澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2010-08-02

Labor¹ has lost its election-winning lead with the latest Newspoll showing the ALP and the Coalition² 50-50. A Nielsen poll published at the weekend showed the Coalition ahead on the two-party preferred basis. Today's poll shows primary support for Tony Abbott's Coalition is up 2 per cent.

Police will soon resume searching for a six-year-old girl missing from her home in western Sydney. Kiesha Abrahams' mother said she put her daughter to bed on Saturday night. But yesterday morning, she was gone from her Hebersham home. Now, it's unclear whether she wandered off or was taken.

The number of people killed by flooding in Pakistan is now more than 1000. Landslides³ have washed away whole villages, stranding⁴ thousands of people in the country's northwest. More heavy rain is forecast in the next 24 hours.

The Netherlands has ended its four-year military involvement in Afghanistan. Coalition troops including Australian soldiers will take over operations in Uruzgan province. NATO wanted the Netherlands to extend its mission, but the request triggered a political row which brought down the country's government in February.

And stolen Australian weapons are repeatedly being discovered among Taliban stockpiles. That's according to military documents posted on Wikileaks. Fairfax newspaper said last December, a NATO patrol found Australian equipment among Taliban weapons used to make roadside bombs. The paper says it raises fears that Afghan troops trained by Australian soldiers have been pilfering⁵ military supplies.

1 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。

2 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

3 landslides   

山崩( landslide的名词复数 )； （山坡、悬崖等的）崩塌； 滑坡； （竞选中）一方选票占压倒性多数

参考例句：

• Landslides have cut off many villages in remote areas. 滑坡使边远地区的许多村庄与外界隔绝。
• The storm caused landslides and flooding in Savona. 风暴致使萨沃纳发生塌方和洪灾。

4 stranding   

n.（船只）搁浅v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The airport had to be closed, stranding tourists. 机场被迫关闭，造成游客滞留。 来自辞典例句
• The stream of history had changed course away from him, stranding him in failure. 历史潮流已经改变方向，与他背道而驰，使他陷于失败之中。 来自辞典例句

5 pilfering   

v.偷窃（小东西），小偷( pilfer的现在分词 )；偷窃（一般指小偷小摸）

参考例句：

• He was caught pilfering. 他行窃时被抓个正着。
• Pilfering has stopped entirely since they put Angus in charge of the stores. 自从他们让安格斯掌管商店以来，小偷小摸就杜绝了。 来自《简明英汉词典》