NPR 2010-08-12

The major indexes on Wall Street are down more than 2% with fresh concerns over the US economy. Last check, Dow was down 263 points at 10,381. The drop started in Asia, where stocks fell 2.7%, led to heavy selling in Europe and then (in) the US. Art Hogan, chief market analyst² for Jefferies & Company, says it's expected with economic recovery losing steam.

"Clearly, we're talking about a soft touch in the economic downstream, and the growth is slowing, and the Feds spoke³ to that. And we got fresh evidence in that this morning both in China and in the US, so I think that's getting investors⁴ concerned."

That includes worries over the US trade deficit⁵. It widened nearly 19% last month to the highest level since October of 2008.

Hoping to turn things around, President Obama has signed a bill aimed at reducing costs for the nation's manufacturers. At the White House today, the president said the law will help them regain⁶ their footing.

"We will rebuild this economy stronger than before, and at its heart will be three powerful words: Made In America."

The National Association of Manufacturers says(say) the new law will help create jobs and cut costs for(to) businesses and consumers.

A tropical weather system swirling⁷ in the Gulf⁸ of Mexico is blamed for suspending the final stages of killing⁹ BP's blown-out well. Eileen Fleming of member station WWNO has details.

The system is prompting BP to delay the drilling for up to three days. Retried Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says the response team has been extra careful while the relief well is about 30 feet away from its target under the seafloor. It's expected to intercept¹⁰ the broken well next week, then kill the line with mud and cement. The massive drilling rig is staying in the area. Allen says it's designed to withstand wind and waves much worse than what's forecast. The site was cleared last month ahead of Tropical Storm Bonnie. Allen says the relief well should be able to quickly return to work when the storm subsides¹¹. More testing is under way to fine-tune plans of plugging the broken well from the bottom. For NPR News, I'm Eileen Fleming in New Orleans.

Former Democratic Congressman¹² Dan Rostenkowski has died. Rostenkowski served 18 terms in Congress. The once powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee served 15 months in prison and two months in a halfway¹³ house after pleading guilty to two counts of mail fraud in 1996. He also paid a $100,000 fine. In December of 2000, the former Chicago congressman was pardoned by President Bill Clinton.

Federal investigators¹⁴ are looking at the possibility that weather may have played a factor in a plane crash Monday night that killed former Senator Ted¹ Stevens and four others. Former NASA chief Sean O'Keefe was among four who survived. O'Keefe is in critical condition at a hospital in Anchorage.

Looking at numbers again, Dow is down 263 points.

This is NPR News.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she's more confident that the Senate will ratify¹⁵ the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia. But NPR's Michele Kelemen reports the Obama administration has faced an unusually tough battle.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee put off a vote on the New START Treaty until mid-September, and Secretary Clinton says she thinks the treaty is too important to fall victim to election-year politics.

"There is an urgency to ratify this treaty because we currently lack verification measures with Russia, which only hurts our national security interests."

The ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee supports the treaty, and Clinton says she believes it will draw more Republican votes. She's trying to reassure¹⁶ Republicans that the treaty won't limit US missile defense¹⁷ plans. She says the administration is also committed to spending $80 billion over the next decade to maintain and modernize¹⁸ America's nuclear arsenal¹⁹. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the State Department.

The death toll²⁰ from landslides²¹ in northwestern China is now up to 1,100, maybe more now, making it one of the deadliest China's seen in decades. Hundreds more people are still missing. Authorities say heavy rains sent mounds²² of mud and rocks over entire communities in one province over the weekend. There's certainly similar scene in other parts of Asia also enduring the aftermath of powerful storms. The United Nations is appealing for more than $450 million in humanitarian²³ help for Pakistanis hit by the worst floods in their country's history. Officials say more than 14 million people are affected²⁴. An estimated 1,500 have died since a monsoon²⁵ triggered floods over a week ago.

1 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。

2 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 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

5 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

6 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。

7 swirling   

v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Snowflakes were swirling in the air. 天空飘洒着雪花。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• She smiled, swirling the wine in her glass. 她微笑着，旋动着杯子里的葡萄酒。 来自辞典例句

8 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

9 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

10 intercept   

vt.拦截，截住，截击

参考例句：

• His letter was intercepted by the Secret Service.他的信被特工处截获了。
• Gunmen intercepted him on his way to the airport.持枪歹徒在他去机场的路上截击了他。

11 subsides   

v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的第三人称单数 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上

参考例句：

• Emotion swells and subsides. 情绪忽高忽低。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His emotion swells and subsides. 他的情绪忽高忽低。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

13 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

14 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》

15 ratify   

v.批准，认可，追认

参考例句：

• The heads of two governments met to ratify the peace treaty.两国政府首脑会晤批准和平条约。
• The agreement have to be ratify by the board.该协议必须由董事会批准。

16 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

17 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

18 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。

19 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

20 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。

21 landslides   

山崩( landslide的名词复数 )； （山坡、悬崖等的）崩塌； 滑坡； （竞选中）一方选票占压倒性多数

参考例句：

• Landslides have cut off many villages in remote areas. 滑坡使边远地区的许多村庄与外界隔绝。
• The storm caused landslides and flooding in Savona. 风暴致使萨沃纳发生塌方和洪灾。

22 mounds   

土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆

参考例句：

• We had mounds of tasteless rice. 我们有成堆成堆的淡而无味的米饭。
• Ah! and there's the cemetery' - cemetery, he must have meant. 'You see the mounds? 啊，这就是同墓，”——我想他要说的一定是公墓，“看到那些土墩了吗？

23 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

24 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

25 monsoon   

n.季雨，季风，大雨

参考例句：

• The monsoon rains started early this year.今年季雨降雨开始得早。
• The main climate type in that region is monsoon.那个地区主要以季风气候为主要气候类型。