NPR 2010-10-08

Several European countries are stepping up water testing after poisonous red sludge from a Hungarian aluminum¹ plant reached the Danube River today. The BBC's Nick Thorpe reports on the heightened alerts around Europe's second largest river.

Attention is shifting away now from the immediate² cleanup operation to the threat to the River Danube. For days, the Hungarian authorities have been dumping clay and other materials into the small rivers which flow from Kolontar just to the foot of the Hill Bakony towards the Danube. Those efforts have won them rare praise from environmentalists. Tests show that the first alkaline traces have now entered the river. It's not yet clear how serious the pollution will become, but the first dead fish have been spotted³.

The BBC's Nick Thorpe reporting.

The death toll⁵ is rising from a double suicide blast at a Sufi shrine⁶ in Karachi, Pakistan today. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports at least eight people are dead; dozens more are injured.

Pakistani television channels showed pools of blood and heaps of clothes on the floor of the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine. Police cordoned⁷ off the area as ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals. Thursday night is when hundreds of devotees normally throng⁸ the Sufi shrine. Sunni and Shia Muslims alike come to the shrine to listen to Qawali devotional music, make wishes and lay flowers at the tomb of the 8th century saint. Islamic fundamentalists consider saints and shrines⁹ to be idolatrous. In July, suicide bombers¹⁰ killed more than 40 devotees in an attack on Data Ganj Baksh, a shrine of the patron saint of Lahore. Thursday night, gatherings¹¹ at Sufi shrines have since been scaled back and security beefed up. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Islamabad.

New York's Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg are proposing that sweetened drinks be banned from foods allowed in the Food Stamp Program. NPR's Margot Adler reports health commissioners¹² argue that tens of millions of dollars spent on sugary drinks through the Food Stamp Program are really a federal subsidy¹³ to the industry.

The ban only for New York City residents would be temporary over two years, so the effects could be studied. An attempt to ban junk food in Maine failed two years ago. The USDA said it would violate the program's definition of food and create confusion. Some people say it goes too far like painter Peter Bottigliero.

"Well, we just stop. What if they determine that you can't buy chicken thighs¹⁴ with them 'cause they're too fatty, you can only buy the breast meat.

The ban would not affect milk products or food juices without added sugar. It would affect sweetened drinks that have more than ten calories in eight ounces. Margot Adler, NPR News, New York.

First time, unemployment claims dropped last week, a sign that companies are hiring. The Labor¹⁵ Department found applications fell by 11,000 to 445,000.

The Dow was down 20 points at last check. This is NPR.

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa is the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote more than 30 novels, plays and works of nonfiction. Today, Vargas Llosa expressed emotional thanks.

"Well, I am very pleased, talking seriously, very grateful to the Swedish Academy. It is totally unexpected, a real surprise."

Vargas Llosa's the first South American author to win the $1.5 million prize since Gabriel Garcia Marquez in 1982.

A magazine in Britain today published a previously¹⁶ unseen poem by Ted⁴ Hughes. NPR's Philip Reeves says the poem's causing a sensation in the literary world as it's about the suicide of his wife, the American poet Sylvia Plath.

The poem's in the New Statesman magazine and comes from archives of Ted Hughes's work held by the British Library. It's called Last Letter and focuses on the three days leading up to Plath's suicide in 1963. Hughes and Plath were among the finest English language poets of the 20th century. There's been controversy¹⁷ over her death for decades. She suffered from depression, but Hughes was often blamed particularly by feminists¹⁸ for triggering her suicide by leaving her for another woman. That woman later killed herself and their four-year-old daughter. Plath's death haunted Hughes throughout his life. The novelist Melvyn Bragg, the New Statesman's guest editor this week, says the poem's a missing keystone from Hughes's greatest work Birthday Letters. Philip Reeves, NPR News, London.

We've been seeing moderate movement in US stocks as investors¹⁹ await the results of a monthly unemployment report due out tomorrow. The Dow was down 20 points at 10,949.
 

1 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

2 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

3 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

4 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

5 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。

6 shrine   

n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣

参考例句：

• The shrine was an object of pilgrimage.这处圣地是人们朝圣的目的地。
• They bowed down before the shrine.他们在神龛前鞠躬示敬。

7 cordoned   

v.封锁，用警戒线围住( cordon的过去式 )

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the area until the bomb was defused. 警方封锁了这个地区直到炸弹被拆除为止。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 throng   

n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集

参考例句：

• A patient throng was waiting in silence.一大群耐心的人在静静地等着。
• The crowds thronged into the mall.人群涌进大厅。

9 shrines   

圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• All three structures dated to the third century and were tentatively identified as shrines. 这3座建筑都建于3 世纪，并且初步鉴定为神庙。
• Their palaces and their shrines are tombs. 它们的宫殿和神殿成了墓穴。

10 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

12 commissioners   

n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官

参考例句：

• The Commissioners of Inland Revenue control British national taxes. 国家税收委员管理英国全国的税收。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The SEC has five commissioners who are appointed by the president. 证券交易委员会有５名委员，是由总统任命的。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

13 subsidy   

n.补助金，津贴

参考例句：

• The university will receive a subsidy for research in artificial intelligence.那个大学将得到一笔人工智能研究的补助费。
• The living subsidy for senior expert's family is included in the remuneration.报酬已包含高级专家家人的生活补贴。

14 thighs   

n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿

参考例句：

• He's gone to London for skin grafts on his thighs. 他去伦敦做大腿植皮手术了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The water came up to the fisherman's thighs. 水没到了渔夫的大腿。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

16 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

17 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

18 feminists   

n.男女平等主义者，女权扩张论者( feminist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Only 16 percent of young women in a 1990 survey considered themselves feminists. 在1990年的一项调查中，只有16%的年轻女性认为自己是女权主义者。 来自辞典例句
• The organization had many enemies, most notably among feminists. 这个组织有许多敌人，特别是在男女平等主义者中。 来自辞典例句

19 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会