英国新闻听力 英前首相布莱尔出席伊拉克战争调查听证会

The former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he does not regret helping¹ the United States to remove the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Mr Blair was giving evidence at an official inquiry² into the war. Madeleine Morris reports.

It's been a long day for Britain's former prime minister. But despite the dogged questioning from the inquiry's five panel members, he rarely seemed flustered³. Even when confronted with the failures of the post-war planning for Iraq, Tony Blair was adamant⁴ his government had done all it could to plan for the eventualities.

"Given the analysis of what they might be and we, we worked them out. The trouble was we didn't plan for two things - One was, as I say, the absence of this properly functioning civil service infrastructure⁵; and of course the second thing which is the single most important element of this whole business of what happened afterwards. People did not think that al-Qaeda and Iran would play the role that they did."

Earlier, he had been at pains to say how much the events of 9/11 changed his view of Iraq. "We could not afford to allow rogue⁶ states to develop weapons of mass destruction and possibly join forces with al-Qaeda," he argued. What's more, at the time of going to war, he reiterated⁷ he truly believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He denied, however, that he committed to toppling Iraq's leader at a meeting at George Bush's Texas ranch⁸ in 2002. All he promised at that time, he said, was to deal with Iraq. Despite that, Mr Blair maintained that the invasion was legal and that Iraq and the world were better off without Saddam.

The White House is rethinking plans to trial the men accused of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 here in a part of New York where the World Trade Center once stood. An official said President Obama was considering alternative sites because of the expected huge cost of holding the trial in Lower Manhattan. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged⁹ co-conspirators are to be tried in a civilian¹⁰ rather than a military court.

A man, who killed an abortion¹¹ doctor in the United States, is facing life imprison¹² after being found guilty of first-degree murder. The man Scott Roeder said he’d wanted to protect unborn children. Adam Brooks¹³ reports.

Last May, Scott Roeder, a 51-year-old anti-abortion activist¹⁴, walked into a church in Wichita, Kansas, and shot one of the worshippers George Tiller. Doctor Tiller performed abortions¹⁵; in particular he offered late-term abortions, which had made him the target of anti-abortion activists¹⁶ for many years. At his trial, Scott Roeder admitted killing¹⁷ Doctor Tiller, but he argued in his defence that he'd acted in order to save the lives of unborn children. His lawyer has tried to persuade the judge that Roeder should face a lesser¹⁸ charge than first-degree murder because killing an abortion provider could be justified¹⁹. The judge refused to allow it.

New figures from the United States show the American economy grew faster than expected in the last three months of last year, an annual rate of 5.7%. It's the second consecutive²⁰ quarter of growth after America's severe recession. President Obama's senior economic adviser²¹ Lawrence Summers welcomed the news but said it was too soon to celebrate.

Police in Dubai say they have identified several European passport holders²² as suspects in the killing last week of a senior figure in the Palestinian Hamas movement. They said their investigations²³ indicated that members of the criminal gang had followed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh to Dubai, murdered him there and fled abroad. Hamas said he was assassinated²⁴ by Israeli agents. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's funeral was held in the Syrian capital Damascus on Friday.

Further talks have been taking place between the two main parties in Northern Ireland aimed at preventing the possible collapse²⁵ of the power-sharing government there. The parties, Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists, have been deadlocked²⁶ over policing and justice powers.

A court in Britain has lifted a reporting ban on the private life of the England and Chelsea football captain John Terry. His lawyers got an injunction last week on privacy grounds when they learned that a British newspaper planned to write a story about an alleged extramarital affair. Torin Douglas reports.

John Terry's identity was reviewed after Mr Justice Tugendhat lifted the injunction. It had prevented the media on privacy grounds from reporting allegations that he had a relationship with an unnamed woman or even that the injunction had been granted. The judge said the order was no longer necessary or proportionate because the information had become widely available to so many people. He said he thought the applicant²⁷ Mr Terry's real concern was the effect on his sponsorship contracts, in which case payment of damages would be an adequate remedy if he succeeded at trial.

英国前首相布莱尔表示不后悔帮助美国除掉伊拉克领袖萨达姆·侯赛因。布莱尔在伊拉克战争官方调查听证上给出证词。Madeleine Morris报道。

对于英国前首相布莱尔来说，这是非常漫长的一天。但是，尽管调查委员会5位成员咄咄逼人，他却没有表现出慌乱。即使面临伊拉克战后计划失败的问题时，布莱尔仍然简称他的政府已经为难以预测的事情做了一切可能的计划。

“分析一下这些计划应该是什么样的，我们也制定出了计划。问题是，我们没有为两件事做好计划——第一件是，缺乏正常运转的行政服务基础设施。当然，第二件事，也是这件事中最重要的因素，就是战后所发生的一切。人们没有想到基地组织和伊朗会发挥这样的作用。”

此前，他一直尽力强调9.11事件极大地改变了他对伊拉克的看法。“我们不能允许无赖国家研制大规模杀伤性武器，不能允许他们和基地组织联合。”他辩称。此外，在开始作战的时候，他反复强调，他相信萨达姆·侯赛因持有大规模杀伤性武器。然而，他否认自己曾在2002年乔治·布什德克萨斯牧场会议上提议推翻伊拉克领袖。他说，当时他承诺的是与伊拉克进行交涉。尽管如此，布莱尔仍然坚称，入侵伊拉克是合法的，没有萨达姆，伊拉克和世界将更加美好。

