英语听力精选进阶版 7671（在线收听）

With months to go before the US presidential election, the White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley is stepping down. The post will be given to Jack Lew, currently in charge of the budget. From Washington, Marcus George reports.

离美国总统选举还有几个月时间，如今白宫幕僚长比尔·达利准备辞职。他的职位将移交给目前负责预算的杰克·卢。Marcus George在华盛顿报道。

In a brief announcement, the president said Bill Daley had accomplished extraordinary work in an extraordinary year. He recited a list of critical moments in which the former banker played a crucial role. Behind the scenes, Mr Daley's resignation is said to have come as a  surprise. He'd been in the job for just one year and had been expected to stay until the presidential election in November. Stepping into his shoes is Jack Lew, the current budget director. He has considerable experience in fiscal management and also served under President Clinton.

奥巴马发表简短讲话，他说比尔·达利在这不平凡的一年做出了不平凡的工作。他列出诸多例子，称这位前行长在关键时刻发挥了关键作用。而在事情的背后，据说达利的辞职挺出乎意料。他在此职位上只工作了一年，本来要一直工作到11月的总统选举时。接替他的是现任预算主任杰克·卢，他有丰富的预算管理经验，也在克林顿总统政府任职。

Muslims and Christians in Nigeria are on the move after recent attacks on each other's places of worship. A crowd in southern Nigeria has burnt a mosque today. There's heightened religious tension across Nigeria after Islamist militants attacked churches on Christmas Day and killed at least 35 people. Mark Lobel reports.

尼日利亚穆斯林和基督徒最近互相袭击对方的礼拜场所，先仍持续对抗中，今天一群人在尼日利亚南部烧毁了一座清真寺。自圣诞节伊斯兰武装分子袭击教堂杀死至少35人后，整个尼日利亚国内宗教局势加剧。

Thousands of Muslims living in southern Nigeria are reported to be fleeing north following growing tensions after recent sectarian attacks. Many Christians are reported to be heading in the opposite direction. Last week, dozens of Christians were killed by the militant Islamist Boko Haram as gunmen from the group shot at random in churches, at a community centre and a beauty salon. On Monday, a mosque was reportedly attacked in Edo state in the south, injuring 10 people - apparently in response to last week's fatal shootings of Christians. The president of the Nigerian Christian Association, speaking before the mosque attack, expressed his fears that Nigeria may be on the brink of a civil war.

据报道，由于最近的宗派袭击事件，局势日益紧张，数千名居住在尼日利亚南部的穆斯林开始向北部逃去。据悉许多基督徒正向南部逃离。上周，数十名基督徒被伊斯兰博科圣地武装组织杀死，武装人员随意向教堂、社区中心和美发沙龙开枪。据说周一南部Edo州一处清真寺遇袭，10人受伤，这次袭击显然是为上周基督徒被射死而报复。这座清真寺被袭前，尼日利亚基督教协会会长发表讲话，称担心尼日利亚可能会爆发内战。

Two bombs have exploded in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing at least 14 people. The authorities say one bomb targeted Shia pilgrims while the other went off near a police vehicle in a Shia neighbourhood. The attacks coincide with raised tensions between Iraq's Shia-led government and the main Sunni-backed political group.

伊拉克首都巴格达发生两起爆炸事件，杀死至少14人。当局称一起爆炸是针对什叶派朝圣者，另一起发生在什叶派居住区一辆警车旁。袭击发生时，伊拉克什叶派领导的政府和主要由逊尼派支持的政党之间矛盾正好加剧。

The British Prime Minister David Cameron says uncertainty over Scotland's future within the United Kingdom is damaging its economy. The British government is expected to publish proposals for a referendum on independence in Scotland, which might require a simple choice of yes or no. But Mr Cameron has denied trying to dictate terms to the Scottish government.

英国首相戴维德·卡梅隆称，苏格兰在英联邦的未来的不确定会影响其经济发展。据说英国政府将发表就苏格兰独立进行公投的提议书，苏格兰要求英国政府只需回答“同意”或“不同意”。但卡梅隆否认将要求苏格兰政府接受一些条款。

"All the time business is asking 'Is Scotland going to be part of the United Kingdom? Are they going to stay together? Should I invest?' We're beginning to see companies asking those questions, so I think it's at least rational to put to the Scottish people 'Would it be better to have a more fair and decisive question put earlier?' But we're not going to dictate this."

