英语听力精选进阶版 10366（在线收听）

Afghan officials say they’ve retaken full control of a building from which Taliban insurgents launched an attack on the election commission compound in Kabul a week before the presidential election. David Loyn reports from Kabul.

阿富汗官方称塔利班叛军在总统选举一周前对喀布尔选举委员会大楼进行袭击，目前官方已将一座建筑从叛军手中夺回。戴维·洛恩在喀布尔报道。

The attackers hid their weapons under the old protecting folds of women’s burqas and overpowered guards in a building not far from the election commission before opening fire. It took security forces four hours to kill them all. By then there were fires burning in the large election commission compound and there may have been some damages to ballot boxes. This was the fifth serious attack in Afghanistan in eight days, almost all election-related. This afternoon the election commission had planned to make a major announcement on how many polling stations would be prevented from opening because of worsening security in many parts of the country.

袭击者将武器藏在妇女面纱之下，制服了选举委员会不远处一座大楼的保安，然后开始开枪。安全部队花了4个小时才把他们歼灭。但那时候偌大的选举委员会建筑开始燃烧起来，选举箱可能也受损了。这是8天来阿富汗发生的四五次严重袭击，这些袭击几乎都与选举有关。由于该国很多地方的安全局势恶化，今天下午选举委员会计划作出重大宣布，宣布多少个选举站可以不用开放。

The US Secretary of State John Kerry has abruptly cancelled his return home from the Middle East, changing his flight plan to go to Paris to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Sunday. They are expected to discuss an American proposal to end the crisis in Ukraine, which calls for Russia to halt its military build-up on the border. Bentham Claude reports from Washington.

美国国务卿约翰·克里突然从中东回国，计划周日前往巴黎会见俄罗斯外长谢尔盖·拉夫罗夫。两人可能商讨美国如何想办法结束乌克兰危机，乌克兰目前要求俄罗斯停止在边境处集结兵力。Bentham Claude在华盛顿报道。

News that the top diplomats from the US and Russia are to meet follows an unexpected phone conversation on Friday evening between President Barack Obama and President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin initiated the call to discuss ways of stabilising the situation in Ukraine, a surprise move after weeks of escalating tensions between Russia and the West. It may be a sign of tentative progress towards a diplomatic solution, though the White House says Russia must first pull back the troops that have been deployed along the border with Ukraine.

周五晚上总统奥巴马和普京总统出人意料地进行了电话对话，然后就传出美俄最高外交官即将会面的消息。克里姆林宫打电话谈论稳定乌克兰局势的办法，这一举动令人吃惊，因为过去几周俄罗斯和西方国家的关系在越发紧张。尽管白宫称俄罗斯必须首次将部署在乌克兰边境的兵力撤出，这可能是朝着外交途径解决问题的试探性努力。

A leading Ukrainian politician, Vitali Klitschko, has announced that he will not run for presidential in elections in May, but will instead support a prominent businessman and former government minister Petro Poroshenko. Mr Klitschko, a former world boxing champion, told a gathering of his Udar party that democratic forces, as he put it, needed to unify behind a single candidate.

乌克兰著名政客维塔利·克利钦科宣布不会参加五月份的总统选举，但将支持著名的商人兼前政府部长佩特罗·波罗申科。曾是世界拳击冠军的克利钦科在他的Udar党大会上说，民主力量需要团结起来支持一位候选人。

“I’ve always said this has to be a candidate who enjoys the strongest public support with the greatest chance of victory. Today this candidate in my opinion is Petro Poroshenko.”

“我一直都说一定要由一位候选人来享有强大的公众支持，这样就有取得胜利最大机会。今天我认为这位候选人就是佩特罗·波罗申科。”

A suicide car bomber in Lebanon has hit an army checkpoint on the outskirts of the town of Arsal near the border with Syria. The Lebanese army says that three soldiers were killed and four people were wounded. The town of Arsal has become one of the main refuges in Lebanon for Syrians fleeing from the conflict in their home country. Tensions have further increased there as fighting just over the border has intensified with Syrian government forces trying to cut off vital rebel supply lines from Lebanon.

在黎巴嫩与叙利亚接壤的阿索尔郊区一处军事检查站发生自杀式汽车爆炸，黎巴嫩军方称三名士兵丧生，另外4人受伤。阿索尔现已成为逃避本国冲突的叙利亚难民在黎巴嫩的主要避难地，最近叙利亚政府军企图切断叛军在黎巴嫩的重要供给线，因此战斗越发激烈，局势越发紧张。

The National Assembly in Cuba has approved a bill aimed at making the Communist-run island more attractive to foreign investors. The bill, which halves taxes on profits from 30% to 15%, is seen as a key part of President Raul Castro’s reform package started more than five years ago. Sarah Rainsford reports Havana.

古巴国民大会批准一项意在将这个共产党统治的岛屿对外国投资者更具吸引力的法案，该法案将利润税从30%削减到15%，该法案被视为总统劳尔·卡斯特罗5年前开始的改革一揽子措施的关键部分。萨拉·雷恩斯福德在哈瓦那报道。

This extraordinary session of parliament was called by Raul Castro, a sign that Cuba wants more foreign capital to start flowing quickly. The economy is growing at just over 2% now. So ministers told parliament the aim was to boost that, helping to make Cuban socialism prosperous and sustainable. They stressed that the government was not selling the country or going back to the past, but they also made clear that foreign funding is vital. To bring it in, Cuba’s offering investors incentives including eight years’ free of profit tax and no personal income tax.

这次不同寻常的议会会议是劳尔·卡斯特罗提议召开的，这说明古巴希望更多外国资本快速流入本国。该国经济目前的发展速度在2%，所以部长们告诉议会其目的是促进经济发展，使得古巴社会主义得以繁荣和持久。他们强调政府不会卖出本国或回到过去，但他们也明确表示外国资本很重要。为此古巴向投资者提供激励措施，包括8年免除利润税和免收个税。

For the first time Chinese and Australian ships investigating aerial sightings of possible debris for the missing Malaysian airliner have retrieved a number of objects from the water. None of the items recovered so far has been confirmed as related to Flight MH370.

负责调查疑似失踪马航飞机残骸空中图像的中国和澳大利亚船首次在水域中找到多件物体，目前这些物品都未证实与MH370有关。

The UN special envoy on education, Gordon Brown, has announced a pilot project in Pakistan with the aim of preventing girls from being forced into marriage. Speaking in Islamabad, Mr Brown, a former British prime minister, said child marriage free zones will be set up in which teachers and girls will be encouraged to work together to combat forced early marriage. He said funding would be available and depriving girls of education was not acceptable in the modern world.

联合国教育特使戈登·布朗宣布在巴基斯坦发起试点项目，目的是阻止女孩被迫早婚。英国前首相布朗在伊斯兰堡发表讲话，称将设立儿童婚姻自由区，鼓励该地区的教师和女孩协作一致反对早婚。他说将提供资金，在当今世界剥夺女孩受教育权利是不可接受的。

“We want just part of that to make sure that there’s no child marriage. We want to make sure that child labour is outlawed. We want to make sure that the case of Malala and others who were girls discriminated against because they wanted to go to school will not be repeated.”Gordon Brown

“我们想确保消除童婚，确保将童工非法化，确保马拉拉和其他想上学而遭受歧视女孩的故事不再重演。”戈登·布朗。