NPR美国国家公共电台 NPR 2014-04-01

 Secretary of State John Kerry met withRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov today in Paris to discuss the ongoingcrisis in Ukraine. Kerry says he and his Russian counterpart agreed on findinga diplomatic solution that will meet the needs of the Ukrainian people. ButKerry said in order to move forward the Russian military must recognize onemajor concern.

"Any real progress in Ukraine mustinclude a pullback of the very large Russian force that is currently massingalong Ukraine's borders. And tonight I raised with the Foreign Minister ourstrong concern about these forces."

Earlier today Lavrov offered assurancesthat Russia has no intention of crossing Ukraine's borders.

 

 

A couple of earthquakes rattled¹ differentparts of the west over the weekend. NPR's Nason Rudd reports seismologists areseeing at least one of them as a warning.

"The magnitude 4.8 earthquake that hitthe northern part of Yellow Stone National Park earlier this morning wasn't unusual.Yellow Stone gets frequent earthquakes, so does Southern California. But themagnitude 4.1 quake that hit there Friday night is a little more troubling.Because it happened on an often forgotten fault that goes under downtown LosAngeles and Hollywood. Don Blake minister with the US geological survey. 'It'sin a very () area. And distance from the other center of a quake is quiteimportant in terms of damage,' Another quake on the same fault in 1987 killedeight people and cost more than 350 million dollars and damage. Nason Rudd, NPRNews, call for City California."

 

 

Brazilian police are occupying a vast slumarea in Rio de Janerio. NPR's Lewis Carcey in () reports it's part of thegovernment's effort to pacify² the country's crime-ridden towns ahead of thesummer's World Cup.

"The very complex of favelas in Rio isinfamous, home to 130,000 people. It borders the sea from where it gets itsname on one side and main road from Rio's international airport on the other.It's long been under the sway of gangs who patrol the streets with heavyweapons and deal drugs in broad daylight. More than 1400 police officers andmarines will enter the area. This operation is part of a wider pacificationcampaign that has been taking place in Rio over the past few years with mixedsuccess. The pacification³ police were based in some favelas are credited withbringing down violence, they are also blamed for heavy-handed tactics thatresulted in injuries and deaths of poor residence. Lewis Carcey, NPR News, SanPaulo."

 

 

A house of committee will hold a hearingTuesday on General Motor's recall of 2.6 million small cars for ignition andswitch defect linked to thirteen deaths.()by the panel today says GM discussedtwo separate fixes for a switch defect in 2005, then canceled them withouttaking action. This is NPR.

 

 

The United States and Mexico may be on theverge of a trade dispute about alleged⁴ sugar dumping from the south of theborder. US sugar producers are filing suits while the Mexican government isinsisting existing commerce agreements give them the right to export sugar on alarge scale. James Pierce reports.

"US sugar companies, burdened with arecord worldwide slumping⁵ prices and massive export surging in from Mexico,have filed losses to the US International Trade Commission and US CommerceDepartment accusing Mexican firms of being subsidized and dumping their sugar() onto the United States. Mexico's Ministry⁶ of Agriculture sticking up for ()sugar cane⁷ produced insisting that exports are in line with the accords ofNorth American Free Trade Agreement. The ITC in Commerce Department havelaunched their own separate investigations⁸. Any sanctions they impose arelikely to () some sort of reciprocal and punitive⁹ way by Mexico, From NPR News,I'm James Pierce in Mexico City."

 

 

New York Senator Chuck Schumer is callingfor a review of security at the new world trade center building. He says thefact that thrill seekers were able to gain access into the trade center when itwas under construction shows more needs to be done to secure the building.

"These most recent incidents suggesttremendous loophole in security. There have not been one but two safetybreaches at the number one terrorist target in the country"

Schumer warns the Department of HomelandSecurity to monitor the performance and training of security guards. He also warnssecurity equipment tested.

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 pacify   

vt.使(某人)平静(或息怒)；抚慰

参考例句：

• He tried to pacify the protesters with promises of reform.他试图以改革的承诺安抚抗议者。
• He tried to pacify his creditors by repaying part of the money.他为安抚债权人偿还了部分借款。

3 pacification   

n. 讲和，绥靖，平定

参考例句：

• Real pacification is hard to get in the Vietnamese countryside. 在越南的乡下真正的安宁是很难实现的。
• Real pacification is hard to get in the Vietnamese countryside(McGeorge Bundy) 在越南的乡下真正的安宁是很难实现的（麦乔治·邦迪）

4 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

5 slumping   

大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的现在分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下]

参考例句：

• Hong Kong's slumping economy also caused a rise in bankruptcy applications. 香港经济低迷，破产申请个案随之上升。
• And as with slumping, over-arching can also be a simple postural habit. 就像弯腰驼背，过度挺直也可能只是一种习惯性姿势。

6 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

7 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。

8 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

9 punitive   

adj.惩罚的，刑罚的

参考例句：

• They took punitive measures against the whole gang.他们对整帮人采取惩罚性措施。
• The punitive tariff was imposed to discourage tire imports from China.该惩罚性关税的征收是用以限制中国轮胎进口的措施。