NPR 2009-12-22

From NPR news in Washington, I'm Craig Windham.

President Obama is praising Senate Democrats¹ for what he called a big victory for the American people a vote to advance legislation to overhaul² the nation's health care system. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

The president applauded the early morning vote in which all 60 members of the Democratic Senate Caucus³ agreed to move forward the health care bill. Mr. Obama said the measure would help seniors, families and businesses and he used numbers from the Congressional Budget Office to rebuff the Republican argument that health care overhaul will produce more red ink.

This cuts our deficit⁴ by 132 billion dollars the first ten years and by over a trillion in the second. That argument that opponents are making against this bill does not hold water.

The Senate vote suggests Democrats have the filibuster⁵ to prove majority they need to approve the health care bill before Christmas. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.

Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood⁶ has announced new rules that bar airlines from keeping travelers stranded⁷ on planes delayed in airport for longer than three hours. In the first half of this year, passengers on 613 fights had to wait for longer than that before finally departing.

Airlines have been struggling today to get travelers home, travelers who were stranded by the massive snow storm that walloped the east coast over the weekend. But that’s easier said than done. Adam Reaker is at the New York airport trying to get home to Denver.

I had fight Saturday that got cancelled. I had fight yesterday that got cancelled. Now, they are trying to make me stay until Wednesday. And that's with United, and I am trying to see if American will take my fight tonight.

Federal Aviation Administration says there have been only minimum fight delays on the major airports on the east coast today.

The high speed train line connecting London to the European continent will resume service tomorrow after being shut down for three days. The rail line experienced a number of breakdowns⁹ stretching back to last week when more than 2000 passengers were stranded in the tunnel under the English Channels some for up to 15 hours. Frank Browning reports from Paris.

The Euro Star breakdown⁸ has disrupted travel between London and Paris and Brussels for more than 40,000 people, many of whom still remains¹⁰ stranded on both sides of the English Channels....

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

3 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

4 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

5 filibuster   

n.妨碍议事，阻挠；v.阻挠

参考例句：

• A senator dragged the subject in as a filibuster.一个参议员硬把这个题目拉扯进来，作为一种阻碍议事的手法。
• The democrats organized a filibuster in the senate.民主党党员在参议院上组织了阻挠议事。

6 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

7 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。

8 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

9 breakdowns   

n.分解( breakdown的名词复数 )；衰竭；（车辆或机器的）损坏；统计分析

参考例句：

• Her old car was unreliable, so the trip was plagued by breakdowns. 她的旧车老不听使唤，一路上总是出故障。 来自辞典例句
• How do we prevent these continual breakdowns? 我们如何防止这些一再出现的故障？ 来自辞典例句

10 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。