英国新闻听力 91

BBC News with Marian Marshall.

The full scale of the destruction in Gaza from Israel's three-week offensive is becoming clear as Israeli troops withdraw following a ceasefire. Aid agencies have described the worst-hit areas as looking as if they’ve been hit by a strong earthquake. With tens of thousands of Palestinians made homeless, the UN has urged construction materials to be allowed in without delay. Christian¹ Fraser has been in Gaza City.

The Palestinians are counting the true cost of this war, and in Jabaliya on the northern edge of Gaza City, they've paid the heaviest price. This was where the Israeli tanks first crossed the border. Entire neighborhoods have disappeared. 67-year-old Fatma Umanim sat beside the remains² of her collapsed³ house., once again she is destitute⁴. Her neighbors are building a makeshift shelter next to the rubble⁵, there is a body still buried somewhere beneath it. Fatma refuses to leave. “I am not moving another inch for the Israelis,” she shouts defiantly⁶.

On the eve of his inauguration⁷, Barack Obama has evoked⁸ the spirit of Martin Luther King, the assassinated⁹ civil rights leader, who is being honored in a national public holiday. The president-elect spent part of the day visiting an emergency shelter for the homeless. He appealed to Americans to pull together to deal with the serious challenges the nation faces.

But don't underestimate the power for people who join together to accomplish amazing things. And given the crisis that we’re in we can't allow any idle hands, everybody's got to be involved, everybody is gonna have to pitch in.

In the final hours of his presidency¹⁰, George Bush has commuted¹¹ the prison sentences of two United States Border Patrol agents jailed for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler¹². Their convictions and sentences of more than ten years angered supporters who said that they’ve simply been doing their job. Mr. Bush stopped short of issuing pardons. It’s expected the men will be released in March.

A prominent Russian lawyer has been shot dead by a unknown gunman on a Moscow street. The lawyer was Stanislav Markelov, who'd fought unsuccessfully to prevent the early release from jail of a Russian army officer convicted of strangling a young Chechen woman. A woman journalist, Anastasia Baburova, who was with him and tried to intervene, was seriously injured and died later in hospital. James Rodgers reports.

Russian news agencies quote law enforcement sources as saying that Stanislav Markelov was shot in the head with a pistol with a silencer. Mr. Markelov was a lawyer. He was a well-known figure and famously represented the family of Kheda Kungayeva, a young Chechen woman who was killed in the year 2000 by a Russian army officer. The officer, Colonel Yuri Budanov, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the killing¹³. Mr. Markelov had opposed Colonel Budanov's early release. At the time of his death, Mr. Markelov was also involved in a case of a newspaper editor who was severely¹⁴ beaten by unknown assailants.

World News from the BBC.

The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says he's ordered the state gas company to resume supplies to the rest of Europe through Ukraine. He was speaking in Moscow immediately after officials from Gazprom and its Ukrainian equivalent Naftogaz signed an agreement to end a pricing dispute which has caused serious gas shortages in Central and Eastern Europe.

A public inquiry¹⁵ has begun in Canada to the case of a man who died on an airport floor after police officers used a Taser electric stun¹⁶ gun on him. Robert Gcamsy, a 40-year-old Polish immigrant, had been lost in Vancouver airport for 10 hours when he was confronted by four police officers in 2007.

The party of the former left-wing guerillas in El salvador appears to be heading to victory in Sunday’s congressional election for the first time since the end of the country’s bloody¹⁷ civil war in 1992. With almost 70% of votes counted, the FMLN has a nine-point lead over the governing conservative Arena¹⁸ party. However, correspondents say that neither party will gain enough seats to secure an outright¹⁹ majority in the national assembly. Greg Morsbach reports.

Despite this mixed bag of results, the leftist politicians are now confident they can sweep to victory in presidential poll scheduled for the 15th of March. The leader of the FMLN, charismatic former CNN journalist Mauricio Funes, seems to have strengthened his party ahead of this crucial polls. He’s persuaded many voters that he is in charge of the center-left party willing to work with Washington despite allegations he’ll turn the country into a satellite of socialist²⁰ Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

A court in the Rwandan capital Kigali has sentenced the former Justice Minister Agnes Ntamabyariro to life imprisonment²¹ for her part in the genocide in 1994. The court convicted her of conspiracy²² to plan the genocide and delivering speeches that incited²³ people to take part in it.

BBC News.

pull together: If people pull together, they help each other or work together in order to deal with a difficult situation.

pitch in: If you pitch in, you join with an activity.

stop short of doing sth. : to almost do something but then decide not to do it.

mixed bag: If you describe a situation or a group of things or people as a mixed bag, you mean that it contains some good items, features, or people and some bad ones.

1 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。

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 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

4 destitute   

adj.缺乏的；穷困的

参考例句：

• They were destitute of necessaries of life.他们缺少生活必需品。
• They are destitute of common sense.他们缺乏常识。

5 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。

6 defiantly   

adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地

参考例句：

• Braving snow and frost, the plum trees blossomed defiantly. 红梅傲雪凌霜开。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 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。

8 evoked   

[医]诱发的

参考例句：

• The music evoked memories of her youth. 这乐曲勾起了她对青年时代的回忆。
• Her face, though sad, still evoked a feeling of serenity. 她的脸色虽然悲伤，但仍使人感觉安详。

9 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

10 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

11 commuted   

通勤( commute的过去式和过去分词 )； 减（刑）； 代偿

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment. 他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• The death sentence may be commuted to life imprisonment. 死刑可能減为无期徒刑。

12 smuggler   

n.走私者

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight, awaiting extradition to Britain. 这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• The smuggler was finally obliged to inform against his boss. 那个走私犯最后不得不告发他的首领。

13 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。

14 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

15 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

16 stun   

vt.打昏，使昏迷，使震惊，使惊叹

参考例句：

• When they told me she had gone missing I was totally stunned.他们告诉我她不见了时，我当时完全惊呆了。
• Sam stood his ground and got a blow that stunned him.萨姆站在原地，被一下打昏了。

17 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。

18 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。

19 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

20 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

21 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

22 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

23 incited   

刺激，激励，煽动( incite的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He incited people to rise up against the government. 他煽动人们起来反对政府。
• The captain's example incited the men to bravery. 船长的榜样激发了水手们的勇敢精神。