白宫正在重新考虑在世贸大厦遗址对9.11袭击嫌疑犯进行审判的计划。一位官员表示，奥巴马总统正在考虑其他审判地点，因为在下曼哈顿城举行审判的成本可能非常高昂。Khalid Sheikh Mohammed和4名同谋将在民事法庭而不是在军事法庭接受审判。

美国一名杀害了堕胎医生的男子因犯有一级谋杀罪而面临无期徒刑。Scott Roeder说，他这样做是为了保护未出生的婴儿。Adam Brooks报道。

去年5月份，51岁的反堕胎积极分子Scott Roeder进入堪萨斯Wichita一家教堂，枪杀了其中一名礼拜者，George Tiller。Tiller为孕妇堕胎，特别是提供晚期堕胎，这使他多年来成为反堕胎积极分子的目标。在审判中，Scott Roeder承认自己杀害了Tiller医生，但是在为自己辩护时，他辩称自己是为了拯救未出生的婴儿的生命。他的律师试图说服法官，Roeder应该被判处较轻的罪名，而不是一级谋杀。因为杀死一名堕胎医生是合理的。法官拒绝了该请求。

来自美国的最新数据显示，去年最后一个季度，美国经济增长速度超过预期，达到5.7%。这是美国严重的经济衰退之后连续第二个季度出现增长。奥巴马总统高级经济顾问Lawrence Summers对这个消息表示欢迎，但是说要庆祝还为时过早。

迪拜警方表示，他们发现几名持有欧洲护照的人可能是上周杀害巴勒斯坦哈马斯运动一名高级人物的嫌疑人。他们说，调查发现，该犯罪团伙成员尾随Mahmoud al-Mabhouh到达迪拜将其谋杀，随后逃往国外。哈马斯称Mahmoud al-Mabhouh被以色列特工暗杀。周五，Mahmoud al-Mabhouh的葬礼在叙利亚首都大马士革举行。

北爱尔兰两大主要党派之间举行进一步对话，防止权力分享政府崩溃。新芬党和民主统一党因政治和司法权力而陷入僵局。

英国一法庭取消了报道英格兰足球队兼英超切尔西的队长特里(John Terry)的禁令。上周，获悉一家英国报纸计划报道特里的婚外情时，他的律师以隐私为名取得了强制性命令。Torin Douglas报道。

图根达特法官取消这一强制命令之后，特里的形象遭遇检讨。该禁令以隐私为依据，禁止媒体报道特里与一未知女子存在暧昧关系一事。法官表示，该禁令已经不再必要，因为许多人已经知晓这一消息。他说，他认为禁令申请人特里真正的担忧是对他的赞助合约产生影响。 而如果他在审判中获胜，损害赔偿足以弥补他的损失。

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

3 flustered   

adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词)

参考例句：

• The honking of horns flustered the boy. 汽车喇叭的叫声使男孩感到慌乱。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She was so flustered that she forgot her reply. 她太紧张了，都忘记了该如何作答。 来自辞典例句

4 adamant   

adj.坚硬的，固执的

参考例句：

• We are adamant on the building of a well-off society.在建设小康社会这一点上，我们是坚定不移的。
• Veronica was quite adamant that they should stay on.维罗妮卡坚信他们必须继续留下去。

5 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

6 rogue   

n.流氓；v.游手好闲

参考例句：

• The little rogue had his grandpa's glasses on.这淘气鬼带上了他祖父的眼镜。
• They defined him as a rogue.他们确定他为骗子。

7 reiterated   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• "Well, I want to know about it,'she reiterated. “嗯，我一定要知道你的休假日期，"她重复说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some twenty-two years later President Polk reiterated and elaborated upon these principles. 大约二十二年之后，波尔克总统重申这些原则并且刻意阐释一番。

8 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

9 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

10 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

11 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

12 imprison   

vt.监禁，关押，限制，束缚

参考例句：

• The effect of this one is going to imprison you for life.而这件事的影响力则会让你被终身监禁。
• Dutch colonial authorities imprisoned him for his part in the independence movement.荷兰殖民当局因他参加独立运动而把他关押了起来。

13 brooks   

n.小溪( brook的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks gave the business when Haas caught him with his watch. 哈斯抓到偷他的手表的布鲁克斯时，狠狠地揍了他一顿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ade and Brooks exchanged blows yesterday and they were severely punished today. 艾德和布鲁克斯昨天打起来了，今天他们受到严厉的惩罚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

15 abortions   

n.小产( abortion的名词复数 )；小产胎儿；（计划）等中止或夭折；败育

参考例句：

• The Venerable Master: By not having abortions, by not killing living beings. 上人：不堕胎、不杀生。 来自互联网
• Conclusion Chromosome abnormality is one of the causes of spontaneous abortions. 结论：染色体异常是导致反复自然流产的原因之一。 来自互联网

16 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

18 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

19 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

20 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

21 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。

22 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

23 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

24 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

25 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

26 deadlocked   

陷入僵局的；僵持不下的

参考例句：

• The plan deadlocked over the funds. 这个计划由于经费问题而搁浅了。
• The meeting deadlocked over the wage issue. 会议因工资问题而停顿下来。

27 applicant   

n.申请人，求职者，请求者

参考例句：

• He was the hundredth applicant for the job. 他是第100个申请这项工作的人。
• In my estimation, the applicant is well qualified for this job. 据我看, 这位应征者完全具备这项工作的条件。