在线英语听力室

VOA标准英语2011--High Prices Trigger Rise in Copper Thefts

时间：2011-10-27 08:27:22

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

（单词翻译）

High Prices Trigger Rise in Copper1 Thefts

 

When you heard the word “copper” in old gangster2 movies, you were talking about the good guys: the police, the cops. Now, when you speak of copper and crime, you’re referring to the bad guys.

A combination of circumstances has led to a meteoric3 rise in thefts of copper from buildings, construction sites, and homes. Prices paid for scrap4 metal, especially copper, have skyrocketed, in part because of high demand from rapidly industrializing nations such as Brazil, China, and India.

Pipes, wires, cables, gutters5, copper coils in air conditioners and generators6, even power lines are being ripped off - literally7. Thieves have even disabled entire electrical substations.

And the damage caused by these rip-and-run criminals far exceeds the replacement8 costs for the stolen metal.

In rural Pennsylvania earlier this month, two brothers were charged with stealing an entire 15.5-ton bridge - cutting it apart with a blowtorch and selling it to a scrap-metal company. Since the recycling company doesn’t get many bridges, its owners called the coppers9.

This 150-year-old weathervane in Vermont had a lovely antique copper horse atop it until a thief scaled the roof and stole it

The problem has been compounded by the number of foreclosed and otherwise vacant buildings, sitting empty and tempting10.

Copper thefts have caused gas leaks, water damage, and darkened streetlights in jurisdictions11 across the country. A historic church in downtown Washington, D.C., lost its protection against lightning when thieves snipped12 away a grounding cable.

And now criminals are committing what authorities are calling “a brand new crime” in and around buildings - especially restaurants. They’re siphoning new and used cooking oil out of storage tanks and reselling it for up to 4 dollars a gallon.

And if the storage tanks are copper, they’re carrying away the whole thing.


分享到：


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 copper HZXyU     
n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的
参考例句：
  • The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
  • Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。
2 gangster FfDzH     
n.匪徒，歹徒，暴徒
参考例句：
  • The gangster's friends bought off the police witness.那匪徒的朋友买通了警察方面的证人。
  • He is obviously a gangster,but he pretends to be a saint.分明是强盗，却要装圣贤。
3 meteoric WwAy2     
adj.流星的，转瞬即逝的，突然的
参考例句：
  • In my mind,losing weight is just something meteoric.在我眼中，减肥不过是昙花一现的事情。
  • His early career had been meteoric.他的早期生涯平步青云。
4 scrap JDFzf     
n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废
参考例句：
  • A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
  • Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。
5 gutters 498deb49a59c1db2896b69c1523f128c     
（路边）排水沟( gutter的名词复数 )； 阴沟； （屋顶的）天沟； 贫贱的境地
参考例句：
  • Gutters lead the water into the ditch. 排水沟把水排到这条水沟里。
  • They were born, they grew up in the gutters. 他们生了下来，以后就在街头长大。
6 generators 49511c3cf5edacaa03c4198875f15e4e     
n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司
参考例句：
  • The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
  • Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 literally 28Wzv     
adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实
参考例句：
  • He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
  • Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。
8 replacement UVxxM     
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。
9 coppers 3646702fee6ab6f4a49ba7aa30fb82d1     
铜( copper的名词复数 )； 铜币
参考例句：
  • I only paid a few coppers for it. 我只花了几个铜板买下这东西。
  • He had only a few coppers in his pocket. 他兜里仅有几个铜板。
10 tempting wgAzd4     
a.诱人的, 吸引人的
参考例句：
  • It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
  • It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。
11 jurisdictions 56c6bce4efb3de7be8c795d15d592c2c     
司法权( jurisdiction的名词复数 )； 裁判权； 管辖区域； 管辖范围
参考例句：
  • Butler entreated him to remember the act abolishing the heritable jurisdictions. 巴特勒提醒他注意废除世袭审判权的国会法令。
  • James I personally adjudicated between the two jurisdictions. 詹姆士一世亲自裁定双方纠纷。
12 snipped 826fea38bd27326bbaa2b6f0680331b5     
v.剪( snip的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句：
  • He snipped off the corner of the packet. 他将包的一角剪了下来。 来自辞典例句
  • The police officer snipped the tape and untied the hostage. 警方把胶带剪断，松绑了人质。 来自互联网

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交，仅供参考，部分栏目没有内容，如果您有更合适的内容，欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。