英语听力精选进阶版 8101

Afghan officials say they’ve retaken full control of a building from which Taliban insurgentslaunched an attack on the election commission compound in Kabul a week before thepresidential election. David Loyn reports from Kabul.

The attackers hid their weapons under the old protecting folds of women’s burqas andoverpowered guards in a building not far from the election commission before opening fire. Ittook security forces four hours to kill them all. By then there were fires burning in the largeelection commission compound and there may have been some damages to ballot¹ boxes.This was the fifth serious attack in Afghanistan in eight days, almost all election-related. Thisafternoon the election commission had planned to make a major announcement on howmany polling stations would be prevented from opening because of worsening security in manyparts of the country.

The US Secretary of State John Kerry has abruptly² cancelled his return home from the MiddleEast, changing his flight plan to go to Paris to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov onSunday. They are expected to discuss an American proposal to end the crisis in Ukraine, whichcalls for Russia to halt its military build-up on the border. Bentham Claude reports fromWashington.

News that the top diplomats³ from the US and Russia are to meet follows an unexpected phoneconversation on Friday evening between President Barack Obama and President Vladimir Putin.The Kremlin initiated⁴ the call to discuss ways of stabilising the situation in Ukraine, a surprisemove after weeks of escalating⁵ tensions between Russia and the West. It may be a sign oftentative progress towards a diplomatic solution, though the White House says Russia mustfirst pull back the troops that have been deployed⁶ along the border with Ukraine.

A leading Ukrainian politician, Vitali Klitschko, has announced that he will not run forpresidential in elections in May, but will instead support a prominent businessman and formergovernment minister Petro Poroshenko. Mr Klitschko, a former world boxing champion, told agathering of his Udar party that democratic forces, as he put it, needed to unify⁷ behind asingle candidate.

“I’ve always said this has to be a candidate who enjoys the strongest public support with thegreatest chance of victory. Today this candidate in my opinion is Petro Poroshenko.”

A suicide car bomber⁸ in Lebanon has hit an army checkpoint on the outskirts⁹ of the town ofArsal near the border with Syria. The Lebanese army says that three soldiers were killed andfour people were wounded. The town of Arsal has become one of the main refuges in Lebanonfor Syrians fleeing from the conflict in their home country. Tensions have further increasedthere as fighting just over the border has intensified¹⁰ with Syrian government forces trying tocut off vital rebel supply lines from Lebanon.

You are listening to the latest World News from the BBC.

The National Assembly in Cuba has approved a bill aimed at making the Communist-run islandmore attractive to foreign investors¹¹. The bill, which halves taxes on profits from 30% to 15%,is seen as a key part of President Raul Castro’s reform package started more than five yearsago. Sarah Rainsford reports Havana.

This extraordinary session of parliament was called by Raul Castro, a sign that Cuba wantsmore foreign capital to start flowing quickly. The economy is growing at just over 2% now. Soministers told parliament the aim was to boost that, helping¹² to make Cuban socialismprosperous and sustainable. They stressed that the government was not selling the country orgoing back to the past, but they also made clear that foreign funding is vital. To bring it in,Cuba’s offering investors incentives¹³ including eight years’ free of profit tax and no personalincome tax.

For the first time Chinese and Australian ships investigating aerial sightings of possible debrisfor the missing Malaysian airliner¹⁴ have retrieved¹⁵ a number of objects from the water. None ofthe items recovered so far has been confirmed as related to Flight MH370.

The UN special envoy¹⁶ on education, Gordon Brown, has announced a pilot project in Pakistanwith the aim of preventing girls from being forced into marriage. Speaking in Islamabad, MrBrown, a former British prime minister, said child marriage free zones will be set up in whichteachers and girls will be encouraged to work together to combat forced early marriage. He saidfunding would be available and depriving girls of education was not acceptable in the modernworld.

“We want just part of that to make sure that there’s no child marriage. We want to make surethat child labour is outlawed¹⁷. We want to make sure that the case of Malala and others whowere girls discriminated¹⁸ against because they wanted to go to school will not berepeated.”Gordon Brown

1 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。

2 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

3 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 initiated   

n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入

参考例句：

• He has not yet been thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of computers. 他对计算机的奥秘尚未入门。
• The artist initiated the girl into the art world in France. 这个艺术家介绍这个女孩加入巴黎艺术界。

5 escalating   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的现在分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The cost of living is escalating. 生活费用在迅速上涨。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cost of living is escalating in the country. 这个国家的生活费用在上涨。 来自辞典例句

6 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

7 unify   

vt.使联合，统一；使相同，使一致

参考例句：

• How can we unify such scattered islands into a nation?我们怎么才能把如此分散的岛屿统一成一个国家呢？
• It is difficult to imagine how the North and South could ever agree on a formula to unify the divided peninsula.很难想象南北双方在统一半岛的方案上究竟怎样才能达成一致。

8 bomber   

n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者

参考例句：

• He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
• Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。

9 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。

10 intensified   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
• The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

12 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

13 incentives   

激励某人做某事的事物( incentive的名词复数 )； 刺激； 诱因； 动机

参考例句：

• tax incentives to encourage savings 鼓励储蓄的税收措施
• Furthermore, subsidies provide incentives only for investments in equipment. 更有甚者，提供津贴仅是为鼓励增添设备的投资。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

14 airliner   

n.客机，班机

参考例句：

• The pilot landed the airliner safely.驾驶员使客机安全着陆。
• The passengers were shepherded across the tarmac to the airliner.旅客们被引导走过跑道去上飞机。

15 retrieved   

v.取回( retrieve的过去式和过去分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）

参考例句：

• Yesterday I retrieved the bag I left in the train. 昨天我取回了遗留在火车上的包。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He reached over and retrieved his jacket from the back seat. 他伸手从后座上取回了自己的夹克。 来自辞典例句

16 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

17 outlawed   

宣布…为不合法（outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Most states have outlawed the use of marijuana. 大多数州都宣布使用大麻为非法行为。
• I hope the sale of tobacco will be outlawed someday. 我希望有朝一日烟草制品会禁止销售。

18 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？