英语听力精选进阶版 10171

The United Nations Security Council is meeting in emergency session to discuss allegations that Syrian government forces used chemical weapons when they shelled an area outside the capital Damascus on Wednesday. The main opposition¹ National Coalition² described it as a massacre³. The Syrian government has denied that it used chemical weapons. Nick Bryant reports from New York.

The focus of diplomatic efforts from Britain, America and France has been on getting the UN weapon’s inspection’s team immediate⁴ to an unrestricted access to the site of the alleged⁵ attack. That’s more complicated than it sounds. The 20 strong team is staying just 15 minutes away from Damascus suburb where hundreds were killed. But under the terms agreed beforehand with the Syrian government it’s only been allowed access to three sites of previous alleged attacks. In Damascus, the head of the UN weapon’s team, the Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom is in talks with the Syrian government.

People who say they’ve been treating those killed and wounded in Syria have told the BBC and other international media that victims started arriving at treatment centers in the early hours of the morning. With more, here is Frank Gardner.

Video footage uploaded to the internet shows body after body brought into a makeshift morgue allegedly victims of a massive chemical attack. Some of the survivors⁶ have twitching⁷ with convulsions. The dead have frozen, paralyzed faces. None bear any visible wounds. A local doctor Haswan Budanni said there is evidence of the use of poison gas but Syria’s information minister Omran al-Zoubi said the rebel’s claims would time to coincide with the visit by UN inspectors⁸.

Egyptian’s state television has reported that the former president Hosni Mubarak will be put under house arrest following his release on corruption⁹ charges. The order was issued by a military official. Early in the day a court had ordered his release after judges dealt with the last corruption charges against him. Prosecutors¹⁰ are not appealing against the decision and his lawyers say he could be released from prison on Thursday. The 85-year-old still faces charges of complicity in the killing¹¹ of protesters during the uprising that forced him from power in 2011.

The lawyer of the American soldier Bradley Manning has asked President Obama to pardon his client who’s been sentenced to 35 years in prison after leaking hundreds of thousands of secret documents to the whistleblowing website Wikileaks. His lawyer David Coombs says whistleblowers should be protected.

“The time for our president to focus on protecting whistleblowers instead of punishing them is now. Early next week I will file on behalf of my client Pte Manning a request that will be rounded through the secretary of the army for the president, a request that the president pardon Pte Manning or at very least commute¹² his sentence to time served.”

A Swedish politician has been injured in an ambush¹³ in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Witnesses say Ann Margarethe Livh was been driven back to her hotel after delivering a university lecture on good governance when gunmen shot at her car killing her driver and translator. No one has said they carried out the attack.

The United States Federal Reserve has published a minutes of a key policy-making meeting with suggests the central bank is likely to reduce its efforts to stimulate¹⁴ the country’s economy. Share prices fell moderately. Andrew Walker reports.

It is increasingly likely that the Federal Reserve will start to cut back on the 85 billion dollars a month it's pumping into the financial markets later this year. The minutes of the July policy-making meeting do reinforce the expectation that it will happen but they don’t provide much more clarity which the markets would have liked on exactly when or how quickly the Federal go about it. The prospective¹⁵ reduce Fed action has already hit stock markets and also the currencies of many emerging economies.

Also in the United States the final installment¹⁶ of the tapes recorded in the White House by former president Richard Nixon have been released by the National Archives. They were recorded over three months in 1973 and covered the culmination¹⁷ of the Watergate’s scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation. David Willis reports.

The tapes cover an intense period of time that included the resignation of Nixon’s two close aides and two other senior administration officials in one day, the same day that Nixon made a public statement accepting blame for the Watergate scandal. But they also showed the president actively¹⁸ engaged in global diplomacy¹⁹ discussing a summit meeting with the Russians and taking a close interest in the soaring relations with China which the president described as the key to world peace. At one point Nixon can be heard describing the Chinese as the ablest people in the world.

 

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 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。

3 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

4 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

5 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

6 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

7 twitching   

n.颤搐

参考例句：

• The child in a spasm kept twitching his arms and legs. 那个害痉挛的孩子四肢不断地抽搐。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My eyelids keep twitching all the time. 我眼皮老是跳。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 inspectors   

n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors. 他们假装成视察员进了学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Inspectors checked that there was adequate ventilation. 检查员已检查过，通风良好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

10 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

11 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

12 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

13 ambush   

n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击

参考例句：

• Our soldiers lay in ambush in the jungle for the enemy.我方战士埋伏在丛林中等待敌人。
• Four men led by a sergeant lay in ambush at the crossroads.由一名中士率领的四名士兵埋伏在十字路口。

14 stimulate   

vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋

参考例句：

• Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
• Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。

15 prospective   

adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的

参考例句：

• The story should act as a warning to other prospective buyers.这篇报道应该对其他潜在的购买者起到警示作用。
• They have all these great activities for prospective freshmen.这会举办各种各样的活动来招待未来的新人。

16 installment   

n.(instalment)分期付款；(连载的)一期

参考例句：

• I shall soon pay the last installment of my debt.不久我将偿付我的最后一期债款。
• He likes to buy things on the installment plan.他喜欢用分期付款法购买货物。

17 culmination   

n.顶点；最高潮

参考例句：

• The space race reached its culmination in the first moon walk.太空竞争以第一次在月球行走而达到顶峰。
• It may truly be regarded as the culmination of classical Greek geometry.这确实可以看成是古典希腊几何的登峰造级之作。

18 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

19 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。