英语听力精选进阶版 7717（在线收听）

The media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has told a British inquiry into media ethics that he's never asked a prime minister for anything. Mr Murdoch said he wanted to end what he called the myth that he'd used the power or influence of one of his British newspapers to gain favourable treatment.

媒体大亨鲁伯特·默多克向有关媒体道德的英国调查表示，他从未向哪位总理要求过什么。有传闻说他利用他一份英国报纸的权力或影响力来获取优惠待遇，默多克说希望这种传闻能结束。

"Politicians go out of their way to impress people in the press. I think that's part of the democratic process. All politicians of all sides like to have their views known by the editors, hoping that they will be put across , hoping that they will succeed in impressing people. That's the game."

“政客们不辞辛劳想在媒体上给民众留下印象，我想这就是民主进程的一部分。各方的所有政客们都希望编辑们知道自己的观点，希望大家能明白自己的观点，希望能成功地在民众心中留下好感。这就是游戏规则。”

He said that if he was solely concerned with commercial interest, he would always have backed the Conservative Party because it was more supportive of business.

他说，如果他只考虑商业利益的话，他会一直支持保守党，因为保守党更支持商业。

The French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has said that the UN Security Council might have to consider action backed up by military force in Syria if the current peace plan fails. Activists say the violence is continuing with more than 20 people killed during the day. Jim Muir has been following events from neighbouring Lebanon.

In the city of Hama, distraught residents pulled from the rubble of a destroyed building the broken body of a two-year-old little girl, one of at least seven people who activists said were killed in violent shelling of the quarter by government forces. Two UN observers were a short distance away in the centre of town. There was more deadly shelling in the town and the south and deaths from sniping in suburbs of Damascus despite UN monitors being close to both places. The French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has had enough. He said that if the Syrian regime does not comply with the truce by early May, the Security Council should consider authorising military intervention.

The head of Israel's armed forces has said he doesn't think Iran will develop nuclear weapons. In an interview with an Israeli newspaper, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz said the Iranian leadership was made up of "rational people". It would not want, as he put it, to " go the extra mile ".

以色列武装部队最高领导人说，他认为伊朗不会生产核武器。中将甘茨在接受以色列一家报纸的采访时说，伊朗的领导层都是“理性的人”。据他所说，他们不会费那么大精力的。

In the United States, the Republican Newt Gingrich is about to withdraw from the race to be his party's presidential candidate. American media said Mr Gingrich would suspend his campaign next Tuesday. Addressing Republican supporters in North Carolina, Mr Gingrich said he still believed that he would be the best candidate, but he had to be honest about what was happening in the real world, and that he would now give his support to Mr Romney.

美国共和党人金里奇将从该党总统候选人竞选中撤出，美国媒体称，金里奇会在下周二停止竞选。金里奇在北卡罗莱纳州向支持者发表讲话说，他仍相信自己是最佳候选人，但他必须承认现实世界所发生的事，并支持罗姆尼。

"I am committed to this party. I am committed to defeating Obama. We will find ways to try to be helpful. I do think it's pretty clear that Governor Romney is ultimately going to be the nominee, and we'll do everything we can to make sure that he is, in fact, effective. And we as a team are effective both in winning this fall and then frankly in governing." Newt Gingrich speaking earlier (And that's) This is the World News from the BBC.

“我忠于本党，一心打败奥巴马。我们会想办法做有益之事，罗姆尼州长会成为最后的被提名人，我们会尽一切努力实现这个目标。作为一支团队，我们会最终赢得今年秋季的决赛并坦率执政。”

The Libyan authorities have banned political parties based on religion, tribe or ethnicity . The announcement comes two months before elections to choose an assembly which will form a government and write a new constitution. Libya's National Transitional Council said the ban was in the interests of national unity. It's been denounced as undemocratic by the Muslim Brotherhood, which formed a political party in March and was expected to perform well in the elections.

比利亚当局禁止基于宗教、部落或种族的党派。两个月后，埃及即将选举成立政府并起草新宪法的议会。利比亚全国过渡委员会称，该禁令是为了全国团结而发布的。穆斯林兄弟组织称此举不民主，该组织三月份成了一个政党，并有可能在选举中表现不错。

A military judge in the United States has rejected a request to throw out all the charges in the case of Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking thousands of classified documents to the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks. The decision made at a hearing in Fort Meade, Maryland means Private Manning's trial will go ahead in September as planned.

美国一位军事法官驳回要求抛弃布拉德·曼宁案件中的所有指控的请求，曼宁被指控向举报网站维基解密泄露数十万份秘密文档。马里兰州米德堡的一次听审会做出了这个决定，这意味着对士兵曼宁的审判将在九月份如期进行。

In what's being seen as a landmark case, an Indian woman has legally annulled a marriage that her parents arranged for her when she was a child. Laxmi Sargara, who is now 18, was married at the age of one to a three-year-old groom in the state of Rajasthan. Jo Jolly reports.

一名印度妇女通过法律程序解除了幼年时父母为自己安排的婚姻，这件案例被视为一个里程碑。在拉贾斯坦邦，今年18岁的Laxmi Sargara一岁时，就被嫁给一位三岁的新郎。Jo Jolly报道。

The teenager only found out about her marriage this month when her parents told her she would have to move to her in-laws' house. After asking a local social worker for help, Laxmi was able to persuade her husband to sign a legal document to annul the marriage and have this verified by a government official. Child marriage is illegal in India but is still common in many rural areas. Campaigners hope this case will encourage others to fight against the practice.

本月，Laxmi的父母告诉她必须搬到夫家去住，她这才知道自己的婚姻大事。Laxmi向当地的社会工作者求助，成功劝说丈夫签署法律文件终结婚姻，并得到政府官员的批准。童婚在印度为非法，但在许多农村地区仍很普遍。活动人士希望这件案例能鼓励其他人打破这种习俗。

Scientists at a German research institute say satellite data from Global Positioning Systems, or GPS, could be used to provide much faster tsunami warnings. The scientists say they've analysed data gathered from over 500 GPS stations at the time a devastating earthquake hit Japan in March last year. They say it could have been used to predict both the correct magnitude of the quake and the size of the resultant tsunami in just three to four minutes, faster than traditional methods.

德国一研究所的科学家说，全球定位系统（GPS）可以用来提供更快速的海啸预警。科学家说，他们分析了去年3月日本大地震时500个GPS站点的数据，称GPS可以用来预测更准确的地震震级，并在三到四分钟内预测出随后的海啸级别，比传统的方法要快。