英语听力精选进阶版 9636

Hi there, I'm Ore from the BBC World News for Schools. It's Wednesday the 8th of June. 

Coming up: 

?Nato meets to talk about Libya 

?A Japanese astronaut to grow cucumbers in space 

?And a rare Mozart manuscript found in a charity box! 

But first to Libya in North Africa, where the country's leader Colonel Gaddafi has said that he'll remain in the country "dead or alive". He says being killed would be a "million times better" than to surrender. There have been months of violence in Libya between Gaddafi's forces and rebels in the country. 

Nato, which is the organisation¹ which brings together the armies of various countries, began airstrikes against Gaddafi and his forces two months ago. They're meeting today to talk about their attempts so far to bring peace to the country and it's thought they'll also talk about what happens when the air campaign ends - and during any transition period that follows. 

Next over to New Zealand - and it's a fond farewell to their famous woolly animal. Shrek the sheep was 16 - that's pretty old for a sheep - and became quite a star during his life. 

He ran away and hid in caves for an unbelievable six years - and when he was found he had a huge fleece - so big that it would've been big enough to make twenty men's suits! The wool was sheared² live on national TV and auctioned⁴ for children's charities - in fact the sheep raised over 120,000 American dollars during his life. Shrek became so famous that he even met the country's Prime Minister and children's books were written about him. 

Now, let's talk about cucumbers. The green vegetable has got some bad press recently because it was thought to be the cause of the E coli food bug⁵ outbreak in Germany, but here's some good news for it today. A Japanese astronaut will be growing cucumbers in space. He's part of a three-man crew on their way to the International Space Station on the Russian rocket Soyuz and here's the moment they blasted into space. 

CLIP: "We have lift off of the Soyuz 27 rocket spacecraft carrying Mike Fossum, Satoshi Furukawa and Sergei Volkov into orbit..." 

They'll be there until November. In orbit they'll perform two space walks and carry out scientific experiments, including growing the cucumbers, to see how plants cope in a gravity-free environment. . 

Speaking of interesting discoveries, something very rare was found in a box donated to a charity. It looked like an old sheet of paper but it was actually a piece of music written by none other than world famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart! 

CLIP: Mozart music. 

Aah classic. The manuscript found was a piece of music written by an eight-year-old Mozart on a visit to London in January 1765 and was dedicated⁶ to the Queen at the time. It's was supposed to go on auction³ today in London, expected to raise around five thousand dollars, but moments before it was to go under the hammer, the owner got in touch and said she'd put it in the charity box by mistake! 

And for today's question we want to know where Mozart was born? 

Yesterday we asked you, where do cuckoos lay their eggs? 

And the answer is... 

In the nests of OTHER birds - bit cheeky if you ask me! 

OK my friends, that's all from the World News for Schools team to today. We're back tomorrow!

1 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。

2 sheared   

v.剪羊毛( shear的过去式和过去分词 )；切断；剪切

参考例句：

• A jet plane sheared the blue sky. 一架喷气式飞机划破蓝空。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The pedal had sheared off at the pivot. 踏板在枢轴处断裂了。 来自辞典例句

3 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

4 auctioned   

v.拍卖( auction的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• It was sad to see all grandmother's lovely things being auctioned off. 眼看着祖母那些可爱的东西全都被拍卖掉，心里真不好受。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder. 电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

6 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。