NPR 2010-12-29

Flights are arriving at New York's Kennedy Airport and so are the nightmare stories of being stuck on the tarmac for nearly 10 hours. The latest involves Cathay Pacific, whose passengers on at least one of the flights that arrived last night say they weren't allowed to disembark until this morning. There are similar stories from passengers aboard other international flights who say that after several hours on the tarmac, they've had to wait indefinitely for their bags. Amtrak's spokesman, Steve Kulm, says the rail service is also running slow.

"We still have some limited operations staying along in Northeast Corridor. We are not operating a full schedule today but our trains are moving."

Doug Doyle of member station WBGO in Newark says a lot of people who live in New Jersey¹ and New York are more than a little upset with the pace of the clean-up in their neighborhoods.

Democratic State Senator Carl Kruger calls New York City's response to the storm a colossal² failure. Fire officials say the unplowed streets made it hard to respond to emergencies, including a five-alarm blaze in a Queen's apartment building. Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the city's clean-up effort, saying the crews were being slowed down by abandoned cars on the streets. After spending two days on airport floors, thousands of restless passengers are getting testy³. Many lined up at Newark Penn Station yesterday, just hoping to catch a train to their destination after their flights were canceled. Air travel is slowly returning to normal at the metro⁴ area airports. For NPR news, I'm Doug Doyle in Newark.

People may have opened their pocketbooks a lot more than expected over the holidays but apparently⁵ they are still not totally convinced the economy is getting better, as NPR's Scott Newman found out.

Over all, Americans shelled out more for clothes, jewelry⁶ and other expensive gifts this Christmas than at any time since before the recession. But apparently, it doesn't mean they are any more confident about economic recovery. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index for December dropped slightly to 52.5. Most analysts⁷ had expected it to go up. That would have been in line with an especially encouraging report from Master Card on holiday retail⁸ sales. Consumer confidence is intimately tied to consumer spending, and closely watched as a bellwether⁹ for the larger economy. The private Conference Board says the percentage of people who say jobs are plentiful¹⁰ was also down, with slightly more saying employment was hard to get. Scott Newman, NPR News, Washington.

Home prices are expected to keep falling in the nation's largest cities this coming year. The Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index fell 1.3% from September to October. The biggest drop was in Atlanta where prices plunged¹¹ nearly 3%. Even Washington D.C. where prices had been climbing for six months saw slight drop in October.

The Dow is down 33 at 11,588.

This is NPR news.

The number of law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty this year is up 37% from a year ago, a startling number for researchers who saw the death toll¹² among federal state and local officers drop for two straight years. NPR's Carrie Johnson says traffic accidents still account for the largest number of deaths.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, an non-profit group that promotes safety, says it's worried about the rise in officer deaths this year. Fifty-nine officers were shot and killed and 73 more died in incidents involving vehicles like cars and motorcycles. Texas led the nation with the most officer deaths followed by California and Illinois. In all, the law enforcement group says that deaths in the line of duty rose by nearly 40% over last year. They are concerned that budget problems are leaving police to do more work with fewer resources. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

Italian police confirmed local anarchists¹⁴ responded to a direct plea from their Greek counterparts to attack three embassies in Rome in the past week. Authorities say the group identified as Informal Anarchist¹³ Federation¹⁵ claimed responsibility for sending parcel bombs to further revolutionary violence. Yesterday's mail bomb sent to a Greek embassy was defused without anyone getting hurt, but others sent to the Swiss and Chilean embassies last Thrusday wounded two people.

Anger is boiling over in Bolivia where the government has hiked fuel prices by as much as 83%. Officials' move to offset¹⁶ state subsidies¹⁷ and increase the fuel production triggered a transportation strike.

The Dow was actually up more than 30 points, not down at 11,587 with NASDAQ off two at 2,665.

1 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

2 colossal   

adj.异常的，庞大的

参考例句：

• There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
• Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。

3 testy   

adj.易怒的；暴躁的

参考例句：

• Ben's getting a little testy in his old age.上了年纪后本变得有点性急了。
• A doctor was called in to see a rather testy aristocrat.一个性格相当暴躁的贵族召来了一位医生为他检查。

4 metro   

n.地铁；adj.大都市的；(METRO)麦德隆(财富500强公司之一总部所在地德国，主要经营零售)

参考例句：

• Can you reach the park by metro?你可以乘地铁到达那个公园吗？
• The metro flood gate system is a disaster prevention equipment.地铁防淹门系统是一种防灾设备。

5 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

6 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。

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 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

9 bellwether   

n.系铃的公羊，前导，领导者，群众的首领

参考例句：

• University campuses are often the bellwether of change.大学校园往往引领变革的新潮。
• For decades the company was the bellwether of the British economy.几十年来，这家公司一直是英国经济的晴雨表。

10 plentiful   

adj.富裕的，丰富的

参考例句：

• Their family has a plentiful harvest this year.他们家今年又丰收了。
• Rainfall is plentiful in the area.这个地区雨量充足。

11 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

12 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

13 anarchist   

n.无政府主义者

参考例句：

• You must be an anarchist at heart.你在心底肯定是个无政府主义者。
• I did my best to comfort them and assure them I was not an anarchist.我尽量安抚他们并让它们明白我并不是一个无政府主义者。

14 anarchists   

无政府主义者( anarchist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Anarchists demand the destruction of structures of oppression including the country itself. "无政府主义者要求摧毁包括国家本身在内的压迫人民的组织。
• Unsurprisingly, Ms Baburova had a soft spot for anarchists. 没什么奇怪的，巴布罗娃女士倾向于无政府主义。

15 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

16 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

17 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》