美联社新闻一分钟 2006-11-28

1. Fire gut¹ted a Missouri home for the elderly and mentally ill Monday morning. At least 10 people died, 24 others were injured. The cause is under investigation³.

2. Nine people died in a deadly fire at a Dominican Republic nightclub. Police say the blaze broke out early Monday morning after the club had closed. The victims all worked at the club.

3. The US military says an F-16 jet crashed in Anbar province in Iraq. The military did not release information on what caused the crash or the status of the pilot. A witness says he saw the jet flying erratically⁵ before it went down.

4. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the White House. A cart and horse delivered the official tree to the First Lady this morning in Washington. It reaches 18 feet tall and is from a tree farm in Pennsylvania.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. gut : VERB
To gut a building means to destroy the inside of it so that only its outside walls remain.

2. erratically : ADV
Something that is erratic⁴ does not follow a regular pattern, but happens at unexpected times or moves along in an irregular way. "Erratically" is the adverb form.

1 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。

2 gutted   

adj.容易消化的v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 )；取出…的内脏

参考例句：

• Disappointed? I was gutted! 失望？我是伤心透了！
• The invaders gutted the historic building. 侵略者们将那幢历史上有名的建筑洗劫一空。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 erratic   

adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• The old man had always been cranky and erratic.那老头儿性情古怪,反复无常。
• The erratic fluctuation of market prices is in consequence of unstable economy.经济波动致使市场物价忽起忽落。

5 erratically   

adv.不规律地，不定地

参考例句：

• Police stopped him for driving erratically. 警察因其驾驶不循规则而把他拦下了。 来自辞典例句
• Magnetitite-bearing plugs are found erratically from the base of the Critical Zone. 含磁铁岩的岩栓不规则地分布于关键带的基底以上。 来自辞典例句