NPR 2008-09-01

From NPR News in Washington, I’m Craig Windham.

 The outer bands of Hurricane Gustav are expected to reach Louisiana and other parts of the Gulf¹ Coast this evening. The storm has expanded in size, and forecasters say it will have a powerful impact even if it does not intensify² further. NPR’s John Hamilton has the latest from the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

 Gustav remains³ a Category-3 storm with winds of 115 miles an hour. It has been travelling over very warm water which usually makes hurricane ...

 ...security but they should stay in place and try to ride the storm out. Jindal said three critically ill nursing home patients died during the evacuation. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator⁴ David Paulison says he believes FEMA and state and local governments are ready. “I can't stop the damage from happening, and we can't stop the storm from coming in, what we can do is be ready as possible, making sure we are ready, the states…

 Hundreds of thousands of people living along the Gulf Coast have moved inland today, nearly two million from Louisiana alone. Less than ten thousand people are said to be left in New Orleans.  Aaron Broussard, the top official in Jefferson Parish Louisiana, the area on the outskirts⁵ of New Orleans is urging any stragglers not to try to ride out the storm. “I need you to have the courage to disconnect yourself from your material things, disconnect yourself from the mindset that somehow you stay in will allow you to better protect …”

 .. bears down on the Gulf Coast, Ed Rappaport is a forecaster with the National Hurricane Center, he says Gustav will slow down as it approaches land. “This will increase the chance for difficulties with rainfall and flooding over the next several days.” Rappaport says Gustav remains a Category-3 storm with winds of 120 miles an hour, powerful enough to cause major damage. The storm is expected to make landfall in Louisiana day after today. David Martin Davies of Texas Public Radio has that story.

 Many of these people are veterans of past hurricanes and they are welcoming a new technology to the exodus⁶, an ID bracelet⁷ system. Each evacuee⁸ is entered into a computer database, Arling Williamson said during the 2005 Hurricane Rita evacuation, she lost track of her children, ‘We didn't find each other until we actually get back, we are all back home' Wilison said the experience was terrifying and she is thankful for the new technology. For NPR News.

 … about two weeks. “I know that I’m going to be working in a shelter, and that’s about all I really know. So obviously I'm more about nervous but I can only be as numb⁹ as people that are down there. Can’t imagine what they are going through, so”. The Red Cross says it’s told state chapters they may need to hold one day crash courses for new volunteers in case the storm causes damage on the scale of Hurricane Katrina. For NPR News, I’m Shannon Molin in Boston.

 ......National Guard Troops are helping¹⁰ patrol the nearly deserted…

 ...People said have made it tougher for working class cities like Toledo. Don Gonyea, NPR News, traveling with the Obama campaign inToledo.

 This is NPR News from Washington.

 The Republican National Convention is set to begin tomorrow in St. Paul, Minnesota, but the opening session has been drastically revised to include only essential activities. GOP presidential candidate John McCain says it is not a time for politics or hoopla while the Gulf Coast copes with Hurricane Gustav. President Bush and Vice¹¹ President Cheney …

 ......operation center in Pearl, Mississippi, where state officials are bracing¹² for the storm’s arrival, the Arizona senator says while Gustav’s path is still uncertain, he is planning to shift the tone of the GOP Convention from a party celebration to a call for action. “Action, in the form of volunteering, donations and the reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such ...... (great threat from this great natural disaster)”

 … just commitment to a relationship with Europe has been placed in doubt by, among other things, Moscow’s failure to adhere to a peace plan Sarkozy himself brokered¹³. Though French officials have been dampening any expectation the block would impose sanctions on Russia at this point. Andrew Stroehlein from the International Crisis Group says it’s important that there will be some impact on the EU-Russia partnership¹⁴ talks....

 … briefly¹⁵ today. Venezuela has rejected a request by the United States to resume cooperation in combating the drug trade. Venezuela's government says the US should focus, instead, on reducing demand for drugs and dismiss as useless moves to resume talks on anti-drug efforts. And Venezuela officials insist they’ve made progress in fighting drug trafficking despite a fourfold increase in amount of cocaine¹⁶ passing through that country from Columbia. Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez halted his country’s cooperation with the US three years ago. 

1 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

2 intensify   

vt.加强；变强；加剧

参考例句：

• We must intensify our educational work among our own troops.我们必须加强自己部队的教育工作。
• They were ordered to intensify their patrols to protect our air space.他们奉命加强巡逻，保卫我国的领空。

3 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。

4 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

5 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

6 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。

7 bracelet   

n.手镯，臂镯

参考例句：

• The jeweler charges lots of money to set diamonds in a bracelet.珠宝匠要很多钱才肯把钻石镶在手镯上。
• She left her gold bracelet as a pledge.她留下她的金手镯作抵押品。

8 evacuee   

n.被疏散的人员，被撤走的人员

参考例句：

• A woman sits motionless at an evacuee center for leaked radiation from the damaged fukushima nuclear facilities friday march 25 2011 in soma fukushima prefecture japan.2011年3月25日星期五，日本福岛县相马市，为福岛核设施泄露而设立的避难中心里，一位妇女一动不动地坐在那里。
• Not quite true,said Tom,a 42-year-old evacuee.但汤姆，一位42岁的避难者，说事实不尽然如此。

9 numb   

adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木

参考例句：

• His fingers were numb with cold.他的手冻得发麻。
• Numb with cold,we urged the weary horses forward.我们冻得发僵，催着疲惫的马继续往前走。

10 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。

11 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

12 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

13 brokered   

adj.由权力经纪人安排（或控制）的v.做掮客（或中人等）( broker的过去式和过去分词 )；作为权力经纪人进行谈判；以中间人等身份安排…

参考例句：

• a peace plan brokered by the UN 由联合国出面协商的和平计划
• Your husband brokered the deal to go in, transfrer the assets and get our man out. 你丈夫后来插了一脚，把生意都抢了过去，我们的人也被挤了出来。 来自电影对白

14 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。

15 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

16 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。