英国新闻听力 138

World leaders have been speaking in Berlin at special ceremonies to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which changed the political face of Europe. After a day of celebrations attended by tens of thousands of people, the leaders met at the Brandenburg Gate in the centre of the city. In a video message from Washington, President Obama said the people of Berlin and Germany had delivered their own rebuke¹ to tyranny and oppression and had struck out for their freedom.

“Let us never forget November 9th, 1989, nor the sacrifices that made it possible. Let us sustain the friendship across the Atlantic that must never be broken and together let us keep the light of freedom burning bright for all who live in the darkness of tyranny and believe in the hope for a brighter day. Thank you.”

President Medvedev of Russia said the fall of the wall had helped Russia and Germany put their enmity behind them. And Chancellor² Angela Merkel, who was brought up in East Germany, said the night the wall came down was the fulfillment of a dream. After the speeches, Berliners toppled a chain of giant dominoes along the path of the wall, which once divided the city.

The European Naval³ Force patrolling off the Horn of Africa says Somali pirates have launched their longest-range attack to date, nearly 2,000 kilometres east of the capital, Mogadishu. Nick Childs reports.

The international naval forces patrolling off the Horn of Africa will have mixed feelings about this new record and welcome in some ways perhaps inevitable⁴, but also they’ll argue a new sign of the success that they believe they are having in forcing pirates further out to sea. According to the EU Naval Force, the Hong Kong-registered oil tanker⁵, BW Lion, was attacked by two fast skiffs firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. The tanker apparently⁶ managed to evade⁷ the attacks and there have been no reported casualties.

Five months after general elections, Lebanon finally has a new government. President Michel Suleiman has announced the formation of the national unity⁸ cabinet after being given a list of ministers by the Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who reached the deal with the Hezbollah-led opposition⁹ on Friday. Our Beirut correspondent, Natalia Antelava, reports.

According to the new power-sharing formula, Saad Hariri who leads the US-backed coalition¹⁰ will have 15 ministers in the new government. The opposition led by Hezbollah and backed by Iran and Syria now has ten ministerial seats and the remaining five posts are named by the president. Those five seats could make a real difference because it’s the first time in Lebanon’s recent history that neither of the country’s two main rivals will have the veto power and many here welcome the news that President Suleiman, who’s seen as more of a neutral figure, will play a role of an arbiter¹¹.

A powerful hurricane that’s wreaked¹² havoc¹³ across Central America has now been downgraded. Hurricane Ida is now a tropical storm that’s heading for the US mainland. Despite being downgraded, residents along America’s Gulf¹⁴ Coast have been warned to prepare for the worst. And in El Salvador, a major search and rescue effort continues. Our Miami correspondent, Andy Gallagher reports.

It may no longer be a hurricane, but Tropical Storm Ida still poses a serious threat to America’s Gulf Coast. Schools in the far west of Florida have been closed as residents were advised to seek shelter. The storm is still sustaining winds of 110 kilometres an hour, making the threat of tidal surges very real. Earlier heavy rain caused in part by Hurricane Ida triggered floods and mudslides in El Salvador that killed more than 120 people. The areas around El Salvador’s capital of the central province of San Vicente were hit hardest.

South Africa’s plans for football’s World Cup next year have been dealt a blow with the suggestion that the planned high-speed rail link between Johannesburg Airport and the city’s commercial centre may not be ready in time. A spokeswoman for the rail link Gautrain told the BBC that the 3.5-billion dollar project will not now be operational until at least two weeks after the tournament starts in June. Her remarks followed the government’s refusal to pay the contractors¹⁵ an additional 180 million dollars which they’d demanded to speed up work.

Rescue workers in the Canadian Arctic say they’ve saved a teenage hunter who’d been adrift overnight on a small ice floe¹⁶, having apparently fought off a polar bear. A search crew who found the 17-year-old Inuit youth from a floe measuring only 15 metres across, report that he’d shot and killed a mother bear, orphaning¹⁷ her two cubs¹⁸. The teenager had been on a hunting expedition with an older man in the territory of Nunavut when their snowmobile broke down.

1 rebuke   

v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise

参考例句：

• He had to put up with a smart rebuke from the teacher.他不得不忍受老师的严厉指责。
• Even one minute's lateness would earn a stern rebuke.哪怕迟到一分钟也将受到严厉的斥责。

2 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

3 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

4 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

5 tanker   

n.油轮

参考例句：

• The tanker took on 200,000 barrels of crude oil.油轮装载了二十万桶原油。
• Heavy seas had pounded the tanker into three parts.汹涌的巨浪把油轮撞成三载。

6 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。

7 evade   

vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避

参考例句：

• He tried to evade the embarrassing question.他企图回避这令人难堪的问题。
• You are in charge of the job.How could you evade the issue?你是负责人，你怎么能对这个问题不置可否？

8 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

9 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

10 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

11 arbiter   

n.仲裁人，公断人

参考例句：

• Andrew was the arbiter of the disagreement.安德鲁是那场纠纷的仲裁人。
• Experiment is the final arbiter in science.实验是科学的最后仲裁者。

12 wreaked   

诉诸（武力），施行（暴力），发（脾气）( wreak的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city. 地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• They have wreaked dreadful havoc among the wildlife by shooting and trapping. 他们射杀和诱捕野生动物，造成了严重的破坏。

13 havoc   

n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city.地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• This concentration of airborne firepower wrought havoc with the enemy forces.这次机载火力的集中攻击给敌军造成很大破坏。

14 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

15 contractors   

n.（建筑、监造中的）承包人( contractor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Contractors winning construction jobs had to kick back 2 per cent of the contract price to the mafia. 赢得建筑工作的承包商得抽出合同价格的百分之二的回扣给黑手党。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 floe   

n.大片浮冰

参考例句：

• Two penguins are standing on ice floe.两只企鹅站在一块浮冰上。
• Somehow the seal manages to reach a tiny ice floe.不知何故，海豹设法到达了一块小浮冰上。

17 orphaning   

使成为孤儿（orphan的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

18 cubs   

n.幼小的兽，不懂规矩的年轻人( cub的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a lioness guarding her cubs 守护幼崽的母狮
• Lion cubs depend on their mother to feed them. 狮子的幼仔依靠母狮喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》