NPR 2009-09-05

A NATO airstrike in northern Afghanistan has killed or wounded at least 90 people, most of them believed to be Taliban fighters. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson has more from Kabul.

 NATO says its aircraft targeted two fuel tankers² that Taliban fighters had hijacked³ overnight in the northern province of Kunduz. Afghan officials say the tankers were carrying fuel for NATO forces. They were hijacked on a main highway to Kabul. A senior Taliban commander and four Chechen fighters were believed killed, so were an unknown number of civilians⁵ who were helping⁶ the militants⁷ unload the fuel when the tankers became stuck in a riverbed. President Hamid Karzai's office said it’s sent a team of police officers and intelligence agents to the scene to investigate. The president expressed concern over the prospect⁸ of NATO having killed Afghan civilians. NATO says it is also investigating what happened although it believes no civilians were in the area at the time of the airstrike. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Kabul.

 According to a spokesman of the US Embassy in Afghanistan, eight security guards there have now been fired as a result of allegations of lewd⁹ behavior and sexual misconduct while two others have resigned. Embassy spokesman also said the private contractor¹⁰ to providing the guards for the State Department has been replaced. The guards all of whom are reportedly to have now left the country appeared in photographs showing them and supervisors¹¹ drinking alcohol and in various stages of nudity. Nearly a thousand US diplomats¹², staff and Afghan nationals work at the embassy facility there.

 The Obama administration sees some encouraging signs in today's jobless report though the nation's unemployment rate jumped to its highest level in more than a quarter century. NPR's Scott Horsley has more.

 Job losses in the US have been slowing. The 216,000 jobs that disappeared in August represent the smallest drop in the last year, a slightly better figure than economists¹³ have been expecting. Vice¹⁴ President Joe Biden notes the country was shedding three times that many jobs earlier this year. But even though the economy is less bad than it was, Biden says, it's still not good enough. "We’re not gonna be satisfied until we start adding, not losing thousands of jobs per month."

Administration officials say the government's economic stimulus¹⁵ plan has helped to cushion job losses. But economists warn the unemployment rate is likely to keep climbing, possibly into next year. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.

 Senate lawmakers are working to hammer out a health care initiative held what has been described as a productive discussion today with further talks slated¹⁶ for next week. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said that the six Senators who held a telephone conference today will meet again on Tuesday to try to determine how to best pass a health care overhaul¹⁷ plan. Congress will soon return from its summer recess¹⁸ next week. President Obama has scheduled a joint¹⁹ session of Congress to talk about what he would like to see in a health care measure for Wednesday.

 On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 96 points to close at 9,441. The NASDAQ was up 35 points today.

 This is NPR.

 The space shuttle Discovery astronauts along with those aboard the International Space Station dodged²⁰ something of a space bullet today. NASA officials say the astronauts were still sleeping when a 15-foot section of an old rocket whizzed by the space station and the docked shuttle, passing within a mile of the astronauts. NASA says it has been monitoring the trajectory²¹ of the piece of space junk and decided²² to determine no action was necessary to move the space station or the shuttle out of the way. The astronauts last night carried out a spacewalk to install a new cooling tank on the space station.

 Firefighters near Los Angeles held a private memorial service today for two of their colleagues who died earlier this week while fighting a huge wildfire that continues burning. Steve Julian of member station KPCC has more.

 Hundreds of weary firefighters stood in a group holding their caps and helmets in their hands in remembering Ted¹ Hall and Arnie Quinones, whose truck went over a cliff Sunday afternoon. Some wore black bands on their arms, others around their badges. A public memorial will be held for the two firefighters at Dodger²³ stadium a week from tomorrow. The station fire grew by only 900 acres overnight, the slowest rate of growth all week, thanks to higher humidity and temperatures in the 60s. With more than 148,000 acres burned, only six homes remain under mandatory²⁴ evacuation. They’re on the western flank in Corral Canyon²⁵. Another fire broke out early this morning along the Orange-Riverside county line in the Cleveland National Forest. It's under 50 acres, but a female firefighter's being treated for a broken leg. For NPR News, I'm Steve Julian in Los Angeles.

 Crude oil futures²⁶ were up slightly on the final trading day ahead of the Labor²⁷ Day weekend. The near-month contract for benchmark crude rose six cents a barrel to settle at $68.02 a barrel in New York.

 I'm Jack⁴ Speer, NPR News in Washington.

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 tankers   

运送大量液体或气体的轮船[卡车]( tanker的名词复数 )； 油轮； 罐车； 油槽车

参考例句：

• They should stop offloading waste from oil tankers into the sea. 他们应当停止从油轮上往海里倾倒废弃物。
• The harbour admits large tankers and freighters. 这个港口容得下巨型油船和货轮。

3 hijacked   

劫持( hijack的过去式和过去分词 )； 绑架； 拦路抢劫； 操纵（会议等，以推销自己的意图）

参考例句：

• The plane was hijacked by two armed men on a flight from London to Rome. 飞机在从伦敦飞往罗马途中遭到两名持械男子劫持。
• The plane was hijacked soon after it took off. 那架飞机起飞后不久被劫持了。

4 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

5 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。

6 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。

7 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

8 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

9 lewd   

adj.淫荡的

参考例句：

• Drew spends all day eyeing up the women and making lewd comments.德鲁整天就盯着女人看，说些下流话。
• I'm not that mean,despicable,cowardly,lewd creature that horrible little man sees. 我可不是那个令人恶心的小人所见到的下流、可耻、懦弱、淫秽的家伙。

10 contractor   

n.订约人，承包人，收缩肌

参考例句：

• The Tokyo contractor was asked to kick $ 6000 back as commission.那个东京的承包商被要求退还6000美元作为佣金。
• The style of house the contractor builds depends partly on the lay of the land.承包商所建房屋的式样，有几分要看地势而定。

11 supervisors   

n.监督者，管理者( supervisor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I think the best technical people make the best supervisors. 我认为最好的技术人员可以成为最好的管理人员。 来自辞典例句
• Even the foremen or first-level supervisors have a staffing responsibility. 甚至领班或第一线的监督人员也有任用的责任。 来自辞典例句

12 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》

13 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 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。

15 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

16 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。

17 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。

18 recess   

n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处）

参考例句：

• The chairman of the meeting announced a ten-minute recess.会议主席宣布休会10分钟。
• Parliament was hastily recalled from recess.休会的议员被匆匆召回开会。

19 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。

20 dodged   

v.闪躲( dodge的过去式和过去分词 )；回避

参考例句：

• He dodged cleverly when she threw her sabot at him. 她用木底鞋砸向他时，他机敏地闪开了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He dodged the book that I threw at him. 他躲开了我扔向他的书。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

22 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

23 dodger   

n.躲避者；躲闪者；广告单

参考例句：

• They are tax dodgers who hide their interest earnings.他们是隐瞒利息收入的逃税者。
• Make sure she pays her share she's a bit of a dodger.她自己的一份一定要她付清--她可是有点能赖就赖。

24 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

25 canyon   

n.峡谷，溪谷

参考例句：

• The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
• The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。

26 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。

27 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。