NPR 2009-07-11

President Obama has arrived in Ghana on his first visit to Sub-Saharan Africa since taking office. Obama, whose father was Kenyan, is expected to receive a warm welcome as he visits Africa on the heels of his recent attendance at the G8 Summit in Italy and an earlier visit to Russia. The President is slated¹ to meet President John Atta Mills and address Ghana’s Parliament. Earlier today, Mr. Obama sat down with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

 A leaner General Motors has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy² just 40 days after falling under court supervision³. The unusually quick exit from bankruptcy creates a new GM with fewer brands, diminished debt and less onerous⁴ contracts. However, for management, the question remains⁵ whether a new more nimble company can do what the previous GM failed to do: boost the US car and truck sales. Maryann keller is an independent auto⁶ industry analyst⁷.

 “Coming out of bankruptcy, though have a much more competitive costs structure, but at the end of the day, their biggest challenge has been and will continue to be how to get people to consider buying a General Motors brand vehicle and that is not changed by bankruptcy.” The new GM will be majority-owned by the US and Canadian governments.

 Treasury⁸ Secretary Timothy Geithner is proposing strong new regulations on dealers⁹ in financial instruments called derivatives¹⁰. The free-wheeling market has been blamed in part for the worldwide financial crisis. NPR’s Paul Brown reports.

 Trading in derivatives has been almost entirely¹¹ without regulation. And when those underlying¹² assets including subprime mortgages lost value, they contributed to disaster in financial markets. Treasury Secretary Geithner told a joint¹³ Congressional committee that he wants derivatives traders to prove they have capital to cover their investments and to keep much better records. Changes in derivatives regulation would be one small part of the Obama administration’s plan to overhaul¹⁴ the financial system which is facing months of consideration in Congress. Paul Brown, NPR News, Washington.

 A new government report shows President Bush’s secret eavesdropping¹⁵ programs were much more widespread than previously¹⁶ thought. NPR’s Ari Shapiro reports.

 In 2005, the New York Times revealed that the President was eavesdropping on Americans without court oversight¹⁷. This new report says that was just one aspect of a much larger secret spying program. The other parts remain classified. This report says only the President was allowed to decide who could learn about the program. When Attorney General John Ashcroft asked to have his deputy and his chief of staff briefed, the White House said no. Eventually, many top officials at the Justice Department threatened to resign because they believed the program was illegal. It was eventually modified to address their concerns. This report also concludes that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did not intentionally¹⁸ lie to Congress under oath. However, “his testimony¹⁹ was confusing, inaccurate²⁰ and had the effect of misleading those who were not knowledgeable²¹ about the program.” Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.

 This is NPR.

 According to China’s state-run news agency, the death toll²² from ethnic²³ rioting in the country’s western Xinjiang region has now risen to at least 180. The Chinese news agency reported today the death toll includes 137 Han Chinese and 46 Uigurs. Since ethnic rioting that broke out this past Sunday in the capital of Urumchi, security has been tight with thousands of troops patrolling the streets there.

 Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador pulled ahead of his American teammate and rival Lance Armstrong in today’s seventh stage of the Tour de France. It was the first mountainous leg of the tour. Jerome Socolovsky reports from Madrid.

 The race began in the Spanish city of Barcelona on the Mediterranean²⁴ seashore and ended at an elevation²⁵ of 7,350 feet in the Principality of Andorra in the Pyrenees. The decisive moment in the 140-mile leg came near the end. Alberto Contador, the 2007 winner made a move with a little over a mile to go. He crossed the line in ninth place, but still a full 21 seconds ahead of the seven-time American champion. The winner of the stage was Frenchman Brice Feillu, but Italian Rinaldo Nocentini now leads overall with a six-second lead on Contador and with Armstrong two seconds behind the Spaniard in third place. For NPR News, I’m Jerome Socolovsky in Madrid.

 

The nation’s trade shortfall, the difference between what US manufacturers send abroad and foreign companies ship to the US, narrowed in May. The government says the trade deficit²⁶ fell to its lowest level in some nine years as exports grow slightly while weak demand, as a result of the ongoing²⁷ recession, pushed down imports.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 36 points.

1 slated   

用石板瓦盖( slate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Yuki is working up an in-home phonics program slated for Thursdays, and I'm drilling her on English conversation at dinnertime. Yuki每周四还有一次家庭语音课。我在晚餐时训练她的英语口语。
• Bromfield was slated to become U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. 布罗姆菲尔德被提名为美国农业部长。

2 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

3 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

4 onerous   

adj.繁重的

参考例句：

• My household duties were not particularly onerous.我的家务活并不繁重。
• This obligation sometimes proves onerous.这一义务有时被证明是艰巨的。

5 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。

6 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

7 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

8 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

9 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

10 derivatives   

n.衍生性金融商品；派生物，引出物( derivative的名词复数 )；导数

参考例句：

• Many English words are derivatives of Latin words. 许多英语词来自拉丁语。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These compounds are nitrosohydroxylamine derivatives. 这类合成物是亚硝基羟胺衍生物。 来自辞典例句

11 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

12 underlying   

adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的

参考例句：

• The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
• This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。

13 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

14 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。

15 eavesdropping   

n. 偷听

参考例句：

• We caught him eavesdropping outside the window. 我们撞见他正在窗外偷听。
• Suddenly the kids,who had been eavesdropping,flew into the room. 突然间，一直在偷听的孩子们飞进屋来。

16 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

17 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

18 intentionally   

ad.故意地，有意地

参考例句：

• I didn't say it intentionally. 我是无心说的。
• The local authority ruled that he had made himself intentionally homeless and was therefore not entitled to be rehoused. 当地政府裁定他是有意居无定所，因此没有资格再获得提供住房。

19 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

20 inaccurate   

adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的

参考例句：

• The book is both inaccurate and exaggerated.这本书不但不准确，而且夸大其词。
• She never knows the right time because her watch is inaccurate.她从来不知道准确的时间因为她的表不准。

21 knowledgeable   

adj.知识渊博的；有见识的

参考例句：

• He's quite knowledgeable about the theatre.他对戏剧很有心得。
• He made some knowledgeable remarks at the meeting.他在会上的发言颇有见地。

22 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

23 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

24 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

25 elevation   

n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高

参考例句：

• The house is at an elevation of 2,000 metres.那幢房子位于海拔两千米的高处。
• His elevation to the position of General Manager was announced yesterday.昨天宣布他晋升总经理职位。

26 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。

27 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。