VOA标准英语2008年-Bush Administration Previews Trip to Middle Eas

By Carolyn Presutti
Washington, D.C.
04 January 2008
 

The Bush administration is providing details of the president's planned nine-day trip to the Middle East, beginning Tuesday.  The trip will include his first visit to Israel and the West Bank since taking office in 2001, and stops in Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.   VOA's Carolyn Presutti previews the trip.

On Thursday in Gaza, just five days before President Bush visits the Middle East, nine Palestinians were killed and 30 wounded as Israeli tanks battled militants¹.  Israel says it struck in retaliation² for Palestinian rocket attacks.

The violence counters gains achieved at a Mideast peace conference near Washington late last year.

U.S. National Security Adviser³ Stephen Hadley plans to travel with Mr. Bush. "Those people who promote extremism and use the institution of terror are going to try to obstruct⁴ progress because if it works, it leads to a peaceful Palestine, living side by side with a peaceful Israel and they do not want that," Hadley said.

While in the Mideast, the president will meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem. Mr. Bush told Reuters news service on Thursday that he will urge Israel to dismantle⁵ unauthorized settlements. Hadley says that during the president's many stops he also will seek support for U.S. policies toward Iraq, Lebanon and Iran.

"The president will go and talk privately⁶ and quietly and indicate [that] we understand the challenge Iran represents,” Hadley told the press, “and then friends and allies can count on our commitment to the region."

Analysts⁷ with the private Center for Strategic and International Studies say the president's goals are too ambitious.  Jon Alterman is the director of the center's Mideast program. He told us, "President Bush is no longer trying to transform the Middle East from afar. He is trying to manage it in incremental⁸ ways by arm-twisting and jawboning [trying to persuade] leaders in small private sessions.  There will be small successes along the way, but all the problems are far too immense and diverse to be solved on this trip."

The organization says the current U.S. presidential race also could be a stumbling block.  The center's Anthony Cordesman said, "So they [Mideast leaders] not only face the problem of a president who isn't staying, but also vast uncertainty⁹ about the U.S. and a [new] president who really won't have his team in office until 2009."

Violence in the Middle East has stymied¹⁰ the peace efforts of a long line of American presidents. There have been some successes, notably¹¹ Jimmy Carter's historic peace accord between Israel and Egypt. But there is still no two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. President Bush says he hopes to achieve that before leaving office in a year. 

1 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

2 retaliation   

n.报复，反击

参考例句：

• retaliation against UN workers 对联合国工作人员的报复
• He never said a single word in retaliation. 他从未说过一句反击的话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

4 obstruct   

v.阻隔，阻塞(道路、通道等)；n.阻碍物，障碍物

参考例句：

• He became still more dissatisfied with it and secretly did everything in his power to obstruct it.他对此更不满意，尽在暗里使绊子。
• The fallen trees obstruct the road.倒下的树将路堵住了。

5 dismantle   

vt.拆开，拆卸；废除，取消

参考例句：

• He asked for immediate help from the United States to dismantle the warheads.他请求美国立即提供援助，拆除这批弹头。
• The mower firmly refused to mow,so I decided to dismantle it.修完后割草机还是纹丝不动，于是，我决定把它拆开。

6 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

7 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

8 incremental   

adj.增加的

参考例句：

• For logic devices, the incremental current gain is very important. 对于逻辑器件来说，提高电流增益是非常重要的。 来自辞典例句
• By using an incremental approach, the problems involving material or geometric nonlinearity have been solved. 借应用一种增量方法，已经解决了包括材料的或几何的非线性问题。 来自辞典例句

9 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

10 stymied   

n.被侵袭的v.妨碍，阻挠( stymie的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Relief efforts have been stymied in recent weeks by armed gunmen. 最近几周的救援工作一直受到武装分子的阻挠。 来自辞典例句
• I was completely stymied by her refusal to help. 由于她拒不相助， 我完全陷入了困境。 来自互联网

11 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。