美联社新闻一分钟 2006-08-05

1. Phoenix¹ police have charged two men in a serial² murder case that's claimed six lives and frustrated³ investigators⁴ for more than a year. The suspects were arrested late Thursday night. The mayor calls them "monsters". Police say they're confident the two are behind the serial shootings.

2. Officials at a Syrian hospital say at least twenty-eight people were killed Friday when four Israeli missiles slammed into a warehouse⁵ where farm workers were loading vegetables near the Lebanon-Syrian border. Hezbollah attacks killed at least four today.

3. An earthen dam just across the Mexican border is threatening to send up to six million gallons of water rushing toward El Paso. Nearly one thousand people are taking shelter in the rain-soaked Texas City.

4. And in a small town near Charlotte, North Carolina, drivers got a massive break in gas prices. They lined up Thursday for miles to pay just a dollar twenty-two a gallon. A candidate for Congress trying to drive his campaign message home made up the difference

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. behind: prep.
The people, reason, or events behind a situation are the causes of it or are responsible for it..
=save

2. earthen: adj.
An earthen floor, bank, or mound⁶ is made of hard earth..

3. line up: phrase
If people line up or if you line them up, they move so that they are standing⁷ in a line.

4. drive: verb
Here drive means to carry through vigorously to a conclusion:
达成:精辟地说明并达成结论

5. difference: n
Here difference means the amount by which one quantity is greater or less than another.
差额: 一个数在数量上多于或少于一个数的数值

1 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

2 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

3 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

6 mound   

n.土墩，堤，小山；v.筑堤，用土堆防卫

参考例句：

• The explorers climbed a mound to survey the land around them.勘探者爬上土丘去勘测周围的土地。
• The mound can be used as our screen.这个土丘可做我们的掩蔽物。

7 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。