英语听力精选进阶版 9597(在线收听

Hi there, I'm Sonali from the BBC World News for Schools. It's Wednesday the 6th of April. 

Coming up: 

?Some good news from Japan's damaged nuclear plants at last. 

?And a plan to explore the oceans like never before. 

But first the crisis in Libya for ordinary people trapped in towns under Colonel Gaddafi's control is getting worse. It's difficult to get reports out of towns like Misrata -- but some journalists managed to sneak in and find out exactly how bad conditions are. Doctors in Misrata say hundreds of people there have been killed. Our own reporter is Tim Wilcox: 

CLIP: Very few journalists have manage to get in, one or two did in the last week or so, but they had to go in by boat, and apparently their boats as they went in, were being shelled. The civilian population is encircled by pro-Gaddafi forces. We understand that the water and all power has been switched off for all civilians in that city of Misrata. Basically it is street by street, hand to hand fighting. 

A boat carrying dozens of refugees trying to escape the fighting in Libya has capsized in the Mediterranean sea. Italian coastguards have been trying to rescue survivors but a hundred and thirty people haven't been found yet. 

Better news now from Japan -- it looks like workers at the damaged nuclear plant battling to prevent further disaster have had some success. They've plugged a leak that was allowing thousands of gallons of radioactive water to end up in the sea. After sawdust and cement didn't work -- it was molten glass that did the trick in the end. 

One of the world's biggest private charity givers has said Europe should feel pretty good about the help it gives to poor kids around the world and especially in Africa. Microsoft founder Bill Gates has met the people who run Europe and told them -- don't stop now: 

CLIP: The poor farmers, the kids that need vaccines, I think the aid should stay focussed there. I think it's important that Europeans hear about the incredible success of the aid they've given. Childhood deaths have been cut in half. A few dollars has a much bigger impact, for these people, than it might anywhere else in the world. 

Now football: and Man U's Wayne Rooney DID appeal against his two match ban for swearing in front of television cameras. A decision's expected tomorrow about whether the penalty was too tough. And after last night's champion's league quarter final, Spurs now face an uphill task. They lost 4-nil to Real Madrid in their first leg in Spain -- after Peter Crouch was sent off. They meet again at Hart Lane in a week. 

Ok so the adventurer Richard Branson has launched a few amazing projects -- and his latest is literally to go where no one's gone before. It's a one-man submarine voyage SEVEN MILES DOWN to the bottom of the deepest seas. He'll do it in an eighteen-foot long titanium and carbon-fibre vessel under incredible water pressure: 

CLIP:It's experimental. We believe it's going to work. But it's actually more difficult than building a space ship. Many more people have been on the moon than have been below twenty thousand feet and we are hoping to get to thirty-six thousand feet. 

Finally -- it's been a mystery for five hundred years. Who is the woman with the most famous smile, in the most famous painting, in the world? Well researchers in Italy think they might know who the Mona Lisa is. They're going to excavate the grave of an Italian noblewoman to find out -- researchers think HER DNA could provide the final clue to the Mona Lisa's identity. 

And now for today's question. What's the Italian name for the Mona Lisa? Yesterday we asked you..who the youngest person to sail solo around the world is. And the answer is .....Jessica Watson, from Sydney in Australia, who was sixteen. 

OK, that's all from the World News for Schools team. We're back tomorrow.

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/yytljxjjb/466915.html