英国新闻听力 96

The International Monetary¹ Fund has warned that the world is facing its most severe economic downturn since the Second World War. In its latest forecast, the organization says that it expects the global growth rate to be only 0.5% this year. The IMF's Director of Research, Olivier Blanchard, expanded on the forecast.

"We expect the global economy to come to a virtual standstill in 2009. There are important differences across countries. In the advanced economies, we basically forecast the sharpest contraction²."

The IMF says a gradual recovery should start in 2010.

The International Labour Organization has meanwhile said that the downturn could result in a loss of 51 million jobs this year, and that unemployment will rise steeply even if economic stimulus³ packages work. A report also suggests many who manage to stay in work will be pushed into lower paid, less secure jobs.

The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, says industrial production, new housing projects, employment and consumer and business spending are all in steep decline in the United States. It warned that the global demand also appears to be slowing down significantly. The bank said that it was keeping interest rates at close to zero. Andrew Walker reports.

The Fed's assessment⁴ of the outlook is very downbeat. There was also an implicit⁵ acknowledgement in the Fed's statement that there's a risk of deflation or falling prices which can aggravate⁶ debt problems. The statement said that the Fed's willing to expand its program of buying financial securities including long-term government bonds. It's a very unusual policy which can help reduce a range of market interest rates for businesses and households. The approach is sometimes described as printing money, although it doesn't necessarily involve creating more hard cash, it does add to some measures of the money supply.

President Obama says businesses and workers are counting on his administration for bold and swift action to help the American economy recover. From Washington, here's Rajini Vaidyanathan.

President Obama is keen for bipartisan support for his 825-billion-dollar recovery plan. Following a meeting with business leaders, the president said he was confident that the ailing⁷ US economy could still be turned round. The president hopes his stimulus package will help do that by creating as many as four million jobs and providing long-term investment on improvements on roads, schools and electricity lines. Republican critics fear the plan would just throw money away, arguing it needs to include more tax cuts.

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2009-1-30 15:55

The Cuban leader Raul Castro has arrived in Moscow for the first such visit since the end of the Cold War. In talks with Russian leaders, Mr. Castro, who took over as president from his brother Fidel in February 2008, is expected to focus on reviving economic ties that have flagged since the collapse⁸ of the Soviet⁹ Union. The visit reciprocates¹⁰ one made by the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Havana last November.

World News from the BBC.

The Sri Lankan Defense¹¹ Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse says that there is no humanitarian¹² crisis in the north of the country where his government is carrying out a major offensive against Tamil Tigers rebels. His comments contradict statements from the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. From Colombo, Chris Morris reports.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse, a former army colonel, who's the brother of Sri Lanka's President, was defiant¹³. There is, he said, no humanitarian catastrophe¹⁴ in northern Sri Lanka. It's all propaganda and wrong information, he said, caused by pressure from the Tamil Tigers. "I'm not saying the UN and the Red Cross are lying," he continued, "but they are exaggerating." Mr. Rajapakse rejected a statement made by the ICRC that hundreds of people had been killed or injured by shellfire. "We have a policy," he declared, "of zero civilian¹⁵ casualties."

President Obama's new envoy¹⁶ to the Middle East, George Mitchell, has held talks on the prospects¹⁷ for peace in the region with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem. At a news conference afterwards, Mr. Mitchell said he and the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert discussed the critical importance of consolidating¹⁸ the ceasefire in Gaza. The Israeli military says a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip has struck southern Israel hours after Mr. Mitchell ended his talks with Israeli officials. There were no reports of casualties or damage. The strike is thought to be the first since the start of a shaky truce¹⁹ between Israel and the militant²⁰ Palestinian group Hamas ten days ago.

The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has suspended its ties with the Vatican over the decision to reinstate a conservative Catholic bishop²¹ who denies the full extent of the Nazi²² Holocaust²³. Other Jewish leaders and organizations have also criticized the lifting of the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson who denies the existence of gas chambers²⁴ and says only 300, 000 Jews were killed in the holocaust. Pope Benedict stressed his full and indisputable solidarity²⁵ with Jewish people.

1 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

2 contraction   

n.缩略词，缩写式，害病

参考例句：

• The contraction of this muscle raises the lower arm.肌肉的收缩使前臂抬起。
• The forces of expansion are balanced by forces of contraction.扩张力和收缩力相互平衡。

3 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

4 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

5 implicit   

a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的

参考例句：

• A soldier must give implicit obedience to his officers. 士兵必须绝对服从他的长官。
• Her silence gave implicit consent. 她的沉默表示默许。

6 aggravate   

vt.加重(剧)，使恶化；激怒，使恼火

参考例句：

• Threats will only aggravate her.恐吓只能激怒她。
• He would only aggravate the injury by rubbing it.他揉擦伤口只会使伤势加重。

7 ailing   

v.生病

参考例句：

• They discussed the problems ailing the steel industry. 他们讨论了困扰钢铁工业的问题。
• She looked after her ailing father. 她照顾有病的父亲。

8 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

9 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

10 reciprocates   

n.报答，酬答( reciprocate的名词复数 )；（机器的部件）直线往复运动v.报答，酬答( reciprocate的第三人称单数 )；（机器的部件）直线往复运动

参考例句：

• The engine reciprocates the propeller. 引擎往复推动螺旋桨。 来自互联网
• Terry intuitively reciprocates and becomes frustrated and conflicted by his decidedly unprofessional feelings for her. 特里也直觉地感到了这一点，而且为自己这种显然非职业的情感感到沮丧和矛盾。 来自互联网

11 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

12 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

13 defiant   

adj.无礼的，挑战的

参考例句：

• With a last defiant gesture,they sang a revolutionary song as they were led away to prison.他们被带走投入监狱时，仍以最后的反抗姿态唱起了一支革命歌曲。
• He assumed a defiant attitude toward his employer.他对雇主采取挑衅的态度。

14 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

15 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

16 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

17 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

18 consolidating   

v.（使）巩固， （使）加强( consolidate的现在分词 )；（使）合并

参考例句：

• These measures are meant for consolidating the system of basic medical care. 这些举措旨在夯实基层医疗体系，让老百姓看大病不必出远门。 来自互联网
• We are consolidating the Chinese and English versions of our homepage. 我们将为您提供中英文版本一起的主页。 来自互联网

19 truce   

n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束

参考例句：

• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
• She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。

20 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。

21 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

22 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

23 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

24 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

25 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。