“那些企业时时刻刻都在问这些问题，‘苏格兰是否还会是英国的一部分？我应该投资吗？’我们不想看到企业问这些问题，所以我想这样问苏格兰人民会理性点‘早点提出一个更公平更决断的问题是不是好些？’不过我们不会这么要求的。”

The United States has called on Iran to release an American of Iranian descent who's been sentenced to death in Tehran. The man, Amir Mirza Hekmati, was convicted of spying for the CIA and of trying to implicate Iran in terrorism. He has 20 days in which to appeal.

美国政府要求伊朗释放一名伊朗裔美国人，此人在德黑兰被判处死刑。这名男子Amir Mirza Hekmati被判涉嫌为中央情报局刺探信息，并试图实施恐怖主义。他还有20天的上诉期。

BBC News

Police in Mexico say they have found 13 bodies piled up at a petrol station in the western state of Michoacan. They said the bodies of 10 adults and three youths had signs of torture and bullet wounds to the head. Officials said threatening messages had been left next to the bodies, indicating that the killing may be related to the settling of scores between rival drug gangs. Michoacan is at the centre of a violent battle between the Familia Michoacana cartel and an offshoot of the same gang, which calls itself the Knights Templar.

墨西哥警方称在西部米却肯州一处加油站发现13具堆在一起的尸体，包括10名成年人和3名少年，死者身上都有拷打的痕迹，头部都有子弹伤口。官方称尸体旁留有威胁字条，表明这起案件或与敌对的贩毒团伙账目纠纷有关。米却肯州是Familia Michoacana卡特尔和其一支自称“圣殿骑士”的分支团伙暴力战争的集中地。

The Swiss National Bank has announced that its chairman Philipp Hildebrand is resigning with immediate effect following allegations that he was involved in insider trading. With more details, here's our economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

瑞士国家银行称行长菲利普·希尔德布兰德将尽快辞职，此前曾指控希尔德布兰德涉嫌内部交易。BBC经济记者Andrew Walker报道。

In August last year, Mr Hildebrand's wife converted Swiss francs into dollars. The trade has become so controversial because the central bank subsequently announced that it would cap the value of the Swiss franc. That made the dollars more valuable in local currency. There had been allegations that Mr Hildebrand authorised the August trade himself. He denied that, and says he did not even know about the trade until after it had been executed. But he says he cannot provide conclusive evidence of that and has, therefore, decided to resign.

去年八月，希尔德布兰德的妻子将瑞士法郎兑换为美元。这起交易之所以争议很大，是因为银行随后就宣布将确定瑞士法郎价值上限，这就使美国对本国货币更强势。有指控说希尔德布兰德本人从事了八月的这场交易，他对此否认，称自己是在交易完成后才知道这件事的。但他表示自己无法提供关键证据，因此决定辞职。

An 18-month-old boy has been found dead in a sewage treatment plant after plunging through a hole in a pavement in western Russia. The child had been travelling in a pushchair on Sunday afternoon when the pavement in the city of Bryansk suddenly buckled, and mother and baby fell through a large hole. The boy's mother was pulled to safety, but the baby disappeared.

在俄罗斯西部，一个18个月大的男婴掉进人行道上一处洞中，后被发现死在一家污水处理厂。周日下午，布良斯克市一处人行道突然变形，这名男婴当时坐在婴儿车里被推着走，母亲和婴儿都掉进一个大洞中。母亲被安全拖出，但婴儿不见了。

The Argentine footballer Lionel Messi has again won the award for the world's best player - the Ballon d'Or. In 2011, the 24-year-old Barcelona forward scored 59 goals in 70 matches, helping the team to win the Spanish league, the European Champions League and the Club World Cup.

阿根廷足球运动员里奥内尔·梅西再次获得世界最佳球员金球奖。2011年，这位24岁的巴塞罗那前锋在70场比赛中踢进59个球，使球队赢得了西班牙联赛、欧洲冠军联赛和俱乐部世界杯。