英国新闻听力 90

BBC with Ian Perten.

The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that Israel is not interested in remaining in Gaza and wants its troops out as quickly as possible. He was speaking a day after Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, and just hours after Hamas said its fighters and other Palestinian militant¹ groups would also hold their fire. Adam Mynott reports from Jerusalem.

Surrounded by an array of European political leaders, some of whom were highly critical of Israel’s tactics in a conflict with Hamas, the Israeli prime minister said his country’s troops would leave Gaza as soon as possible. The European leaders have travelled to Israel to lend their support to the ceasefires announced by the Hamas and Israel. They’ve urged Israel to open the border crossing points between Israel and the Gaza Strip. They have also stressed that it’s important to capitalize on the developments of the past 24 hours to reinvigorate / the peace progress between / Israel and the Palestinians and put in place an enduring two-state solution.

In a televised speech, the top Hamas leader in Gaza Ismail Haniya has said that the Palestinian people had won a great victory over Israel. He said Israel’s three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip had not cowed the Palestinians. The ceasefire in Gaza remains² fragile. Palestinian militants³ fired about twenty rockets over the border after the Israeli ceasefire announcement, and Israel responded with an air attack. Doctors say / the bodies of 95 people have been recovered from the rubble⁴. Thousands of Palestinians who fled their homes during the Israeli offensive have been returning from shelters and trying to recover their possessions. Our correspondent Christian⁵ Fraser is in the town of Rafa.

Life has returned to Rafa today. The market was opened for the first time in three weeks, and it was busy. Few would dare to leave their houses such was the intensity⁶ of the bombardment. Old friends and relatives hugged in the street. For others, it was a time to go home. 40,000 people left their houses close to the border, and many returned today to pick through the pieces. Desolation, I mean, devastation⁷.

The United States President-elect Barack Obama has told a crowd of tens of thousands at a concert in Washington that an enormous task lies ahead for America. The concert was the beginning of three days of festivities leading up to Obama’s inauguration⁸ on Tuesday. He said that with his nation/ at war and the economy in crisis, there were bound to be setbacks and false starts in the coming months. But he said his greatest hope was that the people of America/ who want a change could bring that change about.

“There is no doubt that our road will be long, that our climb will be steep, but never forget that the ture character of our nation is revealed not during times of comfort and ease, but by the right we do when the moment is hard . I ask you to help reveal the character once more.”

World News from the BBC.

Researchers say / they’ve found evidence that tens of millions of people from South Asia are almost guaranteed to suffer heart disease because of a single gene¹⁰ mutation¹¹ that affects 4% of the region’s people. The researchers say this mutated gene has been found at roughly similar frequencies in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Once people who have the mutation reach late middle age, their chance of developing heart disease rises dramatically, reaching up to 90%.

A senior Sunni politician has been killed in a suicide bombing in northern Iraq. Hassan Zaidan al-Luhaibi, the vice¹² president of the Sunni National Dialogue bloc¹³, was killed at a campaign meeting south of the city of Mosul. From Baghdad, Jonny Dymond reports.

Accounts of how Hassan Zaidan al-Luhaibi’s killer¹⁴ got into the campaign meeting differ, but his death has been confirmed by the police and the leader of his political party. As well as being a member of the national parliament and the deputy leader of the National Dialogue bloc, Mr. al-Luhaibi was a candidate in the forthcoming provincial¹⁵ elections. The National Dialogue bloc is one of the largest groups in the Iraqi Parliament Sunni Muslim Accordance Front . An eyewitness¹⁶ has also told the BBC that four local leaders were killed in the attack, but that’s not being confirmed by the police.

First indications from the local elections in the German state of Hesse suggest that the opposition¹⁷ Social Democrats¹⁸ have suffered a big setback⁹. Exit Polls indicate / the governing Christian Democrats look set to retain control of the state assembly in a coalition¹⁹ with the Free Democrats.

Voting is underway in El Salvador in local and parliamentary elections. Opinion Polls indicate that the party of the former left-wing guerilla could be poised²⁰ to win its biggest electoral successes since the end of El Salvador’s bloody²¹ civil war 17 years ago. The former guerrilla's party, the FMLN, is ahead of the president’s right-wing Arena²² party in the polls.

1 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

2 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

3 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

4 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

5 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

6 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

7 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

9 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

10 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

11 mutation   

n.变化，变异，转变

参考例句：

• People who have this mutation need less sleep than others.有这种突变的人需要的睡眠比其他人少。
• So far the discussion has centered entirely around mutation in the strict sense.到目前为止，严格来讲，讨论完全集中于围绕突变问题上。

12 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。

13 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

14 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

15 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

16 eyewitness   

n.目击者，见证人

参考例句：

• The police questioned several eyewitness to the murder.警察询问了谋杀案的几位目击者。
• He was the only eyewitness of the robbery.他是那起抢劫案的唯一目击者。

17 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。

18 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》

19 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

20 poised   

a.摆好姿势不动的

参考例句：

• The hawk poised in mid-air ready to swoop. 老鹰在半空中盘旋，准备俯冲。
• Tina was tense, her hand poised over the telephone. 蒂娜心情紧张，手悬在电话机上。

21 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

22 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。