英语听力精选进阶版 7450（在线收听）

The Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said more members of the alliance need to contribute attack aircraft to the military operation in Libya. At a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Berlin, Mr Rasmussen said very sophisticated equipment was needed to carry out attacks in heavily populated areas. From Berlin, James Robbins.

北约秘书长拉斯穆森表示，更多成员国应该为利比亚军事行动贡献战斗机。在北约外交部长在柏林召开的会议上，拉斯穆森表示，在人口密集的地区需要非常精密的设备来执行行动。柏林，James Robbins报道。

For days, France and Britain have been complaining that too few member countries were willing to provide ground-attack aircraft for strikes against Colonel Gaddafi's forces. Opposition rebel leaders in Libya have been pleading for more strikes to prevent the killing of civilians. And today the American admiral, who is Nato supreme commander, told Nato governments in joint session he did need more precision ground-attack aircraft. Afterwards, the Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a news conference the alliance was united. But this meeting has so far left unanswered the question which other countries are willing to join the active combat role in Libya.

连日来，法国和英国一直抱怨乐意为利比亚打击卡扎菲上校力量的袭击提供战斗机的国家太少。反对派领袖已经请求北约发动更多袭击，避免平民伤亡。今天，这位北约最高指挥官，美国陆军上将在联合会议上告诉盟国政府，他确实需要更多精密的攻击机。随后，北约秘书长在新闻发布会上表示，北约各盟国非常团结。但是目前为止，这次会议还没有解决的一个问题是，其他国家是否乐意在利比亚积极参加作战。

The man in charge of air traffic control in the United States, Hank Krakowski, has resigned over revelations that flight controllers have been sleeping on the job. The Federal Aviation Administration said people had rightly questioned its ability to ensure safety. Andrew North reports from Washington.

由于领航员上班时间打瞌睡，美国负责空中交通的运营官克拉科夫斯基(Hank Krakowski)宣布辞职。联邦航空局表示，人们恰当地质疑了该部门确保乘客安全的能力。Andrew North在华盛顿报道。

Six times so far this year, air traffic controllers at US airports have fallen asleep on the job. The most recent was just last week when a medical flight carrying a sick patient had to land on its own in Nevada when the pilot couldn't get through to a snoozing controller on night duty. Two aircraft had to land unaided last month here in Washington after the controller there nodded off. The same person at Seattle airport is reported to have fallen asleep three times on the job before being suspended.

今年以来，美国机场的领航员已有六次在上班时间打瞌睡。最近的一次是在上周，由于飞行员不能接通值夜班期间正在打瞌睡的领航员，搭载着一位病人的医务航班不得不自行在内华达降落。上个月，在华盛顿，由于领航员打瞌睡，两架飞机在没有任何指导的情况下降落。据报道，西雅图机场同一个人曾三次在上班时间打瞌睡，最后被停职。

Syrian state television says President Bashar al-Assad has ordered the release of hundreds of people detained during the recent anti-government protests. Reports said only those involved in what were described as criminal acts would remain in detention. Andrew Bolton reports.

叙利亚国家电视台表示，阿萨德总统已经下令释放在最近的反政府抗议活动中被捕的数百人。报道称，只有那些被称作有犯罪行为的人会被继续拘留。Andrew Bolton报道。

Anti-government protests broke out a month ago. The government has reacted with some force. Syria's main pro-democracy group says more than 200 people have been killed. The government's decision to set free many of those arrested recently is certainly a concession of some kind, but whether it will be enough to calm the mood is open to question. President Assad sacked his cabinet two weeks ago, but that failed to stop the protests. He's just announced the formation of a new government in the hope that that might help to do the trick.

