NPR 2011-10-25

 World stocks hit their highest level in seven weeks with the investors¹ buoyed² by news that European leaders may be closer to resolving their region's credit crunch³. News of a series of acquisitions end by strong earnings⁴ posted by US companies. Caterpillar⁵, the globe's largest maker⁶ of construction and mining equipment is reporting double-digit growth in quarterly earnings and revenue. Today it led the Dow higher, its shares advancing more than 5%. Before the close on Wall Street, the Dow was up 100 points at 11,908, with the NASDAQ gaining 58 or more than 2% at 2,695, and the S&P 500 up more than 1%, it's at 1,253. 

 

Now the US housing sector⁷ still remains⁸ weak, but President Obama says he is looking to change that. He is in Nevada, where he will release more details of a program to tackle the country's mortgage debt crisis against a backdrop of a state that's among the hardest-hit in foreclosures. We have the latest from NPR's Mara Liasson. 

 

This is the administration's latest effort to help homeowners whose houses are under water, worth less than their mortgages. Under the new plan, the costs of refinancing would go down for people who are current in their mortgage payments and whose mortgages are federally guaranteed. The president is unveiling the program in Las Vegas, ground zero for the mortgage debt crisis. One in every 118 homes in Nevada received a foreclosure notice in September. But White House officials are not saying how many mortgages they think will be refinanced under the new program. The original Home Aaffordable Refinance Program or HARP¹⁰ hasn't produced the number of refinancing that was originally expected. The administration said it hoped that four million Americans would take advantage of it, but less than a million did. Mara Liasson, NPR News, the White House. 

 

Oil prices have jumped more than 4%, the highest level in more than two months. Analysts¹¹ say investors are now trading with the expectation that western economies will keep growing albeit¹² slowly. 

 

In Libya, the gruesome display of Muammar Gaddafi's body in Misrata has been shut down. NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports.

 

It's still not clear what will happen to Gaddafi's remains, but the public will no longer get to ogle¹³ the slain¹⁴ dictator's corpse¹⁵, which is now in an advanced state of decomposition¹⁶. The head of Libya's transitional government says a committee has been formed to determine where Gaddafi will be buried. According to reports, Libya's religious authority has declared that Gaddafi was not a Muslim and therefore he's not entitled to an Islamic burial. The options under consideration, he could be given to his relatives or buried in the city of Misrata in an unmarked grave. The treatment of Gaddafi's corpse has caused controversy¹⁸. The revolutionary fighters though who have had control of the body had defended their showcasing of Gaddafi to the public, saying many people were killed at his behest and the families have a right to see what happened to him. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Tripoli. 

 

From Washington, this is NPR News. 

 

The Syrian ambassador to the US has been recalled after Washington decided¹⁹ to pull its envoy²⁰ out of Damascus over growing security concerns. The State Department said earlier today that Robert Ford⁹ returned to the US over the weekend after the US received what it called credible²¹ threats against the ambassador's personal safety in Syria. 

 

The FBI says 56 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty last year, and more than 53,000 more were assaulted during that time. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports the figures show the dangers of working in law enforcement. 

 

FBI officials study the number of police killings²² every year in the hopes they can improve training for law enforcement officers all over the country. Last year, 56 officers were killed in the line of duty by suspects and 72 more died in car accidents and other episodes. The Justice Department is working with police departments and union leaders to try to reduce the number of fatalities²³. The FBI says the average age of the law enforcement officers who died was 38 years old. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. 

 

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt¹⁷ Romney has formally entered as a candidate in New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary. He submitted paperwork this morning to run in a state where he did not fare very well in 2008. Romney joked that this time he hopes it sticks. The New Hampshire GOP contest is scheduled to be held January 10th. 

 

Before the close on Wall Street, the Dow was up 105 points or nearly 1% at 11,914, and the NASDAQ was up more than 2% at 2,699. 

1 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

2 buoyed   

v.使浮起( buoy的过去式和过去分词 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神

参考例句：

• Buoyed by their win yesterday the team feel confident of further success. 在昨天胜利的鼓舞下，该队有信心再次获胜。
• His encouragement buoyed her up during that difficult period. 他的鼓励使她在那段困难时期恢复了乐观的情绪。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 crunch   

n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声

参考例句：

• If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
• People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。

4 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

5 caterpillar   

n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫

参考例句：

• A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
• A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。

6 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

7 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

10 harp   

n.竖琴；天琴座

参考例句：

• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。
• He played an Irish melody on the harp.他用竖琴演奏了一首爱尔兰曲调。

11 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

12 albeit   

conj.即使；纵使；虽然

参考例句：

• Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的，但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
• Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次，但他并没有气馁。

13 ogle   

v.看；送秋波；n.秋波，媚眼

参考例句：

• He likes to ogle at the pretty girls.他爱盯着漂亮的女孩子。
• All she did was hang around ogling the men in the factory.她所做的就只是在工厂里荡来荡去，朝男人抛媚眼。

14 slain   

杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词)

参考例句：

• The soldiers slain in the battle were burried that night. 在那天夜晚埋葬了在战斗中牺牲了的战士。
• His boy was dead, slain by the hand of the false Amulius. 他的儿子被奸诈的阿缪利乌斯杀死了。

15 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

16 decomposition   

n. 分解, 腐烂, 崩溃

参考例句：

• It is said that the magnetite was formed by a chemical process called thermal decomposition. 据说这枚陨星是在热分解的化学过程中形成的。
• The dehydration process leads to fairly extensive decomposition of the product. 脱水过程会导致产物相当程度的分解。

17 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

18 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。

19 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

20 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

21 credible   

adj.可信任的，可靠的

参考例句：

• The news report is hardly credible.这则新闻报道令人难以置信。
• Is there a credible alternative to the nuclear deterrent?是否有可以取代核威慑力量的可靠办法？

22 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

23 fatalities   

n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 )；死亡；致命性；命运

参考例句：

• Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities. 有几个人受伤，但没有人死亡。
• The accident resulted in fatalities. 那宗意外道致多人死亡。 来自《简明英汉词典》