英国新闻听力 97

BBC News with David Austin.

The World Food Program has warned that more than half the population of Zimbabwe, seven million people, may need food aid to survive the coming months. The government has meanwhile announced that it's allowing people to use foreign currencies including the South African rand and US dollar. From our African desk, here’s James Reed.

Zimbabwe’s government has finally recognized what its people have known for years. Soaring hyperinflation has rendered the Zimbabwean dollar worthless. Banknotes printed in ever high denomination¹ lose their value almost as soon as they’re issued, leaving workers unable to feed their families. The World Food Program says well over half Zimbabwe’s population is now dependent on food aid. The finance minister said civil servants would now be paid part of their salaries in foreign currency previously² illegal for most people but the only way to buy basic goods.

The Sri Lankan military says it’s continued its advance into the northwestern territory held by the Tamil Tigers, the LTTE, capturing several rebel bases. A BBC correspondent who travelled to the area says many civilians³ have fled because of the violence, leaving behind abandoned villages and farms. A United Nations spokesman Gordon Weiss said his staff had seen dozens of dead bodies. He said both sides were failing to protect civilians.

The government has played this out in the preceding months of combat by making sure that civilians were being pushed back away from the lines of fighting. Unfortunately, the territory has shrunk to such an extent, but that seems to be no longer possible. So you've got a lot LTTE fighters intermingled with the population. It’s really on the shoulders of the war in parties to sort out their combat operations, so that civilians are not killed, are not wounded which they are being at the moment.

President Barack Obama has reacted angrily to reports that executives at American banks and other financial institutions awarded themselves 18 billion dollars in bonuses last year. Mr. Obama said the bonuses were shameful⁵ and highly irresponsible at a time when huge amounts of taxpayers’ money was being spent on supporting the ailing⁴ financial service industry.

President Obama has signed his first bill into law. It’s on pay discrimination and abolishes a time-limit on bringing legal actions in such cases. The change was prompted by the 10-year legal battle of a woman who worked for nearly two decades before discovering that her employer was paying her less than her male colleagues. Mr. Obama said it was fitting that the first bill he signed upheld the principle that everyone is created equal.

I sign this bill for my daughters, and all those who will come after us, because I want them to grow up in a nation that values their contributions where there are no limits to their dreams, and they have opportunities their mothers and grandmothers never could have imagined.

The voice of President Obama.

This is the World News from the BBC.

The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, who’s accused of trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama has begged state senators to let him keep his job. He told an impeachment⁶ hearing that he was innocent and wanted to bring in witnesses to prove it. The senators are expected to vote today on whether Mr. Blagojevich should be removed from office.

Five left-wing Latin-American presidents have joined thousands of social activists⁷ in the Brazilian city of Belem at the World Social Forum⁸, which the organizers described as an alternative to the World Economic Forum in Davos. The Ecuadorian President, Rafael Correa, said the collapse⁹ of global capitalism¹⁰ made the moment right for the activists to present alternatives to what he described as the perverse¹¹ neo-liberal system. He took the crowd by surprise when he began singing a popular song honoring the left-wing revolutionary Che Guevara.

An investigation¹² into the circumstances of the death of General W?adys?aw Sikorski, the exiled Polish wartime leader who died in 1943, has said there is no evidence he was murdered before his plane crashed into the sea. The Polish authorities exhumed¹³ General Sikorski’s body two months ago. Dr. Tomasz Konopka said General Sikorski’s injures were typical of transport accidents.

The death of W?adys?aw Sikorski happened because of multiple organ trauma¹⁴ of considerable energy. This was the result of the plane crash. The results of post-mortem examination mean we can reject other causes of the death, such as sudden suffocation¹⁵.

There’s been an angry exchange between the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Israeli President Shimon Peres at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos. Mr. Erdogan stormed out after an impassioned debate on the crises in Gaza, having accused Israel of barbarism there.

And those are the latest stories from BBC News.

1 denomination   

n.命名，取名，(度量衡、货币等的)单位

参考例句：

• The firm is still operating under another denomination.这家公司改用了名称仍在继续营业。
• Litre is a metric denomination.升是公制单位。

2 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

3 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

4 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。

5 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。

6 impeachment   

n.弹劾；控告；怀疑

参考例句：

• Impeachment is considered a drastic measure in the United States.在美国，弹劾被视为一种非常激烈的措施。
• The verdict resulting from his impeachment destroyed his political career.他遭弹劾后得到的判决毁了他的政治生涯。

7 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

9 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。

10 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

11 perverse   

adj.刚愎的；坚持错误的，行为反常的

参考例句：

• It would be perverse to stop this healthy trend.阻止这种健康发展的趋势是没有道理的。
• She gets a perverse satisfaction from making other people embarrassed.她有一种不正常的心态，以使别人难堪来取乐。

12 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

13 exhumed   

v.挖出，发掘出( exhume的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Marie Curie's remains were exhumed and interred in the Pantheon. 玛丽·居里的遗体被移出葬在先贤祠中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His remains have been exhumed from a cemetery in Queens, New York City. 他的遗体被从纽约市皇后区的墓地里挖了出来。 来自辞典例句

14 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

15 suffocation   

n.窒息

参考例句：

• The greatest dangers of pyroclastic avalanches are probably heat and suffocation. 火成碎屑崩落的最大危害可能是炽热和窒息作用。 来自辞典例句
• The room was hot to suffocation. 房间热得闷人。 来自辞典例句