2006年VOA标准英语-Indian Prime Minister Vows to Fight Terror

By Anjana Pasricha
New Delhi
12 July 2006
 
A day after India's financial capital, Bombay, was hit by a series of powerful explosions on commuter¹ trains, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged the country to stand united in the face of terrorism.

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Manmohan Singh addresses the nation on television  
  
In a nationally televised address, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said India will not be beaten by terrorism.

"No one can make India kneel," he said. "No one can come in the path of our progress. The wheels of our economy will move on. India will continue to walk tall and with confidence. Let me assure you, the government will do whatever is required to deal with the challenge at hand."

The prime minister praised the courage with which the city had resumed normal life after the blasts.

In Bombay, police said it was too early to say who might have been responsible for the powerful bomb blasts that killed hundreds of commuters.

Maharashtra State Police Director-General P.S. Pasricha said explosives and weapons seized in recent months had indicated that the thriving financial capital was a potential terrorist target.

"The country is on the path to progress, so naturally some anti-national elements would not be very comfortable with that," said Pasricha. "They would like to play that kind of mischief² to see that our progress is hampered³, and the fear psychosis is created to stop investments."

Pasricha said the coordinated⁴ explosions were in the style of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Muslim militant⁵ group active in Indian Kashmir. The group has been blamed in the past for carrying out near-simultaneous explosions in cities including the capital, New Delhi.

But Lashkar-e-Taiba and another Kashmiri Islamist group, the Hizb-ul-Mujhaideen, strongly denied any role in Tuesday's blasts.

 
School children walk past site of explosion before catching⁶ early morning suburban⁷ train to school at Mahim railway station of Bombay, July 12, 2006
  
The scars of the bombings are evident everywhere in Bombay. Overwhelmed hospitals struggled to cope with the hundreds of injured. Many of Bombay's 16 million inhabitants, who include the country's richest people and residents of Asia's largest slums - spent the day hunting for missing relatives.

Local television stations ran pictures of missing people and messages from loved ones.

But Bombay did not remain in the grip of fear for long. Less than 24 hours after the bombs stunned⁸ the city, schools and colleges opened. Services were restored on the suburban rail network, and many commuters rode on the trains despite apprehensions⁹.

Stock markets rose by nearly three percent, calming fears that investor¹⁰ confidence in India's rising economy had been undermined by the blasts.

Bombay is India's commercial nerve center, home to many corporate¹¹ headquarters and a thriving movie industry. India wants to make the city an Asian financial hub.

1 commuter   

n.(尤指市郊之间)乘公交车辆上下班者

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。
• She accidentally stepped on his foot on a crowded commuter train. 她在拥挤的通勤列车上不小心踩到了他的脚。

2 mischief   

n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹

参考例句：

• Nobody took notice of the mischief of the matter. 没有人注意到这件事情所带来的危害。
• He seems to intend mischief.看来他想捣蛋。

3 hampered   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。

4 coordinated   

adj.协调的

参考例句：

• The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

5 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

6 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

7 suburban   

adj.城郊的，在郊区的

参考例句：

• Suburban shopping centers were springing up all over America. 效区的商业中心在美国如雨后春笋般地兴起。
• There's a lot of good things about suburban living.郊区生活是有许多优点。

8 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

9 apprehensions   

疑惧

参考例句：

• He stood in a mixture of desire and apprehensions. 他怀着渴望和恐惧交加的心情伫立着。
• But subsequent cases have removed many of these apprehensions. 然而，随后的案例又消除了许多类似的忧虑。

10 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

11 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。