美联社新闻一分钟 2005-07-12

1.Gulf¹ Coast residents begin hurricane cleanup the day after hurricane Dennis hit the storm-weary Florida Panhandle and Alabama coast with less force than feared.

2.The death toll² from London's terrorist bombings continues to rise as workers search for more bodies and Londoners return to riding subways and buses.

3.President Bush expressing solidarity³ with Britons says terrorists are trying to break the will of the world's democracies by killing⁴ innocent people.

4.World leaders join 50,000 marking the anniversary of the Serb massacre⁵ of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica 10 years ago.

5.And for the first time since the 2003 Columbia disaster, a NASA countdown is under way for Wednesday's lift-off of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1.clearup:n.a process by which you get rid of dirt or waste from a place.
eg.The cleanup of the oil spill took months.

2.weary:adj.very tired or bored, especially because you have been doing something for a long time.
eg.She found Rachel in the kitchen, looking old and weary.

3.solidarity:n.loyalty⁶ and general agreement between all the people in a group, or between different groups because they all have a shared aim.

4.countdown:n.the period of time before something happens, such as a spacecraft being launched, when someone counts backwards⁷ until the event happens.

1 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

2 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。

3 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

4 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

5 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

6 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

7 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。