NPR 2009-09-09

The Federal Reserve says that consumers sharply cut back on their borrowing in July. That decline suggests the economic rebound¹ will not come as quickly as many economists³ have predicted.

Food manufacturers now have to tell the Food and Drug Administration about possible food contamination within 24 hours of getting the information themselves. NPR's Joanne Silberner has more.

Two years ago, Congress passed a law requiring food manufacturers to quickly report possible problems of safety. And now the FDA has a way for companies to do it. If an American food manufacturer has been informed of a reasonable possibility that someone has died or gotten sick from consuming one of its products, it must file an electronic report to something called the Reportable Food Registry. It'll have to say where the suspect food was made and what kind of problems it may have caused. The information will not automatically be made public. However, the public can apply to get at least parts of the reports through the Freedom of Information Act. Joanne Silberner, NPR News, Washington.

President Obama spoke⁴ to students at a Virginia high school and nationwide by TV link today as many schools began their new year. Students and parents gathered together in a Philadelphia classroom to hear the President's address. From member station WRTI, Jim Huggan has more.

A dozen students and their parents watched the President's speech in a classroom at the Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in north Philadelphia. Sharita Reid-Elam is the mother of a seventh-grader at the school. She says Mr. Obama's words echo the message she regularly gives her son. She believes the President's speech will help young people concentrate on bettering themselves. "In a crisis, like the crisis that we are in, as far as our young people are concerned, anyone who has anything positive to say, let them say it. And if it can be done on a wide scale, let them hear it.” One eighth-grader called the speech motivating, saying he is now focusing on how his career choice can help other people and how he might be able to influence future generations of students. For NPR News, I'm Jim Huggan in Philadelphia.

Some critics from the political right have said Mr. Obama was trying to spread a socialist⁵ ideology⁶ with his speech. A White House spokesman said they're, they would rather start what he called an Animal House food fight than inspire young people.

The price of gold rose today to its highest level since March of last year, more than 1,000 dollars per ounce. Economist² Hugh Johnson of Johnson Illington Adviser⁷ says he thinks investors⁸ are still worried about the economy, the US dollar and now about pressure on prices. "It means that the plain individual investors as well as institutional investors are starting to become a little bit concerned about the possibility of higher inflation." Investors often buy gold instead of the dollar when they are concerned about the possible drop in the value of the dollar.

Stocks. The Dow Jones Industrials closed up 56 points today at 9,497.

This is NPR News.

The renowned⁹ photographer Annie Leibovitz may lose the copyright to her photographs if she doesn't repay a loan of 24 million dollars to a New York company. The loan is due today. NPR's Margot Adler reports.

The company that made the loan is the Art Capital Group, which is a kind of bank for the art world. They say in legal papers that if Leibovitz doesn't repay the loan, they have the right to her property, her photographs, even her negatives. Leibovitz could file for bankruptcy¹⁰, she could work at a compromise deal or the loan could be extended. It was last winter that news broke that Leibovitz had huge debts and had borrowed millions from Art Capital with her photographs as collateral¹¹. Art Capital sued Leibovitz in July. A spokesman for Leibovitz said last week that the photographer was trying to resolve the situation. Montieth Illingworth, a spokesman for Art Capital said they also hoped this could be resolved, but they had clear contractual rights and would protect them. Margot Adler, NPR News, New York.

Pakistani officials say all of the at least eight people killed in a suspected US missile raid in the north Waziristan tribal¹² region today were militants¹³ linked to the Pakistani Taliban. It was the second airstrike in as many days. The area is near the Afghan border. Also in northwest Pakistan, gunmen reportedly fired at a group of students on their way to school. Four of the students were killed and others were injured.

Allegations of vote fraud are intensifying¹⁴ in Afghanistan as official figures show incumbent¹⁵ President Hamid Karzai with 54% of the vote from the August 20th election, enough to avoid a runoff. And the US State Department says it could take months to sort out the charges. A State Department spokesman says it is not up to the US to say who might be declared the winner.

1 rebound   

v.弹回；n.弹回，跳回

参考例句：

• The vibrations accompanying the rebound are the earth quake.伴随这种回弹的振动就是地震。
• Our evil example will rebound upon ourselves.我们的坏榜样会回到我们自己头上的。

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 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》

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

6 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

7 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

8 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

9 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

10 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。

11 collateral   

adj.平行的；旁系的；n.担保品

参考例句：

• Many people use personal assets as collateral for small business loans.很多人把个人财产用作小额商业贷款的抵押品。
• Most people here cannot borrow from banks because they lack collateral.由于拿不出东西作为抵押，这里大部分人无法从银行贷款。

12 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

13 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。

14 intensifying   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的现在分词 )；增辉

参考例句：

• The allies are intensifying their air campaign. 联军部队正加大他们的空战强度。 来自辞典例句
• The rest of the European powers were in a state of intensifying congestion. 其余的欧洲强国则处于越来越拥挤的状态。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史

15 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。