NPR 2009-01-03

President Bush has released his first public comment on the fighting in Gaza. Issuing in advanced recording¹ of a Saturday radio address, Mr. Bush reiterates² his call for a sustainable ceasefire. “United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful ceasefire that is fully³ respected. Another one-way ceasefire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable.” Mr. Bush also insists any truce⁴ must include monitoring mechanisms⁵ aimed at stopping weapons from being smuggled⁶ into Gaza. Overnight Israeli air strikes destroyed several homes of Hamas operatives, as well as a mosque⁷ which Israel says was used to store weapons.

An activist⁸ group in Chicago is pressuring lawmakers to accept Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s appointment of Roland Burris to the US Senate, despite allegations that Blagojevich tried to sell the seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama. Chicago Public Radio’s Susie An has details.

The group says the corruption⁹ charges on Blagojevich have nothing to do with Illinois former Attorney General Roland Burris. They’re demanding that Secretary of State Jesse White certify¹⁰ the appointment and that Senator Dick Durbin escort Burris into the Senate chambers¹¹. Dock Walls, director of the Committee for a Better Chicago, leads the activists¹². “We don’t believe that there is time for a change in government, and an opportunity to search for another candidate. Roland Burris is more than sufficient. He’s more than capable of taking care of the people’s business. There is no cloud over Roland Burris.”  Walls says if the group’s demands aren’t met, they will work to defeat White and Durbin in upcoming elections. For NPR News, I’m Susie An in Chicago.

A consortium of private equity¹³ and hedge fund firms is going to buy the failed mortgage bank IndyMac. The sale was announced today by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation which seized the bank in July. NPR’s Ina Jaffe has more.

One head of the consortium is Steven Mnuchin—the founder¹⁴ of Dune¹⁵ Capital Management, a gold buyer,/ he is new to the banking¹⁶ business. The group will pay 13.9 billion dollars to the FDIC and pump another 1.3 billion dollars into the bank itself. IndyMac’s specialized¹⁷ in high-risk mortgages that did not require borrowers to prove they had sufficient income. When the housing market began to collapse¹⁸, there was a run on the bank. But Evan Wagner, spokesman for IndyMac, says that what is left to the bank is fairly valuable. “You have 33 bank branches with a stable deposit base of around 6.5 billion dollars. And you’re also talking about customers who have kept their money in the institution, despite everything else that happened.” The new owners are expected to continue a loan modification¹⁹ program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Ina Jaffe, NPR News.

On the first trading day of 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 258 points to close at 9,034. The NASDAQ was up 55 points, closing at 1,632. The S&P was up 28.

This is NPR.

AirTran Airways²⁰ says a misunderstanding led to nine Muslim passengers being removed from one of its flights yesterday. In a formal apology, AirTran says other passengers on board thought they overheard a suspicious conversation. The nine were cleared of any wrongdoing but weren’t allowed back on board.

Ethiopian troops have begun pulling out of Somalia where for the past two years they’ve been trying to protect Somalia’s transitional government from an Islamist insurgency²¹. Meanwhile a well-known Somali journalist and two members of the National Reconciliation²² Commission have been murdered. NPR’s Gwen Tompkins reports.

Hassan Mayow Hassan was a journalist working for Radio Shabelle. He was gunned down yesterday outside Mogadishu. Hassan is the latest in a long list of Somali journalists who have been killed over the past two years. Still others have been hounded out of the country. Assassination²³ has become a tool of Al Shebab, the most radical²⁴ wing of an Islamist insurgency that now controls most of Somalia. But there are other armed groups in Somalia that have been accused of killing²⁵ for personal vendettas²⁶, or political gain. Abdullahi Abdi Egaal died in a separate incident yesterday. He was a member of Somalia’s National Reconciliation Commission. Another deputy minister of the commission was killed last week. The United Nations is calling for a full investigation²⁷, but Somalia’s transitional government is on increasingly shaky ground. It is unclear whether they can bring the guilty to justice. Gwen Tompkins, NPR News, Nairobi.

The teenage son of actor John Travolta died today. 16-year-old Jett Travolta was vacationing with his family at their home in the Bahamas, when he reportedly fell, hit his head and died. No further details are available.

1 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

2 reiterates   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The Chinese government reiterates that the question of Taiwan is China's internal affair. 中国政府重申，台湾问题是中国的内政。 来自汉英非文学 - 汉英文件
• Wang Jianzhou reiterates a fact and a viewpoint in Davos. 王建宙在达沃斯重申一个事实和一个观点。

3 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。

4 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。

5 mechanisms   

n.机械( mechanism的名词复数 )；机械装置；[生物学] 机制；机械作用

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms. 这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He explained how the two mechanisms worked. 他解释这两台机械装置是如何工作的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 smuggled   

水货

参考例句：

• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Those smuggled goods have been detained by the port office. 那些走私货物被港务局扣押了。 来自互联网

7 mosque   

n.清真寺

参考例句：

• The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
• Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前，清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。

8 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

9 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

10 certify   

vt.证明，证实；发证书(或执照)给

参考例句：

• I can certify to his good character.我可以证明他品德好。
• This swimming certificate is to certify that I can swim one hundred meters.这张游泳证是用以证明我可以游100米远。

11 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

12 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

14 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

15 dune   

n.(由风吹积而成的)沙丘

参考例句：

• The sand massed to form a dune.沙积集起来成了沙丘。
• Cute Jim sat on the dune eating a prune in June.可爱的吉姆在六月天坐在沙丘上吃着话梅。

16 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

17 specialized   

adj.专门的，专业化的

参考例句：

• There are many specialized agencies in the United Nations.联合国有许多专门机构。
• These tools are very specialized.这些是专用工具。

18 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

19 modification   

n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻

参考例句：

• The law,in its present form,is unjust;it needs modification.现行的法律是不公正的，它需要修改。
• The design requires considerable modification.这个设计需要作大的修改。

20 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

21 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

22 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

23 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

24 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

25 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

26 vendettas   

n.家族世仇( vendetta的名词复数 )；族间仇杀；长期争斗；积怨

参考例句：

• I'm not getting involved in your personal vendettas. 我没有牵扯到你们的私人恩怨里。 来自互联网

27 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。