英语听力精选进阶版 9626

Hi there, I'm Leah from the BBC World News for Schools. It's Tuesday the 24th of May. 

Coming up: 

?America's worst tornado¹ in 60 years. 

?President Obama meets the Queen. 

?And Japanese school pupils are the best behaved! 

But first - foreign forces have carried out what's thought to be their biggest air strike yet on the Libyan capital Tripoli... 

CLIP: Explosion FX 

NATO is meant to be protecting ordinary people from being caught up in the fighting between Colonel Gaddafi's forces and anti government rebels. But Gaddafi's spokesman says civilians² are being killed in the foreign strikes. There are also reports of people protesting against NATO's intervention³. 

Next, the tornado that slammed into the Missouri city of Joplin on Sunday evening was America's deadliest twister in nearly 60 years. At least 116 people are now known to have been killed. They're still looking for trapped survivors⁴ and hundreds of injured people are being treated in hospital. To make things worse, the State Governor Jay Nixon says people should expect more bad weather... 

CLIP: ""This has been a dramatic and difficult time, which is going to continue for some period of time, the weather has not been helpful. It looks as if there continues to be thundershowers and perhaps even worse coming behind in waves." 

Next up, the American President will meet the Queen later, as part of his three day visit to the UK. Barack Obama and the First Lady flew in from Ireland a bit earlier than expected. Just like thousands of other passengers, the President had to change his travel plans because of that ash cloud thrown up by a volcano in Iceland. And that wasn't the President's only travel disruption. Earlier his limo - nicknamed 'The Beast' - got stuck on a ramp⁵ trying to leaving the U.S. embassy. Hopefully lunch with the Queen will prove to be a bit more relaxing! 

And for today's question we want to know the name of the American President's jet? Yesterday we asked you for the name of the Icelandic volcano that caused all those problems last year? And the answer is...Eyjafjallajokull! 

More news now and Sir Alex Ferguson has been named Manager of the Year by his fellow league bosses. Manchester United has faced some criticism this season, but David Beckham says the club's record speaks for itself... 

CLIP: "They've won the League again this season, and they're in the Champions League final. So, you know people have criticised the team this season but you can't ask for much more than that. The way they've performed, they way they've come through in games. You know, they've obviously got that togetherness that every United side has had under Sir Alex Ferguson, and they'll continue to do that." 

And finally, Japanese school pupils are the best behaved - that's according to a big global survey. The study looked at how long teachers had to wait for pupils to "quieten down" during lessons. They found that overall behaviour is getting better, but kids in Greece, Argentina and Finland like to take their time settling down to work! 

So what do you make of this study? Do you reckon your class takes a long time to get settled? E-mail us and let us know at [email protected]. 

OK, that's all from the World News for Schools team. We're back tomorrow.

1 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

2 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。

3 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。

4 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

5 ramp   

n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速

参考例句：

• That driver drove the car up the ramp.那司机将车开上了斜坡。
• The factory don't have that capacity to ramp up.这家工厂没有能力加速生产。