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1. Hurricane Ike sent waves crashing over a seawall as it steamed toward Texas Friday. The powerful storm is threatening to devastate¹ coastal² towns and batter³ America's fourth largest city. Ike's eye was forecast to strike near Galveston late tonight or early tomorrow.

2. Pakistan's main opposition⁴ party said that country could pull out of the war on terror. The warning comes after a deadly attack by US forces along the Afghanistan border.

3. During a French pilgrimage Pope Benedict is encouraging a role for religion in shaping public policy. That has angered advocates of secularism⁶ in that country. The pope is also expected to denounce fundamentalist fanaticism⁷ during a meeting with cultural figures including several Muslim leaders.

4. And just seven weeks before the election, John McCain is slightly ahead of Barack Obama.That's according to a new AP-GFK poll of likely voters.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

１.seawall n[C]

a wall built beside the sea to stop the water from flowing onto the land

2.devastate vt.

to lay waste;destroy

3.batter vt.

heavily and repeatedly with violent blows

4.secularism

is generally the assertion that certain practices or institutions should exist separately from religion or religious belief. Alternatively, it is a principle of promoting secular⁵ ideas or values in either public or private settings. It may also be a synonym⁸ for "secularist⁹ movement". In the extreme, it is an ideology¹⁰ that holds that religion has no place in public life.

5.fundamentalist n.[C]

someone who follows religious laws very strictly
Muslim fundamentalists

6.fanaticism

Fanaticism is an emotion of being filled with excessive, uncritical zeal¹¹, particularly for an extreme religious or political cause, or with an obsessive¹² enthusiasm for a pastime or hobby.