在线英语听力室_免费在线英语听力学习网站

1. Treasury¹ Secretary Timothy Geithner will unveil the Obama administration's new framework to aid the financial sector² on Tuesday. Geithner had been scheduled to announce the plan Monday. He will use the delay to focus on the Senate's effort to pass an economic recovery package.

2. The Ohio sheriff who took part in a massive rescue operation on Lake Erie says authorities should reconsider civil penalties for stranded³ ice fishermen. The Coast Guard and other rescuers had to use helicopters and airboats to reach 134 anglers on a miles-long ice floe⁴. One man died.

3. More than 80 people are dead as a result of the worst wildfires in Australia in a quarter century. The fires have also burned hundreds of homes in Victoria Province. The prime minister has ordered millions of dollars in emergency aid.

4. Jennifer Figge became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. The 56-year-old left Cape⁵ Verde Islands off Africa's west coast January 12, battling waves of up to 30 feet and strong winds. She arrived in Trinidad Sunday.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. framework: n.

A framework is a particular set of rules, ideas, or beliefs which you use in order to deal with problems or to decide what to do.

2. ice floe: n.

an area of ice floating in the sea, that has broken off from a larger mass