VOA慢速英语2014 朝鲜准备打击美国电网吗?

 

AS IT IS 2014-08-26 Is North Korea Preparing to Strike US Electric Grid¹? 朝鲜准备打击美国电网吗?

A longtime national security advisor² to the United States Congress has said the country’s electric system -- called a “grid” -- is mostly unprotected.

Peter Vincent Pry³ believes North Korea is ready to attack the U.S. electric grid using electromagnetic pulse, or EMP. He said North Korea tested the plan last year when it put a satellite into orbit. The satellite was in a position where it could carry out such an attack against the United States.

Mr. Pry was a member of the former Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack. He is the executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security. It advises Congress on how to protect the United States from electromagnetic pulse attacks and other threats.

An electromagnetic pulse is a short “burst” of electromagnetic energy. It can be natural or created by humans. EMP bursts from lightning can damage electronic equipment. At very high levels, an EMP can damage trees, buildings and aircraft.

Mr. Pry said North Korea tested EMP in February of 2013 over the South Pole. The test was done after the country’s third illegal nuclear test.  

Later in 2013, a North Korean cargo⁴ ship was stopped as it carried missiles through the Panama Canal. The missiles were hidden under thousands of bags of sugar.

Mr. Pry said this was not a mistake by North Korea. He believes North Korea was testing to see if it could send nuclear weapons through the Gulf⁵ of Mexico and the Panama Canal without being caught.

He said “we inspected the freighter not because anyone thought there were nuclear-capable missiles on board, but because this freighter is notorious for doing trade with drug cartels and terrorists, and so we were looking for illicit⁶ drugs that the freighter might be smuggling⁷, and they found the nuclear-capable missiles.”

Rep. Yvette Clarke of New York is the senior Democrat⁸ on the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, Science and Technology.

She said she did not know North Korea purposely acted, in her words, “to test out or test run the capabilities⁹ of approaching” the United States with nuclear-capable missiles. But, she said she is, again in her words,  “sure it is not for the sake of friendly trade, but to do our nation harm.”

Mr. Pry said a group of Russian generals and two of Russia’s top EMP experts met with the EMP commission in 2004. The Russians talked about the development of a technology for a high-energy EMP attack near the end of the Cold War. It was a kind of nuclear weapon that would produce a very powerful electromagnetic pulse.

The Russian generals told the commission, “We have bad news. We developed this super EMP weapon, and during the post-Cold War brain drain, some of our scientists went to North Korea.’”

At the time, Mr. Pry said, the Russian generals told them that North Korea could develop a super EMP weapon within a few years.

1 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

2 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

3 pry   

vi.窥(刺)探，打听；vt.撬动(开，起)

参考例句：

• He's always ready to pry into other people's business.他总爱探听别人的事。
• We use an iron bar to pry open the box.我们用铁棍撬开箱子。

4 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

5 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

6 illicit   

adj.非法的，禁止的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He had an illicit association with Jane.他和简曾有过不正当关系。
• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year.今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。

7 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

8 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

9 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