U.S. Republican senators visit Afghanistan, Pakistan

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced Monday he had led six other Republican senators（参议员） to visit Afghanistan and Pakistan.
    The Senate minority leader（少数派领导人） announced in his website that he was joined on the trip by newly-elected senators Lindsey Graham, Richard Burr, Kelly Ayotte, Ron Johnson, Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey.
    The curt¹ announcement said during their trip, the senators met with U.S. troops, military officials and political leaders to discuss political, economic and security issues affecting bilateral² relations.
    In addition to visiting troops from their respective states, the senators met with U.S. commander David Petraeus, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, and Pakistani General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army. The delegation³ is to return to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
    The United States is currently in tenth year of fighting in Afghanistan. U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered the deployment⁴ of 30,000 additional troops to that country in 2009. In releasing the administration's review of his war strategy late last year, Obama said he was committed to the beginning of U.S. troops drawdown in July, 2011, but noted⁵ for the gains to be sustained over time, "there is an urgent need for political and economic progress in Afghanistan."Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint⁶ Chiefs of Staff, said recently violence in Afghanistan is likely to rise as Spring comes, and the country remains⁷ focus of U.S. national security strategy.
    With U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan set to start decreasing in July and given the goal of fully⁸ transferring security to Afghan forces by 2014, the United States must continue to build a strategic partnership⁹ with Afghanistan, said Mullen.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 curt   

adj.简短的，草率的

参考例句：

• He gave me an extremely curt answer.他对我作了极为草率的答复。
• He rapped out a series of curt commands.他大声发出了一连串简短的命令。

2 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

3 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

4 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

5 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

6 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

9 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。