叙利亚于一个月之前爆发了反政府抗议活动。政府使用武力予以回应。叙利亚主要的支持民主团体表示，在抗议过程中共有200多人遇难。政府释放许多被捕抗议者的决定当然是某种妥协，但是是否足以平息民众的愤怒仍然不得而知。两周前，阿萨德总统解雇了内阁，但是未能阻止抗议活动。他刚刚宣布组建新的政府，希望能够获得成功。

An Italian man has been kidnapped by Islamist militants in Gaza. Vittorio Arrigoni is an activist who's been campaigning against the Israeli blockade of Gaza. He was abducted on Thursday morning, and a video has since been posted on an Islamist website showing him blindfolded, having apparently been beaten. In the footage, the kidnappers demand the release of prisoners from the Salafist movement, who are being held by the Hamas authorities in Gaza.

一名以色列男子在加沙地带被伊斯兰好战分子绑架。Vittorio Arrigoni是一名活动积极分子，正在从事反对以色列对加沙地带封锁的活动。他于周四早上被绑架，随后，伊斯兰分子一个网站上发布了一段录像。画面显示Vittorio Arrigoni双眼被蒙，很明显被殴打过。在录像中，绑架者要求释放Salafist运动的囚犯，他们目前在加沙地带哈马斯力量手中。

World News from the BBC

Protests have interrupted the annual general meeting in London of the oil giant BP, the first since last year's oil rig blast and huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Several protesters were ejected, and fishermen from the US Gulf Coast were refused entry to the meeting, where they'd planned to complain about the continued effects of the pollution. Inside, a campaigner read out a statement by the father of one of the 11 men who died in the blast, in which he accused BP of prioritising profits over safety.

石油巨头BP公司在伦敦举行的年度高层会议被抗议者扰乱，这是自去年钻井平台爆炸，引发大量石油向墨西哥湾泄漏以来的首次抗议活动。几名抗议者被驱逐，来自美国港湾海岸的渔民被拒绝进入会议现场。他们原本计划投诉漏油事件的持续影响。在里面，一名演讲者大声宣读了在爆炸中遇难的11人的父亲的声明。他指控BP将利益放在安全之上。

The British and Danish governments have both attempted to prevent drugs made in their countries being used for executions in the United States. The British Business Secretary Vince Cable said he was blocking the export to the US of three drugs used to administer lethal injections. He said Britain was opposed to the death penalty in all circumstances. The Danish government says it will ask US states that carry out lethal injections to stop using a drug produced in the US by a Danish company.

英国和丹麦政府均试图阻止自己的国家生产的药物被美国用来执行死刑。英国商务大臣凯布尔(Vince Cable)表示，他已经禁止三种用于执行死刑注射的药物向美国出口。他表示，英国在任何情况下都反对死刑。丹麦政府表示，他们将要求执行死刑注射的美国州政府停止使用一家丹麦公司在美国生产的药物。

Researchers in Australia have discovered that some tunes sung by mating humpback whales become popular across the ocean and are copied by other whales thousands of kilometres away. Victoria Gill has been listening.

澳大利亚研究人员发现，交配期驼背鲸唱的一些旋律会在大洋中流行，被几千千米外的其他鲸模仿。Victoria Gill报道。

It's one of the most haunting and complex sounds in the animal kingdom. Male humpback whales combine groans, cries and shrieks into repeated patterns to make up their signature song. All the males in one population sing the same song, but occasionally they invent an entirely new one. The scientists studied hundreds of hours' worth of whale song recordings gathered over a decade of research. They found that when the whales off the coast of eastern Australia started a new song pattern, this version gradually spread from population to population. After two years, humpback whales 6,000km away in French Polynesia were singing exactly the same song.

这是动物王国中最为复杂，最令人难以忘怀的音乐。雄鲸将叹息，哭泣和尖叫组合起来，形成有特色的歌声。一个种群中所有的雄鲸都演奏同样的歌声。但是偶尔他们也会发明一首全新的歌。科学家十年之内研究了长达数百小时的鲸的歌唱录音。他们发现，当澳大利亚东海岸的鲸开始唱一首新歌，歌声逐渐从一个群落传播到另一个群落。两年之后，远在6,000千米之外的法国玻里尼西亚的驼背鲸也在演唱同一首歌。