NPR 2012-05-27

 President Barack Obama is paying tribute to veterans this Memorial Day weekend, honoring those willing to sacrifice their lives for their country. The President opened his weekly * and * an address that reflected on the meaning of the holiday. The President also says it’s important to provide for veterans.

We have to serve them and their families as well as they’ve served us, by making sure they * get the health care and benefits they need, by caring for our wounded warriors¹ and supporting our military families, and by giving veterans the chance to go to college, find a good job, and enjoy the freedom that they risk everything to protect.

Mr. Obama will honor veterans and their families at Arlington National Cemetery² in Virginia and the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington. Thousands of people are visiting the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington DC this Memorial Weekend. Argon *, who served on an ammunition³ ship of the coast of the Vietnam in 1970’s, says returning to the memorial wall brings back a rush of sad memory about friends who never came home.

When you are here visiting and you talk to the other veterans, you start remembering things that experienced. Lot of them were very unpleasant.

More than 58,000 names are on the wall at the memorial.

 

 

Good news for drivers this holiday weekend, NPR’s Asama Holed reports gas prices are down, according triple A, the average price for a gallon of regular gas is around $3.65.

Drivers can expect to pay less at gas pump this Memorial Day weekend, though, not much less. The average price for a gallon of gas is only about 15 cents cheaper than this time last year.

Well we are still about 80 cents above where we were 2010.

That’s Tom Kloza. He is chief oil analyst⁴ with oil pricing information service.

So it’s an expensive weekend, just not as expensive as we were led to believe that may be.

And prices aren’t consistently across the country. In California, drivers are likely to pay a Memorial Day weekend record, around $4.3 a gallon. Asama Holed, NPR news.

 

 

A wild fire in Michigan Upper Peninsula is continuing to grow. State officials say the * fire * 20% contained. It’s burned more than 21,000 acres and stretches some 11 miles. Access has been tricky⁵ because there are few roads.

 

 

Japanese officials say the unprecedented⁶ effort to remove spent fuel rods from one of the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor⁷ was on track, despite * concerns about the structure vulnerability to another earth quake. Japan’s minister spoke⁸ to reporters after his first tour of the part destroyed building that houses Fukushima’s No.4 reactor. It is marked as effort by Japanese officials to show that they’re addressing international concerns about the risk of a second accident of Fukushima.

 

 

This is NPR news.

 

 

Student groups in Quebec and their supporters have launched a legal challenge to a recent provincial⁹ law restricting demonstrations¹¹. As Dan * reports, at the same time protests against * wishing hikes continue.

It’s not just that the students are going to court. Lawyers from major labor¹² unions and large community groups have also filed motions against Bill 87. They say it’s unconstitutional and a violation¹³ of basic rights, including the right to assembly an association. That allow * protest organizers to give out notice for every demonstration¹⁰ as well as full itinerary¹⁴. While the government says it has experts who believe the law will stand within 24 hours of its passage the Quebec Association and 45 law professors sign a letter saying it was unacceptable. As many as 500 lawyers are working on the case on volunteer bases. During a demonstration last night, the Montreal students marched through the downtown, banging * and pants. For NPR news, I’m Dan,*.

 

 

The head of the UN observer team in Syria says at least 32 children under 10 years age and more than 60 adults were killed in fighting in central Syria yesterday. General Robert is condemning¹⁵ the attack in a village northwest of Homs as a brutal¹⁶ tragedy. Mood says in a statement Saturday, that whoever started it, whoever responded it and whoever carried out this deplorable(可悲的) act of violence should be held responsible.

 

 

The judge in the case of a former * student who used a webcam to spy on his gay roommate has released more than 100 letters he received about the case. They came from a hate crime victim and the group representing lesbian, gay and transgender people and others nearly all urge * Mavi was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

1 warriors   

武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
• The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。

2 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

3 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。

4 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

5 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

6 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

7 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

10 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

11 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

12 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

13 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

14 itinerary   

n.行程表，旅行路线；旅行计划

参考例句：

• The two sides have agreed on the itinerary of the visit.双方商定了访问日程。
• The next place on our itinerary was Silistra.我们行程的下一站是锡利斯特拉。

15 condemning   

v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地

参考例句：

• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。
• I concur with the speaker in condemning what has been done. 我同意发言者对所做的事加以谴责。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

16 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。