NPR美国国家公共电台 NPR 2014-08-02

 The US and United Nations are announcing a temporary cease-fire for Gaza. They say Israelis and Palestinians have agreed to a 72-hour truce¹ and diplomats² now hope to build on that. NPR's Michele Kelemen has more.

 

 

Diplomats are urging all sides in the conflict to act with restrain and abide³ by the cease-fire that begins Friday morning, local time. They say the truce is critical that gives civilians⁴ a much needed reprieve⁵ from the violence, to stock up on supplies, to take care of the injured and bury the dead. The truce does not require Israeli troops to pull out of Gaza. Under the deal Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will go to Cairo to begin talks on a more durable⁶ cease-fire. The news came after the UN humanitarian⁷ officials warn that Palestinians in Gaza have no where to hide. A UN shelter was struck by a Israeli artillery⁸ this week. Michele Kelemen, NPR news, Washington. 

 

 

After earlier having denied any wrongdoing, CIA Director John Brennan reportedly today apologized to the top members of the Senate Intelligence Committee. NPR's David Welna reports Brennan did so after an internal probe found CIA officials have improperly⁹ access to Committee's computers. 

According to an agency spokesman, CIA Director Brennan apologized to Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic Chair of Senate Intelligence Committee, and Saxby Chambliss, the panel's top Republican. Feinstein had been demanding that apology since March when she publicly accused the CIA of spying on her staff's computers. That was after the CIA claimed Senate staffers may have improperly obtained internal documents from the agency, related to a report they were preparing on brutal¹⁰ interrogation methods used by the CIA during the Bush Administration. Brennan's apology comes after a probe by the agency's inspector¹¹ general found CIA employees had in fact acted improperly. David Welna, NPR news, the Capital.

 

 

US health official are warning Americans not to travel to any of the three countries that are currently dealing¹² with the outbreak of the deadly disease Ebola. The advisory¹³ applies Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone where the disease has now claimed more than 700 lives. Dr. Tom Frieden, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made the announcement today and says his agency will also help to work how to deal with the outbreak. We plan to send an additional 50 CDC disease control specialists into the three countries. The current outbreak is the biggest since the Ebola virus first emerged in Africa nearly 40 years ago. One of two Americans stricken with the disease has been taken to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment.

 

 

Senate lawmakers have signed off on a nearly 11-billion-dollar measure to keep money flowing for transportation improvements. The measure's designed to keep the increasingly depleted¹⁴ transportation trust fund operating to heat up next year. Measure approved by lawmakers is extended to preventing a 28% cut in federal highway mass transit¹⁵ *date. The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature. 

 

 

A major down day on Wall Street. The Dow dropped a 317 points.

 

 

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Islamist militants¹⁶ are now saying they are in control of Libya's second largest city. According to a commander of the militants *Bogay, militias¹⁷ have assumed control of Benghazi after defeating an army unit, taking over barracks, and seizing tanks, rockets and ammunition¹⁸. Militias have been battling forces loyal to a renegade general being waging to a campaign to crush extremist militants there. 

 

 

There were report shows fewer women are holding jobs in college sports. NPR's Ketzel Levine reports the NCWA and its member schools also receive low marks for racial diversity in hiring. Richard Lapchick co-wrote the report card released by the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity & Ethics¹⁹ in Sport.

On the playing fields, the athletes are represented pretty proportionately into their percentages in the general population. But in terms of who's running sports, who's making the decisions, it wasn't perfect.

That's why the report card gives the NCWA and its member schools a B for racial hiring practices. That's the lowest grade given among all the professional and amateurs sport organizations. For gender²⁰ hiring, college sports received a C+, the second lowest rating after the NFL. Lapchick says, overall, the decision markers about college sports are overwhelmingly white men. Ketzel Levine, NPR news. 

 

 

Crews are continuing to work to shove up a massive hole on Los Angeles's street after a large water main burst there, sending more than 20 million gallons of water onto the UCLA campus. The nearly-century-old pipe in Sunset Boulevard creating a massive 56 by 41 foot crater²¹, off-site workers are fastening new belts in a replacement²² for the burst section of pipe. UCLA says six facilities, including Pauley Pavilion, were damaged. More than 900 vehicles remain trapped in below-ground garages. Many of them totally submerged.

 

1 truce   

n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束

参考例句：

• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
• She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。

2 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 abide   

vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受

参考例句：

• You must abide by the results of your mistakes.你必须承担你的错误所造成的后果。
• If you join the club,you have to abide by its rules.如果你参加俱乐部，你就得遵守它的规章。

4 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

5 reprieve   

n.暂缓执行（死刑）；v.缓期执行；给…带来缓解

参考例句：

• He was saved from the gallows by a lastminute reprieve.最后一刻的缓刑令把他从绞架上解救了下来。
• The railway line, due for closure, has been granted a six-month reprieve.本应停运的铁路线获准多运行6 个月。

6 durable   

adj.持久的，耐久的

参考例句：

• This raincoat is made of very durable material.这件雨衣是用非常耐用的料子做的。
• They frequently require more major durable purchases.他们经常需要购买耐用消费品。

7 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

8 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

9 improperly   

不正确地，不适当地

参考例句：

• Of course it was acting improperly. 这样做就是不对嘛！
• He is trying to improperly influence a witness. 他在试图误导证人。

10 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。

11 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

12 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

13 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

14 depleted   

adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Food supplies were severely depleted. 食物供应已严重不足。
• Both teams were severely depleted by injuries. 两个队都因队员受伤而实力大减。

15 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

16 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。

17 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

18 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。

19 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

20 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

21 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

22 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。