美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-06-11

 Thank you so much for watching our penultimate program of the school year. I'm Car Azuz. Our first story today on CNN Student News actually started more than 2 years ago.

That's when the violence began in the Middle East nation of Syria. In March of 2011, some people started protesting against Syria's government. The government reacted with force, eventually rebels armed themselves and started fighting back. The United Nations estimates that nearly 70,000 people Syrians, most of them civilians¹, have been kille the country civil war. Both sides have claimed victories in it, the latest victory is by the government. On Wednesday, Syrian forces took control of the city of Qusair, that's after nearly 7 weeks of fighting.

Qusair is in a strategic² location which is why so important to both the government and the rebels. Syrian officials are celebrating their victory; rebel groups are promising³ to continue their fight, despite losing this battle. And thousands of civilians living in Qusair don't know what their future holds.

Next, we're moving over to Europe where couple of countries Germany, and Czech Republic are struggling through severe weather.

--Large areas in central and eastern Europe have been hit by this floods right now, the Czech Republic several people have died. A lot of water that you are seeing here in Meissen actually is coming from the Czech Republic.

CNN reporter Frederik Pleitgen was in the German city of Meissen where river levels are more than 4 times higher than average. Here is what it looks like in other parts of Germany. What's happening is that heavy rain has cuased the waters in several major rivers, like the Danube and the Elba, to rise. These images are from the Czech Republic, a huge part of that country is under a state of emergency. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated⁴ because of these floods. Forecasters are predicting more heavy rain for this weekend

1 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。

2 strategic   

adj.战略（上）的，战略上重要的

参考例句：

• The army moved for strategic reasons.军队作了战略转移。
• The bridge is of strategic importance to us.这座桥对我们至关重要。

3 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

4 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。