 

　　This is NPR News.

 

　　Drivers are paying less for gas these days after the price of oil dropped sharply this month. Oil has fallen about 9% in the past three weeks to $ 88 a barrel that helped keep gasoline prices lower. So people were paying an average of  $3.51 for a gallon of regular. Analysts¹⁴ predict pump prices could fall another 20 cents over the next two months.

 

　　Passengers are already feeling the impact of furloughs that affected¹⁵ the Federal Aviation Administration. There are reports of at least two-hour flight delays due to staff shortages. At some airports, tens of thousands of workers are required to take a certain number of days off without pay under the government's automatic spending cuts.

 

　　An award winning children's author has died. E.L. Konigsburg won the Newbery award, the most prestigious¹⁶ children's book award not once but twice. NPR's Lynn Neary has this remembrance.

 

　　E.L. Konigsburg set out to be a chemist, because she said in the small town where she grew up, people didn't go to college to be an artist. She got a degree in chemistry and taught science at a private girl school. But once her own children were in school, she began to write. Konigsburg says she wanted to write something that reflected her kids growing up because when she was growing up, none of the book she read reflected her. In 1968, her book  From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the Newbery award.  Ingrid Bergman played Mr.s Frankweiler in a 1973 film based on the book. In 1997, Konigsburg won a second Newbery for the View from Saturday. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

 

　　U.S. stocks trading higher with the Dow up 28 points at last glance at 14,576. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.

1 tolled   

鸣钟（toll的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Bells were tolled all over the country at the King's death. 全国为国王之死而鸣钟。
• The church bell tolled the hour. 教堂的钟声报时。

2 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

3 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

4 horrified   

a.(表现出)恐惧的

参考例句：

• The whole country was horrified by the killings. 全国都对这些凶杀案感到大为震惊。
• We were horrified at the conditions prevailing in local prisons. 地方监狱的普遍状况让我们震惊。

5 arraigned   

v.告发( arraign的过去式和过去分词 )；控告；传讯；指责

参考例句：

• He was arraigned for murder. 他因谋杀罪而被提讯。
• She was arraigned for high treason. 她被控叛国罪。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

7 incarcerate   

v.监禁，禁闭

参考例句：

• Why do you incarcerate yourself in the room every afternoon?你为何每天下午将自己关在房间里？
• Many people think that it is wrong to incarcerate criminals in confined quarters for as long as thirty years.很多人认为把罪犯监禁在禁闭营里达30年之久是不对的。

8 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 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。

10 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

12 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

13 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

14 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

15 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

16 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。