英国新闻听力 101

The US Senate is debating President Obama's 800-billion-dollar economic stimulus¹ plan. Speaking before the debate, President Obama predicted a difficult next few days, but the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, Harry² Reid, said he hopes to push the measure through by Friday. From Washington, Rajini Vaidyanathan.

Speaking at the White House, President Barack Obama said politicians should not let very modest differences over the economic stimulus package for the US economy get in the way of it moving swiftly. The president has set his own deadline on it. He hopes the plan will be signed into law by the middle of February. The package has already passed the vote in the House of Representatives, but despite the president's pledge to win cross-party support for it, it failed to win the backing of Republicans. A version is now before the Senate, but some senior Republicans there have already expressed their reservations.

The Prime Minister of France, Francois Fillon, has unveiled a series of measures costing more than 33 billion dollars designed to revitalize the French economy. The plans include a thousand public projects to build new housing and invest in transport, higher education and the renovation³ of historical sites. The French government hopes the projects will create employment. Unemployment in France grew by 45,000 in December alone.

The Sri Lankan government has called on civilians⁵ trapped in territory held by the Tamil Tigers to move to a demarcated safe zone. The warning comes as Sri Lankan forces continue to put pressure on rebel fighters holding out in the gradually shrinking enclave in the north of the island. Alan Johnston reports.

The rebels have suffered a series of defeats in recent months. They are now boxed into an enclave just north of the town of Mullaittivu. There is real concern for the many tens of thousands of civilians who are also in the rebel-held territory, and the government says that they must move to what it earlier designated as a safe zone within the enclave. But aid workers say that in recent days, shells have fallen into the supposedly protected area and people have been killed there. Both the army and the rebels deny being responsible for firing into the safe zone.

Reports from Somalia say African Union soldiers have opened fire after a roadside bombing causing heavy civilian⁴ casualties. The Deputy Mayor of Mogadishu, Abdifitah Ibrahim Shaweye, has described the incident as a massacre⁶. Peter Greste reports from Nairobi.

It's hard to confirm exactly what happened in Mogadishu on Monday evening, but what is clear is that a roadside bomb exploded as a convoy⁷ of African Union peacekeepers passed by. The AU says one of its soldiers, a Ugandan, was wounded while three civilian onlookers⁸ were killed. But ambulance drivers said they transported 16 dead, many allegedly victims of indiscriminate shooting by the AU troops in response to the attack. Yet another source said as many as 39 may have died.

World News from the BBC.

The joint⁹ United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, UNAMID, has said it will not pull its soldiers out of the Sudanese town of Muhajeria despite a request from the government of Sudan. The rebel Justice and Equality Movement seized Muhajeria two weeks ago, and the government's aircraft have since raided it several times. A UNAMID spokesman said Sudan had made it clear that it intended to attack the town. News which has caused about 5,000 residents to seek protection at the UNAMID base.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the recent agreement by Zimbabwe's opposition¹⁰ leader Morgan Tsvangirai to join a coalition¹¹ government with President Robert Mugabe. But he said there was still a long way to go to restore full democracy and respect for human rights. Mr. Ban said Zimbabwe should release all political prisoners detained in recent months.

Britain is bracing¹² itself for further disruption as weather forecasters predict more snow. Many schools have said they'll remain closed on Tuesday. The heaviest snowfall to hit southern England for 18 years prevented many people travelling by air, road or rail. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said the capital was not equipped to deal with such extreme weather. Rob Broomby reports.

Why wasn't Britain better prepared? Well, truly icy conditions are rare indeed, even the mayor of London admitted it was hardly worth investing in more snowy equipment, plows¹³ and the like for them to stand idle for decades after. There is nothing inherently incompetent¹⁴ about the British reaction, but clearly funding choices have been made which affect how we all cope in extremity¹⁵.

A US soldier said guesswork and calmness helped him to survive his first ever skydiving jump when the instructor¹⁶ he was tethered to died from a heart attack. Daniel Pharr used the knowledge he had gleaned¹⁷ from watching parachuting on television to steer¹⁸ himself to safety. He said he knew something was wrong when the instructor stopped answering his questions after he had jumped from more than 4,000 metres.

1 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。

2 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

3 renovation   

n.革新，整修

参考例句：

• The cinema will reopen next week after the renovation.电影院修缮后，将于下星期开业。
• The building has undergone major renovation.这座大楼已进行大整修。

4 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。

5 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。

6 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

7 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

8 onlookers   

n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A crowd of onlookers gathered at the scene of the crash. 在撞车地点聚集了一大群围观者。
• The onlookers stood at a respectful distance. 旁观者站在一定的距离之外，以示尊敬。

9 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

10 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。

11 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。

12 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

13 plows   

n.犁( plow的名词复数 )；犁型铲雪机v.耕( plow的第三人称单数 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• Alex and Tony were turning awkward hands to plows and hoe handles. 亚历克斯和托尼在犁耙等农活方面都几乎变成新手了。
• Plows are still pulled by oxen in some countries. 在一些国家犁头仍由牛拖拉。

14 incompetent   

adj.无能力的，不能胜任的

参考例句：

• He is utterly incompetent at his job.他完全不能胜任他的工作。
• He is incompetent at working with his hands.他动手能力不行。

15 extremity   

n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度

参考例句：

• I hope you will help them in their extremity.我希望你能帮助在穷途末路的他们。
• What shall we do in this extremity?在这种极其困难的情况下我们该怎么办呢？

16 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

17 gleaned   

v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗

参考例句：

• These figures have been gleaned from a number of studies. 这些数据是通过多次研究收集得来的。
• A valuable lesson may be gleaned from it by those who have eyes to see. 明眼人可从中记取宝贵的教训。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

18 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。