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1. Tragedy on the race track. IndyCar driver Paul Dana was killed in a two-car crash during this morning's warm-up for the season-opening IRL race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The other driver, Ed Carpenter, is awake and alert at a Miami hospital.
2. Conflicting reports about a clash at a mosque in eastern Baghdad. Radical Shiites say 18 people were killed by U.S. and Iraqi forces. Iraqi police say 22 people died, and the American military says 16 insurgents were killed by Iraqi special forces with U.S. troops on the scene as backup.
3. The grim task of sifting through debris for victims of Hurricane Katrina continues. Crews found a body of a child believed to be 10 years old yesterday. The young victim (was) found in the uninhabitable Ninth Ward.
4. Tourists are flocking into the nation’s capital for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The two-week event is expected to bring about 1 million people to the city. The blossom is expected to hit their peak bloom tomorrow
WORDS IN THE NEWS
1. alert :adjective
quick to see, understand and act in a particular situation:
e.g. I'm not feeling very alert today - not enough sleep last night!
2. on the scene :
to arrive:
e.g. I phoned the police and they were on the scene within minutes.
3. backup :noun [C or U] (ALSO back-up)
(someone or something that provides) support or help, or something that you have arranged in case your main plans, equipment, etc. go wrong:
e.g. We're going to need some professional backup for this project.
4. grim :adjective grimmer, grimmest
worried or worrying, without hope:
e.g. When he lost his job, his future looked grim.
5. sift :verb [T]
to make a close examination of all the parts of something in order to find something or to separate what is useful from what is not:
e.g. The police are sifting the evidence very carefully to try and find the guilty person.
6. uninhabitable :adjective
if a place is uninhabitable, it is impossible to live in
e.g. Much of the country is uninhabitable because it is desert.
7. peak :adjective
used to talk about the best, highest, or greatest level or amount of something
e.g. Gasoline prices are 14% below the peak level they hit in November.
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