英语听力精选进阶版 9976

 

It is the first comment since Israeli air strike inside Syria. President Bashar al-Assad has said his country would not be destabilized by such attacks. Mr. Assad said it was capable of confronting any assault and accused Israel of cooperating with Syria’s enemies inside and outside the country. Israel said the raids showed it wouldn’t allow advanced weapons into a neighbouring country. Jim Muir reports on Syria’s response to the strike.

Obviously there is the rhetoric¹. They say they have the right to reply. They say we can defend ourselves and so on. But what they can actually do in the situation will have to wait and see. But certainly I don’t get the sense myself that there is a kind of conflagration² that imminent³ because of what the Israeli did on Wednesday. It seems to be a message that they have conveyed to the Syrians through this action, this intervention⁴ may hear clear that any attempt to get arms across the Hezbollah as the crisis deepen will be confronted in this way. But there’s no sign over a physical reaction from the Syrian government at this stage.

Thirty French warplanes have carried out air strikes in northern Mali. The bombardment has targeted mountainous areas, north of the town of Kidal where militants⁵ are believed to be hiding. Thomas Fessy reports from the Malian capital Bamako.

Bombs were dropped around the small town of Tessalit near the Algerian border. This is a mountainous area where Jihadists are believed to be hiding since they fled from major towns secured by French-led forces. The French units in Kidal have now been reinforced by troops from Chad. The town was the last stronghold of Islamist fighters, but rebels from another group the MNLA have now seized control. They are Tuareg fighters who want their own homeland in northern Mali. The Malian president has offered to hold talks with the MNLA in order to help secure the town.

Niger has confirmed that French Special Forces are protecting the country’s uranium mines. President Mahamadou Issoufou told French media the decision to strengthen security on the sites was taken after the recent hostage crisis at an Algerian gas installation in the Sahara. He gave no further details about the French deployment⁶.

Migrants who are rescued by the Sri Lankan navy from a sinking fishing vessel⁷ say that during the course of their journey they were intercepted⁸ by the Thai coastguard. The navy says the 138 Bangladeshi and Burmese nationals had been adrift for ten days. Berrien Alansantal reports.

Some of the Bangladeshi nationals told the BBC that they started their journey in Bangladesh on December 26. They say two days later 11 Burmese boarded the boat. Subsequently they say they were attacked by the Thai coastguard who threw most of their belongings⁹ into the sea. The accusations¹⁰ of the men cannot be independently confirmed. They also told the BBC they had been observed by Sri Lankan fishermen for two days before the Sri Lankan navy arrived to rescue them.

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Venezuelan officials say the President Hugo Chavez, who’s recovering from cancer surgery in Cuba, is making consistent and gradual progress. In a televised announcement, the speaker of the national assembly, Diosdado Cabello said Mr. Chavez’s health was gradually getting better. The Venezuelan leader hasn’t been seen or heard in public since he had cancer surgery almost eight weeks ago. The nature of his cancer has never been revealed and his inability to attend his own inauguration¹¹ for another term in office has fueled already feverish¹² speculation¹³.

Cubans are voting in a general election although as a one party state there’s no campaigning and all organized opposition¹⁴ is outlawed¹⁵. Voters will be chosen more than 600 deputies with women and Afro Cubans well represented. Sarah Rainsford is at a polling station in Havana.

It’s not a frequency to vote here, but the turnout is always around 95%. So it’s a very Cuban experience. It’s not necessary that every candidate is from the Communist Party itself. But at this polling station, all three candidates are from the Party. Cuba says it is democratic because it says that the candidates are not imposed by the Party that they come from the people. But of course there is no organized opposition here in Cuba, so everyone in some sense or other, is approved by the Party.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron is hosting a dinner for the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan to discuss ways to prevent a Taliban resurgence¹⁶ once international troops leave Afghanistan next year. The talks outside London with Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari will also involve senior diplomatic and security officials from all three countries. Britain says discussions will probably focus on peace efforts between the Taliban and the Afghan authorities and how Pakistan and other countries can support them.

Nigeria has qualified¹⁷ for the semifinals at the Africa Cup of Nations football tournament, beating Ivory Coast 2-1. In the last quarterfinal Burkina Faso, have beaten Togo

 

1 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

2 conflagration   

n.建筑物或森林大火

参考例句：

• A conflagration in 1947 reduced 90 percent of the houses to ashes.1947年的一场大火，使90%的房屋化为灰烬。
• The light of that conflagration will fade away.这熊熊烈火会渐渐熄灭。

3 imminent   

adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的

参考例句：

• The black clounds show that a storm is imminent.乌云预示暴风雨即将来临。
• The country is in imminent danger.国难当头。

4 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。

5 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

6 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

7 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

8 intercepted   

拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻

参考例句：

• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave the hotel. 他正要离开旅馆，记者们把他拦截住了。
• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave by the rear entrance. 他想从后门溜走，记者把他截住了。

9 belongings   

n.私人物品，私人财物

参考例句：

• I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
• Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

10 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

11 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

12 feverish   

adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的

参考例句：

• He is too feverish to rest.他兴奋得安静不下来。
• They worked with feverish haste to finish the job.为了完成此事他们以狂热的速度工作着。

13 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

14 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。

15 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。

16 resurgence   

n.再起，复活，再现

参考例句：

• A resurgence of his grief swept over Nim.悲痛又涌上了尼姆的心头。
• Police say drugs traffickers are behind the resurgence of violence.警方说毒贩是暴力活动重新抬头的罪魁祸首。

17 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。