NPR 2011-04-17

Another air traffic controller was found asleep on the job; this time in Miami. The Federal Aviation Administration says it has suspended the controller in Miami who fell asleep early this morning. The FAA also announced today it will ban scheduling practices that are likely to result in fatigued¹ controllers and end the practice of scheduling only one controller on overnight shifts. The Miami incident is the latest in a string of cases of controllers falling asleep on the job, alarming regulators, safety advocates and the flying public.

The Deep South is cleaning up today after deadly storms swept through the region this weekend, killing² a total of 17 people. Yasmin August of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency says parts of her state were devastated³.

"Some of the hardest-hit areas are Autauga County. You know, they have three fatalities⁴. The Washington County, they also have three fatalities. Marengo County has one fatality⁵. So we've had seven fatalities total so far for the state."

At least 30 homes were destroyed in Alabama, and it's believed several tornadoes⁶ touched down. A National Weather Service meteorologist estimates the tornado's winds reached 140 to 150 miles per hour. Tornadoes also touched down in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Egypt's state news agency reports that former President Hosni Mubarak will be transferred to a military hospital, and then to prison when his health improves. NPR's Deborah Amos reports from Cairo that Mubarak collapsed⁷ during a recent corruption⁸ investigation⁹.

The trial of a former Arab president moved a step closer as Egypt's state prosecutor¹⁰ declared that Mubarak will join his two sons in prison. A 15-day detention¹¹ order is likely to be extended, says Hani Shukrallah, editor of the state news outlet¹² AL-Ahram Online. The interim¹³ government will now have to produce hard evidence of corruption and misuse¹⁴ of power. "All of Egypt will be watching," he says, "all this fuss, and then you release them because you don't have enough evidence. Then you really lose the legitimacy¹⁵. It becomes a fuss, and you've got millions back in the streets, and you are the target now. So, they have to take it to the end." Taking it to court is the demand of a protest movement that can still call on massive Egyptians to the streets. Deborah Amos, NPR News, Cairo.

Pakistan's prime minister says his country stands strongly behind efforts to make peace with the Taliban and says while the US is involved in the reconciliation¹⁶ process, Kabul should set the perimeters¹⁷ for talks to end the war. Pakistan's Yousuf Gilani appeared today in a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who also promoted the peace process.

"Both countries are suffering from terrorism, and both countries can only bring peace to one another and to the region by closer, deeper cooperation."

Any solution to the war will require the support of Pakistan and its security forces, some of whom are believed to have strong ties to insurgents¹⁸ in Afghanistan.

From Washington, this is NPR News.

An Egyptian court has ordered today that Mubarak's political party be dissolved. The move meets a major demand of pro-democracy protesters whose movement ended the 30-year rule of Mubarak. The military council is detaining Mubarak and his family for questioning.

An earthquake has shaken the Australian state of Queensland. As Stuart Cohen reports from Sydney the rare quake struck in the heart of the same region devastated by a powerful cyclone¹⁹ in February.

The 5.2-magnitude quake struck about 75 miles southeast of Queensland's coastal²⁰ city of Townsville, the tourist gateway²¹ to the Great Barrier Reef. The area is far from the seismically²² active Pacific Ring of Fire, and the last time a strong quake hit Queensland was more than 70 years ago. Seismologist David Jepsen is with Geo Science Australia.

"And fortunately it's in a very sparsely²³ populated part of Queensland * cut the real coastal strip. It's off the coastal strip, which is good."

Just a couple of hours after the Queensland quake, another 5.2-magnitude tremor²⁴ struck the New Zealand city of Christchurch, knocking out power to parts of the city. It's just one of several aftershocks since a powerful quake hit Christchurch in February, killing nearly 200 people and flattening²⁵ a third of the city's buildings. For NPR News, I'm Stuart Cohen in Sydney.

A top Iranian military official says experts have confirmed that the US and Israel were behind a mysterious computer worm known as Stuxnet that hurt Iran's nuclear program. The official says investigations²⁶ by Iranian experts show the worm originated in Texas and Israel hitting a number of centrifuges at Iran's main uranium enrichment facility.

The group of 20 nations meeting in Washington had put together a new monitoring process. It's intended to halt the tides of destabilizing economic influences that pave the way to the economic meltdown.

1 fatigued   

adj. 疲乏的

参考例句：

• The exercises fatigued her. 操练使她感到很疲乏。
• The President smiled, with fatigued tolerance for a minor person's naivety. 总统笑了笑，疲惫地表现出对一个下级人员的天真想法的宽容。

2 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。

3 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

4 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》

5 fatality   

n.不幸，灾祸，天命

参考例句：

• She struggle against fatality in vain.她徒然奋斗反抗宿命。
• He began to have a growing sense of fatality.他开始有一种越来越强烈的宿命感。

6 tornadoes   

n.龙卷风，旋风( tornado的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Tornadoes, severe earthquakes, and plagues create wide spread havoc. 龙卷风、大地震和瘟疫成普遍的毁坏。 来自互联网
• Meteorologists are at odds over the working of tornadoes. 气象学者对龙卷风的运动方式看法不一。 来自互联网

7 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

8 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

9 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

10 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

11 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

12 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。

13 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

14 misuse   

n.误用，滥用；vt.误用，滥用

参考例句：

• It disturbs me profoundly that you so misuse your talents.你如此滥用自己的才能，使我深感不安。
• He was sacked for computer misuse.他因滥用计算机而被解雇了。

15 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

16 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

17 perimeters   

周边( perimeter的名词复数 )； 周围； 边缘； 周长

参考例句：

• Examples include outdoor perimeters, traffic monitoring, tunnels, and car parks. 例子像户外围墙；交通监视；隧道和停车场。

18 insurgents   

n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The regular troops of Baden joined the insurgents. 巴登的正规军参加到起义军方面来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Against the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents, these problems are manageable. 要对付塔利班与伊拉克叛乱分子，这些问题还是可以把握住的。 来自互联网

19 cyclone   

n.旋风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• An exceptionally violent cyclone hit the town last night.昨晚异常猛烈的旋风吹袭了那个小镇。
• The cyclone brought misery to thousands of people.旋风给成千上万的人带来苦难。

20 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

21 gateway   

n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法

参考例句：

• Hard work is the gateway to success.努力工作是通往成功之路。
• A man collected tolls at the gateway.一个人在大门口收通行费。

22 seismically   

地震

参考例句：

• The crust and mantle are separated by a seismically determined boundary known as the Moho-discontinuity. 改译为：地壳与地幔的交接处系根据地波走失而确定的一个界面，通称为莫霍界面。 来自互联网
• China's code is now on par with similar codes in seismically active areas of the world. 中国现在施行的标准与世界其他地震活跃地区施行的标准基本一致。 来自互联网

23 sparsely   

adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地

参考例句：

• Relative to the size, the city is sparsely populated. 与其面积相比，这个城市的人口是稀少的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The ground was sparsely covered with grass. 地面上稀疏地覆盖草丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

24 tremor   

n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震

参考例句：

• There was a slight tremor in his voice.他的声音有点颤抖。
• A slight earth tremor was felt in California.加利福尼亚发生了轻微的地震。

25 flattening   

n. 修平 动词flatten的现在分词

参考例句：

• Flattening of the right atrial border is also seen in constrictive pericarditis. 右心房缘变平亦见于缩窄性心包炎。
• He busied his fingers with flattening the leaves of the book. 他手指忙着抚平书页。

26 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。