英语听力精选进阶版 10097（在线收听）

Syrian pro-government forces have recaptured the strategic town of Qusair after a siege lasting more than two weeks. The rebels said they withdrew overnight. The BBC’s Lyse Doucet was one of the first Western journalists to reach Qusair after its fall. She saw few civilians but government soldiers everywhere firing guns amid the devastation.

在包围两周多以后，叙利亚亲政府军重新夺取了战略重镇库萨。叛军称一夜之间就撤离了，BBC记者Lyse Doucet是自库萨沦陷以来首位进入这里的西方记者。她没见到几个平民，但政府士兵在一片战乱中到处开枪。

I'm in the central square of Qusair and the iconic clock tower now has a new flag with Bashar al-Assad on it, waving in a sign of victory. And what a victory it is at what a price. Not a single house on the streets leading out from this square has been left untouched-- the windows shuttled, the doors blown out, the balconies pockmarked with gunfire. This was a bloody battle for a strategic city. Qusair is gone, but the fighting will certainly go on.

我现在在库萨中心广场，这里的标志性钟楼上挂着一面象征胜利的新旗帜，上面有巴沙尔·阿萨德的图像。这样的胜利需要怎样的成本换来的啊！这个广场外的大街上没有一座房屋没有遭浩劫，窗子晃动着，门破裂了，阳台上到处是枪火的痕迹。这是为战略重镇进行的血腥战役，库萨已经完了，但战斗无疑还会继续。

Qusair is near the Lebanese border and lies along vital supply routes for both government and opposition forces. At the same time, the UN and Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has said proposed peace talks will not take place this month in Geneva as originally planned. He said neither side in the Syrian conflict was ready to commit to the conference, which he now hoped could be held in July. Mr Brahimi was speaking after days of talks on Syria at the UN in Geneva led by Russia and the United States.

库萨位于黎巴嫩边境附近，在政府和反对派军队关键物资运输线的旁边。同时，联合国和阿盟驻叙利亚使者Lakhdar Brahimi说，拟议本月在日内瓦举行的和谈不会照原计划举行。他说，叙利亚冲突的双方都未做好致力于会议的准备，他希望会议在7月份举行。Brahimi是在日内瓦举行的为期数天的叙利亚谈判后发表此番讲话的，该谈判由俄罗斯和美国主持。

Britain is expected to announce compensation on Thursday for thousands of Kenyans who say they were tortured during the 1950s when the British administration in Kenya fought with Mau Mau insurgents demanding an end to colonial rule. A British law firm is representing more than 5,000 Kenyans and the foreign office recently confirmed it was negotiating settlements. Several claimants alleging torture and sensual mutilation brought a test case at the High Court in London last year.

20世纪50年代英国统治肯尼亚时期曾与要求结束殖民统治的茅茅党叛军作战，数千名肯尼人称曾受过拷打，英国有望周四宣布对他们进行补偿。英国一家法律事务为5000多名肯尼亚人做代理，外交部最近表示正在协商有关协议。几名宣称遭受拷打和性器官切割的原告去年将一起判例案件提交伦敦最高法院。

President Obama has appointed Susan Rice to the post of national security adviser. She is currently the US representative to the United Nations. From Washington, Paul Adams reports.

总统奥巴马任命苏珊·赖斯担任国家安全顾问一职，她目前是美国驻联合国代表。保罗·亚当斯报道。

Speaking outside the White House, President Obama praised his tireless outgoing national security adviser Tom Donilon, and the president said Susan Rice would be a worthy successor.

总统奥巴马在白宫外发表讲话，他怎样了不知疲倦、即将离任的国家安全顾问汤姆·多尼龙说苏珊·赖斯将是一位称职的继任者。

"She is at once passionate and pragmatic. Susan is a fierce champion for justice and human dignity, but she is also mindful that we have to exercise our power wisely and deliberately."“她非常有热情又有实干精神，苏珊是正义和人类尊严的严正捍卫者，但她还明白，我们必须明智且慎重地运用权力。”

Susan Rice is regarded as an effective but abrasive diplomat. She is disliked by members of the opposition Republican Party, who believed she was responsible for promoting a false account of the events which led to the death of the American ambassador in Libya last September. Some are bristling at her appointment as national security adviser, but there is nothing they can do about it-- the position does not require Senate approval.

苏珊·赖斯被视为一位实干但有些粗暴的外交家，反对党共和党的成员不喜欢她，认为在去年9月份利比亚美国大使被杀案中她错误地报道了这件案子，应该对此负责。有的对她被任命为国家安全顾问一职感到不安，但也无能为力，该职位并不需要得到参议院的批准。

BBC NewsProtests have been held in the western Turkish city of Izmir, demanding the release of young people, who the authorities accuse of misusing social media during the anti-government protests. Thirty people were arrested in the city on Tuesday night and charged with inciting criminal acts. But family members of those detained have dismissed the allegations.

土耳其西部城市伊兹密尔举行要求释放年轻人的游行活动，当局指控被捕者在反政府抗议中滥用社交媒体。周二晚上有30人被捕，他们被控煽动刑事犯罪。但被捕者的家属对指控表示否认。

An American soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians last year has pleaded guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty. Staff Sgt Robert Bales described to an American military court how he went to two Afghan villages and shot dead unarmed civilians, mostly women and children. His defence team say he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

一名被控去年杀害16名阿富汗平民的美国士兵现已认罪以避免死刑。上士罗伯特·贝尔斯向美国军事法庭承认，自己去过阿富汗两个村庄，开枪杀死手无寸铁的平民，大多数是妇女和儿童。他的辩护小组称他身患创伤后精神紧张症。

More than 30,000 people in the eastern German city of Halle have been asked to leave their homes as a precautionary measure after rivers reached their highest level in 400 years. Rescue helicopters in southern Germany have been plucking families from rooftops.

德国哈雷市河水可能上涨到400年来最高位，作为预防措施，该市3万多人已被要求离开家园。德国南部的救援直升机正在屋顶上搭救各家各户。

Chinese researchers have found what’s thought to be the oldest primate fossil ever discovered. The beautifully preserved skeleton, the size of a mouse, was found in Hubei province and is 55 million years old. Here is our science correspondent Pallab Ghosh.

中国研究人员发现据说是至今发现的最古老的灵长类动物化石。这份骨骼保存完好，大小相当于一只老鼠，是在河北省发现的，距今已有5500万年历史。科学记者Pallab Ghosh报道。

The creature, known as Archicebus achilles, is thought to be of a very early form of large eye primate school tarsiers, but it also has many similarities with the group of creatures that went on to become monkeys, apes and humans. So much so that according to Dr Henry Gee of the journal Nature, which published the research, it’s hard to know for sure where this creature fits in.

这个动物名为“阿喀琉斯基猴”，据说是最原始的眼镜猴，但与那些进化为猴子、猿和人类的动物也有很多相似之处。因此，发表该研究的《自然》杂志的亨利-吉说，很难确定这种动物属于哪一类。

"Fossils are never preserved with their birth certificate or a little notice that says 'Here be the ancestor of all humans'. Now when you found the fossil, it could be the ancestor of all humans but you would never know this. So most we can say is it looks close to what we would expect the ancestor to look like.”

“化石上从未带有出生证，或标明‘这就是所有人类祖先’的小标记。现在我们发现这块化石，它可能是所有人类的祖先，但我们并不知道答案。所以我们大致上可以说，我们想象的祖先的样子就是这样。”