英语听力精选进阶版 7491

United Nations investigators¹ have accused government forces in Libya of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The UN mission said Libyan opposition² forces were also guilty of abuses. Imogen Foulkes sent this report from Geneva.

The 90-page report is most critical of Libyan government forces who, the investigators say, have committed acts including murder, torture and forced disappearance³ and indiscriminate attacks on civilians⁴. What's more, it continues, the consistent pattern of violation⁵ suggests they were planned and ordered by Muammar Gaddafi and members of his regime. But the report also raises concerns about Libya's opposition forces, saying that acts of torture and cruel treatment, while not as numerous as the abuses carried out by government troops, would also constitute war crimes.

The Syrian authorities have announced a full inquiry⁶ into the death of a 13-year-old boy who has become a symbol of the continuing uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. The move follows international outrage⁷ after video footage apparently⁸ of the boy's body appeared on the Internet. Jim Muir reports from Beirut.

The boy went missing after a demonstration⁹ at an army barracks near Deraa in the south at the end of April, where there were shooting and deaths. Activists¹⁰ say Hamza was captured and tortured to death and that his mutilated body was handed back to his family four weeks later. The official version is that he received three fatal gunshot wounds during the incident and died on the spot, and that there was a delay in handing over his body because he was not identified. Nonetheless, Hamza's death has become a cause celebre. It's taken off in the media both inside and outside the country, and the regime is now scrambling¹¹ to minimise the damage.

Sepp Blatter has been re-elected unopposed for another four years as president of football's world governing body Fifa. The vote went ahead despite efforts by the English Football Association to force a postponement¹² over allegations of corruption¹³. Alex Capstick is in Zurich.

It was an overwhelming show of confidence in Sepp Blatter. Fifa has been ravaged¹⁴ by a swirl¹⁵ of corruption scandals. But its members, the 208 national associations, have decided¹⁶ to stick with the man who has led football's world governing body for the last 13 years. Earlier in the day, he promised a series of reforms designed to make the organisation¹⁷ more transparent¹⁸. 

One of them was a change to the way World Cup hosts are decided. In the future, they will be chosen by the entire membership rather than the 24-man ruling executive committee.

A court in Austria has convicted three Chechen men of involvement in the murder of a fellow Chechen who was gunned down on the streets of Vienna two years ago. The victim, Umar Israilov, had previously¹⁹ accused the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov of involvement in torture and had lodged²⁰ a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights. An Austrian police report before the trial accused Mr Kadyrov of ordering the crime, an allegation the Chechen leader has denied.

World News from the BBC

The Organisation of American States has voted to re-admit Honduras, which it suspended nearly two years ago after the then President Manuel Zelaya had been forced from power. Mr Zelaya returned from exile to Honduras on Saturday after Venezuela and Colombia helped broker²¹ an agreement with the country's current President Porfirio Lobo. Mr Zelaya was deposed²² by the Honduran military in 2009.

An official in Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, has taken an unusual step of publicly denying the agency's involvement in the murder of an investigative journalist, Saleem Shahzad. The unnamed official is being quoted by Pakistan's state media. He tells journalists to refrain from baseless allegations against the intelligence services and warns of possible legal action. Earlier, a journalist who was among hundreds of people who attended Mr Shahzad's funeral in Karachi said it was important to find out if the ISI was involved.

"All the circumstantial evidence points towards our own intelligence agencies that they are somehow complicit in it. And even if they are not, it's their responsibility to chase Saleem Shahzad's killers²³."

Mr Shahzad recently published an article suggesting links between al-Qaeda and Pakistan's navy.

Health officials in Germany say there's been a dramatic increase in the number of people infected by an outbreak of E.coli that has killed 17 people. More than 1,500 people have now contracted the infection, most of them in the region around Hamburg, and the source of the outbreak has still not been identified. Scientists say the strain of E.coli involved is particularly virulent²⁴.

The organisers of the London Olympics next year have defended their ticket allocation system after hundreds of thousands of people who had applied²⁵ to see events were told they had not been successful. Many tickets were allocated²⁶ by ballot²⁷, and applications vastly outnumbered availability. The men's 100m final was over-subscribed 25 times. The chair of the London Olympic Committee, Lord Coe, insisted there was no fairer way of allocating²⁸ tickets.

1 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 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。

3 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

4 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。

5 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

6 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

7 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

8 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

9 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

10 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》

11 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 postponement   

n.推迟

参考例句：

• He compounded with his creditors for a postponement of payment. 他与债权人达成协议延期付款。
• Rain caused the postponement of several race-meetings. 几次赛马大会因雨延期。

13 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

14 ravaged   

毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫

参考例句：

• a country ravaged by civil war 遭受内战重创的国家
• The whole area was ravaged by forest fires. 森林火灾使整个地区荒废了。

15 swirl   

v.(使)打漩，(使)涡卷；n.漩涡，螺旋形

参考例句：

• The car raced roughly along in a swirl of pink dust.汽车在一股粉红色尘土的漩涡中颠簸着快速前进。
• You could lie up there,watching the flakes swirl past.你可以躺在那儿，看着雪花飘飘。

16 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。

17 organisation   

n.组织，安排，团体，有机休

参考例句：

• The method of his organisation work is worth commending.他的组织工作的方法值得称道。
• His application for membership of the organisation was rejected.他想要加入该组织的申请遭到了拒绝。

18 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

19 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。

20 lodged   

v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属

参考例句：

• The certificate will have to be lodged at the registry. 证书必须存放在登记处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Our neighbours lodged a complaint against us with the police. 我们的邻居向警方控告我们。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

22 deposed   

v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证

参考例句：

• The president was deposed in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被废黜。
• The head of state was deposed by the army. 国家元首被军队罢免了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

24 virulent   

adj.有毒的，有恶意的，充满敌意的

参考例句：

• She is very virulent about her former employer.她对她过去的老板恨之入骨。
• I stood up for her despite the virulent criticism.尽管她遭到恶毒的批评，我还是维护她。

25 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

26 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。

27 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

28 allocating   

分配，分派( allocate的现在分词 )； 把…拨给

参考例句：

• Administrative practice generally follows the judicial model in allocating burdens of proof. 在分配举证责任方面，行政实践通常遵循司法模式。
• A cyclical multiplexing technique, allocating resources in fixed-time slices. 以固定的时间片分配资源的循环复用技术。