英语听力精选进阶版 8490

As early results come in from around Britain after a closely fought campaign, an exit poll has suggested that the Conservative Party Leader David Cameron will return to office as Prime Minister. The poll puts the Conservatives on 316 seats in Parliament, just short of an overall majority. The main opposition¹ Labour Party has described the exit poll as inconsistent with survey throughout the campaign which forecast a close finish. Here's our political correspondent Rob Watson.

The first result from across the UK 650 constituencies appears to confirm the exit poll's prediction of a truly dramatic outcome of Britain's general election. David Cameron and the Conservatives have done far better than expected, and Labour and the Liberal Democrats² disastrously³ worse. Most striking of all perhaps is the possibility that the Scottish National Party could win as many as 58 out of Scotland's 59 seats. As to the other so called smaller parties the anti-EU UKIP and Greens, it seems they have won many votes, but the Britain's electoral system means that has not translated into more than a handful of seats.

Despite being the largest party, the poll suggests the Conservatives will need to form a coalition⁴, or lead a minority government. The former Conservative Minister Ken⁵ Clarke said it was overwhelmingly likely that David Cameron would stay as Prime Minister.

It's far too soon to start speculating about what sort of government we formed, who do deals with whom, but David's had a good result, much better I think than most people expected, and the chances of David Cameron carrying as his Prime Minister are overwhelmingly likely, but it's gonna be a different sort of government and a different sort of Parliament.

But Labour's shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has questioned the exit poll results. Even if the poll is right, the overall impact of that is that the coalition has lost its majority. It had a majority of 73. That now seems to have disappeared. And that I think does mean that, you know David Cameron said that he was aiming to win the majority, he has failed to do that and it does look like that this is very difficult even on this exit poll for him to command the confidence of the House of Commons.

The landslide⁶ victory predicted for the Scottish National Party north of the border reflects the surge in support it enjoyed since failing to secure independence in last year's referendum. Most of their gains would be at the expense of Labour. Colin Blane is at the count in Glasgow.

Green faces Labour camp here in Glasgow. I was talking for example to the SNP team watching Glasgow northeast which is the hardest of all the seats for them to win, and they say they are well ahead here. Elsewhere the story is similar. So it looks as if Labour are on track to lose all 7 Glasgow seats. And bear in mind that 6 of these seats have majorities of more than 10 thousand.

You're listening to the latest world news from the BBC.

The US military has begun training a small group of Syrian rebels to try to build a force capable of confronting the Islamic State militant⁷ group. The US Defense⁸ Secretary Ashton Carter said about 90 people were being trained in what he called a secure location. He said more fighters would start training soon.

Senators in the United States have approved a bill that would give Congress the power to review an international nuclear agreement with Iran. The White House said President Obama would sign it into law if the House of Representatives approves it too. The BBC's Washington correspondent says the bill is a compromise between law makers⁹ who believe they've been sidelined during the nuclear talks and the president who believes congressional interference would hamper¹⁰ negotiations¹¹.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has joined Polish leaders in Gda?гk at a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Many European leaders chose to attend the late-night event in preference to Russia's victory parade on Saturday. Here's our correspondent in Poland Adam Easton.

Poland's all in the 70th anniversary at the stroke of midnight with the 21-gun solute. In his speech, Poland's President Bronis?Ｂw Komorowski said the war started with the cooperation of the 2 totalitarian regimes led by Hitler and Stalin. He said the victory over Nazi¹² Germany in 1945 did not bring freedom to this part of Europe. Instead, it brought Communism and the Iron Curtain.

The unmanned Russian spaceship that span out of control while delivering cargo¹³ to the International Space Station last week is due to burn up in the atmosphere shortly. Russian spaceship officials say the Progress supply ship should almost completely incinerate during re-entry and pose no threat.

1 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。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 disastrously   

ad.灾难性地

参考例句：

• Their profits began to spiral down disastrously. 他们的利润开始螺旋形地急剧下降。
• The fit between the country's information needs and its information media has become disastrously disjointed. 全国的信息需求与信息传播媒介之间的配置，出现了严重的不协调。

4 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。

5 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

6 landslide   

n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利

参考例句：

• Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
• An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。

7 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。

8 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

9 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 hamper   

vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子

参考例句：

• There are some apples in a picnic hamper.在野餐用的大篮子里有许多苹果。
• The emergence of such problems seriously hamper the development of enterprises.这些问题的出现严重阻碍了企业的发展。

11 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。

12 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

13 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。