NPR 2011-05-01

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Nancy Lyons.

Volunteers are doing what they can to help victims of the massive tornadoes¹ that swept across the South this week, killing² more than 330 people. Walt Maddox is mayor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, one of the hardest-hit communities.

"Today, thousands of volunteers and dedicated³ city employees, along with emergency providers, will stand shoulder to shoulder with their fellow citizens to provide food, water, first aid and most importantly comfort."

Tens of thousands of Alabama homes and businesses are still without power.

A federal appeals court is giving the go-ahead for the US Army Corps⁵ of Engineers to blow a hole in a Mississippi River levee. As NPR's Allison Keyes reports, they are trying to protect an area downriver from flooding.

The Army Corps of Engineers is considering using explosives to blast a hole through the levee and ease the strain rising Mississippi River levels are putting on a floodway system created after a record-setting 1927 flood. Corps spokesman Jim Pogue says the explosion would allow the corps to remain in control of that section of the national flood protection system. If the river doesn't drop and the levee isn't breached⁶, he says: "Significantly larger amounts of land in Missouri and down into Arkansas, including several larger communities, could be adversely⁷ affected⁸." The state of Missouri lost a court appeal today to block that plan, which officials there say would flood as many as 130,000 acres of rich farmland, leaving a layer of silt¹⁰ that could take a generation to clear. Allison Keyes, NPR News.

NASA says engineers should know by tomorrow whether there will be a Monday attempt to launch the space shuttle Endeavour. Friday's liftoff was scrubbed due to a glitch¹¹ in the heating system that's connected to the hydraulics. Engineers have spent much of today draining fuel from the shuttle so they could reach the compartment¹² where the problem occurred.

NATO powers are rejecting Muammar Gaddafi's call for a ceasefire, saying they want actions, not words. Gaddafi made the offer during an early morning televised address. NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro is in Benghazi and has more on the Libyan leader's speech.

Gaddafi's appearance is always slightly eccentric. Needless to say the very fact that he came on state television in the middle of the night, when very few Libyans would be watching, shows that this is a man who many people feel is not in full control of his own faculties¹³, much less those of the rest of the country, but you have to understand that western Libya is still in his thrall¹⁴. There are checkpoints everywhere. There is a real sense that he does have control over the military forces.

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reporting from Benghazi.

In Afghanistan, NATO says that a Taliban threat to begin a spring offensive tomorrow is a propaganda ploy⁴. Coalition¹⁵ forces have been intensifying¹⁶ security in anticipation¹⁷ of increased militant¹⁸ attacks.

This is NPR News from Washington.

It is the last weekend that the Canadian federal election campaign. As Dan Karpenchuk reports, if recent polls are to be believed, Canada's political map could be in for some dramatic changes.

Traditionally, power has fallen to the country's two largest parties: the Liberals and the Conservatives. The third national party, the New Democrats¹⁹, who are further left on the spectrum²⁰, usually run a distant third, but over the past week, the party has surged in the polls mainly because of the popularity of its leader Jack²¹ Layton. It has passed the Liberals in support, and it's even eating into the lead of Prime Minister Harper's Conservatives, and the NDP is threatening the separatist Bloc⁹ Québécois' supremacy²² in Quebec. All of the other parties have now focused their attack ads against the NDP, hoping to slow its momentum²³. The latest smear²⁴ against its leader comes from a TV news report saying Layton had 16 years ago been interviewed by police in connection with a massage²⁵ parlor²⁶. No charges were ever filed. For NPR News, I'm Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto.

President Obama says it's time to end the four billion dollars in tax breaks for the oil and gas industry. In his broadcast address today, he said the giveaways aren't right. He says the money recouped from ending the tax subsidies²⁷ would be better spent on researching new energy resources. Republicans say ending the subsidies would mean tax increases that would end up costing jobs, and Congressman²⁸ James Lankford from oil-rich Oklahoma said in a GOP address that Mr. Obama has smothered²⁹ the industry in new regulations.

