NPR 2011-02-20

Thousands of protesters are celebrating in the circle that's at the heart of the demonstrations¹ in the capital of Bahrain. It comes a day after a harsh military crackdown. Protesters today began streaming toward the circle again after the royal family ordered the military off the streets. Withdrawing the troops is a key demand by the opposition² for starting a dialog in the crisis there. NPR's Peter Kenyon is in Manama.

There was a good deal of concern that there was going to be clashes, that there would be shooting like there was yesterday, but the military had been redeployed elsewhere. And the riot police had also left, and these people streamed into the roundabout unaffected, and there's now a scene of joyous³ celebration, a complete turnaround in the emotional feel here in just 24 hours, less than 24 hours since the shootings that took place right here yesterday afternoon.

NPR's Peter Kenyon in Manama.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague says it is unacceptable the way Libyan authorities are responding to protests there. Human Rights Watch says at least 84 people have been killed in four days of demonstrations. And today, the Internet was shut down. Hague says authorities must listen to the people's demands for political reform and adds the army must be reined⁴ in.

"We want to make clear to the Libyan government that just because there aren't television cameras present, that does not mean that the world is not watching, and that doesn't mean that the world is going to ignore the way in which protesters and demonstrators are treated."

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker remains⁵ firm on his plan to strip public employees of their bargaining rights. As protests continue to grow at the Wisconsin State Capitol, Shawn Johnson reports more protests are expected through the weekend.

Police estimated Friday's crowd at 40,000 people, the largest yet during this week of protests. Demonstrators could be heard outside as Walker spoke⁶ to reporters from his State Capitol office. He said they had every right to be heard.

"But we're not gonna let for one minute these voices overshadow and overpower the voices of the taxpayers⁷ across this state who elected us to the do the job, and that meant balancing this budget. That's exactly what we're doing."

Union leaders said Friday they'd be willing to pay more for their health insurance and pensions as long as their right to collectively bargain remains intact. Governor Walker says he wants the legislature to pass his plan in one piece. For NPR News, I'm Shawn Johnson in Madison.

NASA will try again to launch the space shuttle Discovery next week after a four-month delay. Discovery's liftoff is now set for Thursday. Senior managers voted unanimously yesterday on the new launch date after discussing the fixes to the leaky external fuel tanks. The launch manger says the leaks to the tanks had been repaired with six-inch patches that he describes as metal Band-Aids.

This is NPR News from Washington.

After a two-day meeting in Paris, Treasury⁸ Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the world's other top economic policymakers are pledging to reduce trade imbalances, but Steve Beckner of Market News International reports there is no concrete plan on just how to do that.

Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers' task was to come up with guidelines for measuring global imbalances. The US runs a huge deficit⁹ with China. The latter's built massive dollar reserves. Some fear these imbalances will lead to the next financial crisis, but the US and China remain at odds¹⁰ over China's practice of fixing its currency exchange rate to the dollar. Geithner calls the yuan undervalued, helping¹¹ China build its trade surplus, but China remains unwilling¹² to fully¹³ submit its policies to G20 scrutiny¹⁴. The group agrees on the need to reduce excessive imbalances and on a set of indicators¹⁵ to measure them. But at China's behest, there is no mention of currency reserves. For NPR News, I'm Steve Beckner in Paris.

Two German journalists [are] to free after being in Iranian custody¹⁶ for four months. They were initially¹⁷ sentenced to 20 months in prison for interviewing the son of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. State media is reporting in an Iranian court throughout the sentence today, commuting¹⁸ it to a fine of $50,000 a piece.

Trinkets are decorating the foot of the statue outside Daytona International Speedway, a tribute to Dale Earnhardt who died ten years ago. He was killed in a crash during the Daytona 500. While Friday was actual anniversary of Earnhardt's death, most of the tributes are expected to come during tomorrow's Daytona 500 race. 

1 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

2 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

3 joyous   

adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的

参考例句：

• The lively dance heightened the joyous atmosphere of the scene.轻快的舞蹈给这场戏渲染了欢乐气氛。
• They conveyed the joyous news to us soon.他们把这一佳音很快地传递给我们。

4 reined   

勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理

参考例句：

• Then, all of a sudden, he reined up his tired horse. 这时，他突然把疲倦的马勒住了。
• The officer reined in his horse at a crossroads. 军官在十字路口勒住了马。

5 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。

6 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。

7 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

8 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

9 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。

10 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

11 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

12 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。

13 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

14 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

15 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

16 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

17 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

18 commuting   

交换（的）

参考例句：

• I used the commuting time to read and answer my mail. 我利用上下班在汽车中的时间来阅读和答复给我的函电。
• Noncommuting objects are as real to the mathematicians as commuting objects. 对于数学家来说，不可交换的对象与可交换的对象是一样真实的。