英语听力精选进阶版 7422

The operators of the Japanese nuclear plants damaged in Friday's earthquake and tsunami¹ say essential cooling functions are being restored following a number of explosions and a fire which released dangerous levels of radiation. The company has now revealed that four explosions took place rather than the three reported earlier, and it's struggling to contain the most critical reactor². Chris Hogg reports from Tokyo.

Since Friday, they have been struggling to cool the fuel rods in four reactors³ at the Fukushima power plant. A series of explosions and a fire have hampered⁴ that work. For a while, dangerously high levels of radiation were emitted. They later felt levels still abnormal, but no longer a threat to human health. They are still pumping seawater through the reactors to try to stabilise them. The longer this goes on, the more chance they have of success, as over time the rods will cool. But the repeated releases of different amounts of radiation - some large, some small - are unnerving the Japanese.

Amid concerns about radiation, a number of airlines have cancelled flights to Tokyo. Austria says it's moving its embassy to Osaka, 400km southwest of Tokyo, while China is preparing to evacuate⁵ its nationals from the areas closest to the damaged nuclear plant.

The Japanese authorities are still struggling to cope with the humanitarian⁶ aftermath of Friday's earthquake and tsunami. More than half a million people are living in temporary shelters, which are short of water, food and fuel, while more freezing weather and snow is predicted for the days ahead. Nearly 3,500 people are now known to have died. Alastair Leithead has visited one of the worst affected⁷ parts of northern Japan, Minami Sanriku.

Yukio Sato is 80. He showed me where the 30m-high waves dumped debris⁸ on his back doorstep that left the family home untouched.

"It was astonishing. There used to be lots of houses down there, and they are all gone, the buildings from below washed up here."

There's little left, but roofs piled high, the wooden shards⁹ of the homes ripped up, and the odd family photo protruding¹⁰ from the mud.

European Union countries have agreed to carry out stress tests in all their nuclear power stations following the accidents at the Japanese Fukushima plant. The energy commissioner¹¹ said the tests would take place before the end of the year. Earlier, Germany said it was taking its oldest nuclear power stations offline for a three-month period, during which safety standards would be reviewed.

The Ugandan government and the Anglo-Irish oil and gas company Tullow have signed an agreement that paves the way for the construction of a $10bn oil refinery¹². Uganda gave its consent to the arrangement once Tullow agreed to pay more than $400m that the government says the company owed in taxes.

World News from the BBC

At least two people have died in Bahrain, and hundreds have been injured in clashes between pro-democracy demonstrators and security forces. Doctors appeal for international help to ensure access to the wounded. The latest violence follows the imposition of a state of emergency by Bahrain's Sunni rulers, who earlier asked for the intervention¹³ of Saudi-led forces. 

This woman from Sitra, a Shia village outside the capital Manama, told the BBC what she'd heard from there.

"Unarmed civilians¹⁴ are being attacked by live rounds, and the accents of the troops was, so we knew that these are the Saudi troops who came yesterday. They started shooting people, and the health centre now is under siege. There are around 200 wounded people there, and the doctors there want to get them treated, but the hospitals are under siege, so they can't. Even the ambulances are taken by the troops."

Rebel-held positions in Libya have come under sustained attack from land and air as pro-Gaddafi troops continue to advance eastwards¹⁵. Fighter jets bombed the outskirts¹⁶ of the town of Ajdabiya. Ian Pannell reports.

If, as it looks likely, Ajdabiya falls, it could give Colonel Gaddafi unfettered access to the main road to the border with Egypt, and that would effectively cut off Benghazi, Tobruk and many smaller towns on the northeast coast. Opposition¹⁷ fighters have shown they are woefully ill-prepared and ill-equipped to hold the advance of government troops. And unless military units that defected weeks ago now take a leading role, the 17 February revolution could be in real danger.

A judge in the United States has found a former nurse guilty of encouraging two people suffering from depression to commit suicide. William Melchert-Dinkel was accused of trawling the Internet for depressed¹⁸ people, and then entering fake suicide pacts¹⁹ or telling them how to kill themselves. He's due to be sentenced in May.

1 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

2 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

3 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。

4 hampered   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。

5 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

6 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。

7 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

8 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

9 shards   

n.（玻璃、金属或其他硬物的）尖利的碎片( shard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyewitnesses spoke of rocks and shards of glass flying in the air. 目击者称空中石块和玻璃碎片四溅。 来自辞典例句
• Ward, Josh Billings, and a host of others have survived only in scattered shards of humour. 沃德、比林斯和许多别的作家能够留传下来的只是些幽默的残章断简。 来自辞典例句

10 protruding   

v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸

参考例句：

• He hung his coat on a nail protruding from the wall. 他把上衣挂在凸出墙面的一根钉子上。
• There is a protruding shelf over a fireplace. 壁炉上方有个突出的架子。 来自辞典例句

11 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

12 refinery   

n.精炼厂，提炼厂

参考例句：

• They built a sugar refinery.他们建起了一座榨糖厂。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

13 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

14 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。

15 eastwards   

adj.向东方（的），朝东（的）；n.向东的方向

参考例句：

• The current sets strongly eastwards.急流迅猛东去。
• The Changjiang River rolls on eastwards.长江滚滚向东流。

16 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

17 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。

18 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

19 pacts   

条约( pact的名词复数 )； 协定； 公约

参考例句：

• Vassals can no longer accept one-sided defensive pacts (!). 附庸国不会接受单方面的共同防御协定。
• Well, they are EU members now and have formed solidarity pacts with members such as Poland. 他们现在已经是欧盟的一部分了并且他们和欧盟成员诸如波兰等以签署了合作协议。