President Obama will be looking for smiles tonight when he attends the White House Correspondents' Association Annual Dinner. The event is typically a light-hearted affair and an opportunity for the president to show off his humorous side.

I'm Nancy Lyons, NPR News in Washington.

1 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

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 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

4 ploy   

n.花招，手段

参考例句：

• I think this is just a government ploy to deceive the public.我认为这只是政府欺骗公众的手段。
• Christmas should be a time of excitement and wonder,not a cynical marketing ploy.圣诞节应该是兴奋和美妙的时刻，而不该是一种肆无忌惮的营销策略。

5 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

6 breached   

攻破( breach的现在分词 )； 破坏，违反

参考例句：

• These commitments have already been breached. 这些承诺已遭背弃。
• Our tanks have breached the enemy defences. 我方坦克车突破了敌人的防线。

7 adversely   

ad.有害地

参考例句：

• We commented adversely upon the imbecility of that message of telegraphic style. 我们对着这条电报式的愚蠢的留言发泄了一通不满。
• Widely fluctuating exchange rates may adversely affect international trade. 浮动幅度很大的汇率可能会对国际贸易产生有害的影响。

8 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。

9 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

10 silt   

n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞

参考例句：

• The lake was almost solid with silt and vegetation.湖里几乎快被淤泥和植物填满了。
• During the annual floods the river deposits its silt on the fields.每年河水泛滥时都会在田野上沉积一层淤泥。

11 glitch   

n.干扰；误操作，小故障

参考例句：

• There is a glitch in the computer program somewhere.这个计算机程序中的某个部分有点小问题。
• It could just be a random glitch that can be solved by restarting the machine.可能只是一个小故障，重新启动主机就能解决了。

12 compartment   

n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间

参考例句：

• We were glad to have the whole compartment to ourselves.真高兴，整个客车隔间由我们独享。
• The batteries are safely enclosed in a watertight compartment.电池被安全地置于一个防水的隔间里。

13 faculties   

n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院

参考例句：

• Although he's ninety, his mental faculties remain unimpaired. 他虽年届九旬，但头脑仍然清晰。
• All your faculties have come into play in your work. 在你的工作中，你的全部才能已起到了作用。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 thrall   

n.奴隶；奴隶制

参考例句：

• He treats his wife like a thrall.他把妻子当作奴隶看待。
• He is not in thrall to the media.他不受制于媒体。

15 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

16 intensifying   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的现在分词 )；增辉

参考例句：

• The allies are intensifying their air campaign. 联军部队正加大他们的空战强度。 来自辞典例句
• The rest of the European powers were in a state of intensifying congestion. 其余的欧洲强国则处于越来越拥挤的状态。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史

17 anticipation   

n.预期，预料，期望

参考例句：

• We waited at the station in anticipation of her arrival.我们在车站等着，期待她的到来。
• The animals grew restless as if in anticipation of an earthquake.各种动物都变得焦躁不安，像是感到了地震即将发生。

18 militant   

adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals.一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。
• He is a militant in the movement.他在那次运动中是个激进人物。

19 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

21 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

22 supremacy   

n.至上；至高权力

参考例句：

• No one could challenge her supremacy in gymnastics.她是最优秀的体操运动员，无人能胜过她。
• Theoretically,she holds supremacy as the head of the state.从理论上说，她作为国家的最高元首拥有至高无上的权力。

23 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

24 smear   

v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑

参考例句：

• He has been spreading false stories in an attempt to smear us.他一直在散布谎言企图诽谤我们。
• There's a smear on your shirt.你衬衫上有个污点。

25 massage   

n.按摩，揉；vt.按摩，揉，美化，奉承，篡改数据

参考例句：

• He is really quite skilled in doing massage.他的按摩技术确实不错。
• Massage helps relieve the tension in one's muscles.按摩可使僵硬的肌肉松弛。

26 parlor   

n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅

参考例句：

• She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
• Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店？

27 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

28 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。

29 smothered   

（使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制

参考例句：

• He smothered the baby with a pillow. 他用枕头把婴儿闷死了。
• The fire is smothered by ashes. 火被灰闷熄了。