NPR 2008-08-10

A delegation¹ of US and European diplomats² is reportedly heading to the former Soviet³ Republic of Georgia to try to broker⁴ a truce⁵ in the escalating⁶ conflict with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili has proposed a cease-fire while accusing Russia of seeking to destroy his country. Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev says Russia is trying to force the Georgian side to peace. The UN Security Council has been discussing the conflict today. The council's current president, Jan Grauls of Belgium, says civilians⁷ are feeling the brunt of the fighting. "The humanitarian⁸ situation which is deteriorating⁹, which is worsening now very quickly, will turn increasing number of casualties and refugees. " Grauls also said the conflict is expanding. Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed, most of them civilians. Reporter Lawrence Sheets is in Georgia's capital Tbilisi. He says officials there are claiming the Georgian forces have shot down at least 10 Russian aircraft.

We do know that Russian warplanes hit, at least four residential¹⁰ buildings. These are multistory apartment buildings in the city of Gori. There are many dead and wounded but we don't have any precise numbers at this point. The Georgians say that other Georgian cities have been hit, including Poti which is a Black Sea port. The Russian military now says openly that it is moving its Black Sea Fleet in the direction of the Republic of Georgia. So, things are getting more complicated as we speak. Lawrence Sheets reporting from Tbilisi.

A memorial service was held in Frederick, Maryland today for Bruce Ivins. The Army scientist the government says was behind the anthrax attacks of 2001. Ivins died of an apparent suicide late last month. NPR's Allison Keyes has the story.

The church in the charming little town was packed and through the doors as people entered one could see many flowers at the head of the church. The media wasn't allowed into the ceremony, but Ivins' longtime neighbor Alan Brooks¹¹ said the service was beautiful. "It's very positive and people talked about the many things, good things he did in his life. " Brooks says people told funny stories about Ivins who was well-known for his kindness and sense of humor. "People couldn't say enough for him they were just saying all the good things he's done; how he's helped so many people and how he mentored¹² people scientifically; how many contributions he made to vaccines¹³. " Brooks says like others who know Ivins, he can't reconcile the scientist the FBI calls the "killer¹⁴" with the man who lived five doors away. Allison Keyes, NPR News, Washington.

Syria says it will not allow United Nations nuclear investigators¹⁵ to revisit a site destroyed by Israeli jets last fall on suspicion it was a secretly-built nuclear reactor¹⁶. Syrian officials say they will answer questions posed by UN investigators about the site however.

This is NPR News from Washington.

Internationally-acclaimed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish has died after undergoing heart surgery in Houston today. He was 67. His poetry was popular among Palestinians who cite as giving voice to their experience of exile, occupation and suffering. The BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi remembers his work.

Mahmoud Darwish leaves behind more than 30 volumes of poetry and several prose works. Lyrical and epic¹⁷ are some of the most common adjectives used to describe his output. For decades he was the most eloquent¹⁸ poetic¹⁹ voice of Palestinian pain and aspiration²⁰ for statehood. The loss of a homeland, the brutality²¹ of the occupation and life in exile are frequent themes in his early work. But in his latter years he became more preoccupied²² with universal themes. The Palestinian Diaspora became almost a metaphor²³ for the human condition.

The BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi reporting.

A Chinese man stabbed to death the father-in-law of the US men's volleyball coach in Beijing today, and seriously injured his wife and their tour guide. The attacker then committed suicide.

On this first full day of competition at the Summer Olympics, defending gold medalist Mariel Zagunis of the US led a gold-silver-bronze sweep of the women's saber event. Former President George H. W. Bush watched that competition. American swimmer Michael Phelps set an Olympic record in preliminary heats of the men's 400 individual medley²⁴. "I wasn't expecting that the heats to be that fast, but you know, after seeing the first two heats, I kind of wanted to be the top seed going into tomorrow, and that's all I went out and did. " Phelps is hoping to break Mark Spitz's mark of seven gold medals at the Games.

1 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。

2 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

4 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

5 truce   

n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束

参考例句：

• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
• She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。

6 escalating   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的现在分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The cost of living is escalating. 生活费用在迅速上涨。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cost of living is escalating in the country. 这个国家的生活费用在上涨。 来自辞典例句

7 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

8 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

9 deteriorating   

恶化，变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The weather conditions are deteriorating. 天气变得越来越糟。
• I was well aware of the bad morale and the deteriorating factories. 我很清楚，大家情绪低落，各个工厂越搞越坏。

10 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

11 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》

12 mentored   

v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They had a fantastic dean who really mentored a lot of people. 那儿的教务长非常出色，的确为许多人提供了指导。 来自互联网
• The famous professor mentored him during his years in graduate school. 那位著名的教授在他读研究生期间指导他。 来自互联网

13 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

14 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

15 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

17 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

18 eloquent   

adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的

参考例句：

• He was so eloquent that he cut down the finest orator.他能言善辩，胜过最好的演说家。
• These ruins are an eloquent reminder of the horrors of war.这些废墟形象地提醒人们不要忘记战争的恐怖。

19 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

20 aspiration   

n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出

参考例句：

• Man's aspiration should be as lofty as the stars.人的志气应当象天上的星星那么高。
• Young Addison had a strong aspiration to be an inventor.年幼的爱迪生渴望成为一名发明家。

21 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

22 preoccupied   

adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式)

参考例句：

• He was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to notice anything wrong. 他只顾想着心事，没注意到有什么不对。
• The question of going to the Mount Tai preoccupied his mind. 去游泰山的问题盘踞在他心头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

24 medley   

n.混合

参考例句：

• Today's sports meeting doesn't seem to include medley relay swimming.现在的运动会好象还没有混合接力泳这个比赛项目。
• China won the Men's 200 metres Individual Medley.中国赢得了男子200米个人混合泳比赛。