"Unknown" opens to No. 1 in North America box offi

    LOS ANGELES, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- "Unknown," an actioner/ thriller¹ featuring Oscar-nominated Liam Neeson, opened atop the North America box office, grossing a projected 21.8 million dollars on the Presidents' Day weekend, statistics provided by distributor（经销商） Warner Bros. showed on Sunday.
    The Liam Neeson vehicle, which represents Neeson's second foray into action-hero territory（领土,领域）, had been promoted as a follow-up to the 2009 thriller "Taken," also featuring Neeson, and opened at 3, 043 locations in Canada and the United States on Friday.
    Co-starring with Diane Kruger and January Jones, Neeson played a man who finds his identity was taken by another person after he awakens² from a four-day coma³ when he was attending a biotech conference in Berlin. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, the neo- Hitchcockian flick's performance exceeded pre-release expectations, and is expected to reap more in the coming weeks.
    Another major debut⁴ of the week, "I Am Number Four," finished the weekend in the second place with 19.5 million dollars during the Friday-Sunday period.
    The DreamWorks Pictures' adaptation of a young adult science fiction novel was expected to perform well, but ended up in disappointment(失望,沮丧) due to its familiar plot and unconvincing performances. Rottentomatoes.com labeled the sci-fi thriller as " noisy, derivative⁵ and ultimately forgettable.""Gnomeo & Juliet," a 3-D animated⁶ film from the Walt Disney Studios, raked in 19.4 million dollars on its second weekend in release, ending in the third place. The family film, based on William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet," features two garden gnomes⁷ coming to life and caught in forbidden love.
    "Just Go With It," a romantic comedy featuring Adam Sandler, was No. 4 with 18.2 million dollars in receipts.
    "Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son," the other big debut of the weekend, was No. 5, garnering⁸ 17 million dollars in ticket receipts.
    Rounding out the top ten most popular films are:
    -- No. 6: "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," 13.6 million dollars;-- No. 7: "The King's Speech," 6.6 million dollars;-- No. 8: "The Roommate," 4.1 million dollars;-- No. 9: "The Eagle," 3.5 million dollars, and-- No. 10: "No Strings⁹ Attached," 3.1 million dollars.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 thriller   

n.惊险片，恐怖片

参考例句：

• He began by writing a thriller.That book sold a million copies.他是写惊险小说起家的。那本书卖了一百万册。
• I always take a thriller to read on the train.我乘火车时，总带一本惊险小说看。

2 awakens   

v.（使）醒( awaken的第三人称单数 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到

参考例句：

• The scene awakens reminiscences of my youth. 这景象唤起我年轻时的往事。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The child awakens early in the morning. 这个小孩早晨醒得早。 来自辞典例句

3 coma   

n.昏迷，昏迷状态

参考例句：

• The patient rallied from the coma.病人从昏迷中苏醒过来。
• She went into a coma after swallowing a whole bottle of sleeping pills.她吃了一整瓶安眠药后就昏迷过去了。

4 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

5 derivative   

n.派(衍)生物；adj.非独创性的，模仿他人的

参考例句：

• His paintings are really quite derivative.他的画实在没有创意。
• Derivative works are far more complicated.派生作品更加复杂。

6 animated   

adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的

参考例句：

• His observations gave rise to an animated and lively discussion.他的言论引起了一场气氛热烈而活跃的讨论。
• We had an animated discussion over current events last evening.昨天晚上我们热烈地讨论时事。

7 gnomes   

n.矮子( gnome的名词复数 )；侏儒；（尤指金融市场上搞投机的）银行家；守护神

参考例句：

• I have a wonderful recipe: bring two gnomes, two eggs. 我有一个绝妙的配方：准备两个侏儒，两个鸡蛋。 来自互联网
• Illusions cast by gnomes from a small village have started becoming real. 53侏儒对一个小村庄施放的幻术开始变为真实。 来自互联网

8 garnering   

v.收集并（通常）贮藏（某物），取得，获得( garner的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• And at the forefront was Bryant, garnering nothing but praise from his coaches and teammates. 而站在最前沿的就是科比，他也因此获得了教练和队友的赞美。 来自互联网

9 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。