英国新闻听力 102

President Barack Obama’s nominee¹ as the new US Secretary of Health, Tom Daschle, has withdrawn² from the post because of problems with his taxes. On Friday, it was disclosed that he had failed to pay more than 100,000 dollars of tax. President Obama said he was accepting Mr. Daschle’s withdrawal³ with sadness and regret. The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Mr. Daschle didn’t want to distract from President Obama’s agenda for the country.

We are at a critical juncture⁴ in our nation’s history and a crossroads economically, and the president has a robust⁵ agenda to deal with many of those problems. As Senator Daschle said in the statement that we released, and told the president on the phone, that he did not want to be a distraction⁶ to that agenda.

Earlier, another Obama nominee, Nancy Killefer, withdrew her candidacy also because of tax irregularities.

The President of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, has announced that his government has decided⁷ to close an American airbase on its territory. Mr. Bakiyev made the announcement in Moscow after Russia promised Kyrgyzstan more than two billion dollars in loans. Richard Galpin reports.

The closure of the base would be a big blow for continuing American and NATO military operations in Afghanistan. It’s the Americans’ only base in central Asia, and its closure will come at a critical moment, just as the new administration in Washington plans a sharp increase in the number of US troops on the ground in Afghanistan. For Russia on the other hand, it’s a significant diplomatic victory as it seeks to reassert its influence in all the former states of the Soviet⁸ Union and beyond.

Sri Lanka’s key international donors⁹, the United States, Japan, Norway and the European Union have called on the Tamil Tiger rebels to consider laying down their arms to avoid more civilian¹⁰ casualties. The donors said the Tigers should renounce¹¹ violence and return to politics to find a solution to the conflict. Earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Sri Lanka said a hospital in rebel-held territory had been hit by shells for a fifth time. A government spokesman Lakshman Hulugalle told the BBC that security forces weren't responsible for the incident.

I have to say on behalf of the government that it’s totally now, there was no attack to the hospital. And we are not, we are very disciplined, we are not at any time, we don’t attack any hospitals as we are not targeting the civilians¹².

There has been no comment from the rebel Tamil Tigers.

A city mayor in Madagascar who's been trying to oust¹³ the president has been sacked by the government. Andry Rajoelina, who is mayor of the capital Antananarivo, says he will contest the dismissal. The constitutional court has refused to consider his petition to impeach¹⁴ President Marc Ravalomanana. The mayor began his campaign to wrest¹⁵ control from the president last week after anti-government protests turned into riots in which dozens of people were killed.

World News from the BBC.

The Iraqi authorities say they have arrested a senior female militant¹⁶ allegedly behind the recruitment of a number of women suicide bombers¹⁷. Militant groups in Iraq have increasingly used women to carry out suicide attacks. Jim Muir in Baghdad has more.

An Iraqi security spokesman said the woman, named as Samira Jassim, was detained last month. In a poor quality video recording¹⁸ shown to journalists, she confessed to having recruited as many as 80 women from different parts of the country, and prepared them as suicide bombers. At least 28 of them subsequently carried out attacks in Baghdad and Diyala province with Samira Jassim directing them towards their targets. American military officials meanwhile said that in the three days preceding last Saturday’s provincial¹⁹ elections, a number of suspected would-be suicide bombers were arrested.

The left-wing Colombian rebel group FARC has released a former provincial governor held hostage for more than seven years. The politician Alan Jara was handed over to a humanitarian²⁰ commission headed by the International Red Cross. He is one of six hostages that the FARC announced in December it was preparing to release. Four were freed on Sunday. A politician who has been involved in hostage negotiations²¹ with the FARC, Senator Piedad Cordoba, said Mr. Jara’s release gave her hope for peace in the country.

It is a message of total optimism and enthusiasm. What the world must know is that this is a starting point for a work on the peace process in Colombia, and a negotiated exit policy to the conflict. The war in this country will definitely come to an end.

At least 11 countries from three continents have expressed an initial interest in staging the 2018 and 2022 football World Cups. In a break with tradition, FIFA will select the hosts for both tournaments at the same time. One of the early favourites is England who last staged the tournament in 1966.

1 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

2 withdrawn   

vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出

参考例句：

• Our force has been withdrawn from the danger area.我们的军队已从危险地区撤出。
• All foreign troops should be withdrawn to their own countries.一切外国军队都应撤回本国去。

3 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

4 juncture   

n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头

参考例句：

• The project is situated at the juncture of the new and old urban districts.该项目位于新老城区交界处。
• It is very difficult at this juncture to predict the company's future.此时很难预料公司的前景。

5 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

6 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 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。

9 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 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。

11 renounce   

v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系

参考例句：

• She decided to renounce the world and enter a convent.她决定弃绝尘世去当修女。
• It was painful for him to renounce his son.宣布与儿子脱离关系对他来说是很痛苦的。

12 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。

13 oust   

vt.剥夺，取代，驱逐

参考例句：

• The committee wanted to oust him from the union.委员会想把他从工会中驱逐出去。
• The leaders have been ousted from power by nationalists.这些领导人被民族主义者赶下了台。

14 impeach   

v.弹劾；检举

参考例句：

• We must impeach the judge for taking bribes.我们一定要检举法官收受贿赂。
• The committee decided to impeach the President.委员会决定弹劾总统。

15 wrest   

n.扭，拧，猛夺；v.夺取，猛扭，歪曲

参考例句：

• The officer managed to wrest the gun from his grasp.警官最终把枪从他手中夺走了。
• You wrest my words out of their real meaning.你曲解了我话里的真正含义。

16 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。

17 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

19 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。

20 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。

21 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。