美国国家电台 NPR 2012-11-07

 Republican presidential candidate Mitt¹ Romney is rallying every vote he can before the polls closed tonight in Massachusetts, where he will return this evening and watch the returns. Between now and then, he and his family are making final appeals in a few battleground states. Romney speaking to his grandkids after voting in Belmont. He and running mate Paul Ryan are holding an event this afternoon in Cleveland, Ohio, which is among the handful of states critical to the presidential candidates. Meanwhile President Obama back in Illinois to await voter results. But he still pumped into a campaign office today where he telephoned unsuspecting supporters in Wisconsin and thanked them. After one call, President Obama joked that the voter on the other end of the phone had no idea that she was speaking to the president himself. 

 

Well, turnout is reported to be heavy in many areas this general election with people waiting hours to cast a ballot³. NPR’s Craig Windham reports at a one polling place in the battleground state of Virginia people are standing⁴ in line up to two hours to vote.

 

Kate Skidmore says she doesn’t mind the wait because this presidential election is important.

 

“It’s so close that I think every vote actually matters.”

 

Most of the voters here including Porter Byers and Kate Helfel say they base their decision on one key issue.

 

“Obviously the economy, very hard to say anything else at this point.”

 

“I’m interested in pushing to get jobs back and get the economy back to where it was.”

 

But some, such as Nicole Todorela, were focused on other issues.

 

“Maintaining education funding at the federal level, and we seriously say we need to bring down the costs of college.”

 

All of these voters say they are glad that the barrage⁵ of mainly negative campaign ads will finally come to an end today. Craig Windham, NPR News, Arlington, Virginia.

 

New York City still recovering from the super storm relocated many voters to new polling sites. NPR’s Margot Adler reports an executive order signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo allows people to file a provisional ballot at any polling site in the state.

 

In Staten Island, a polling place was set up without power at a school in Midland Beach. Police helped light flares⁶ for poll workers who needed light before sunrise. The MTA is running free voter shuttles for people in Staten Island, the Rockaways and Coney Island to ferry them to alternative polling sites. On the lowery site of Manhattan, relocated voters said voting went smoothly⁷. Next to the polling site was a gas station, closed yesterday. A line of 15 people with individual containers were filling up. Fuel is still a problem. Margot Adler, NPR News, New York.

 

In Florida, site of down to the wire voting in past elections, NPR’s Debbie Elliott is covering a polling site in Tampa.

 

Here in Florida, people understand just how close this election is, and they are wanting to make sure that their vote is counted. Both Republicans and Democrats⁸ are saying they didn’t mind waiting the hour in line, because they felt like this was their one chance to make a difference, and that if they didn’t vote, they might be sorry later.

 

NPR’s Debbie Elliott.

 

This is NPR News.

 

Massachusetts voters will decide today whether to allow physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. NPR’s Tovia Smith reports Massachusetts would be the third state to do so following Oregon and Washington.

 

The cases both for and against the measure have been equally heart-wrenching. Stories of suffering patients who resorted to violent means of ending their lives, or they simply continued to suffer, and tales of those who might have made a terrible mistake because the prognosis turned out to be wrong. Vicky Kennedy says her late husband Ted² Kennedy was given two to four months to live but survived fifteen. Instead of assisted suicide, she says more focus should be given to improving palliative and hospice care. Opponents including churches from around the nation have outspent supporters on the measure nearly four to one. Fear in Massachusetts could spark similar efforts elsewhere. Polls show what was a largely lead favoring assisted suicide shrinking over the past month. Tovia Smith, NPR News, Boston.

 

A military hearing on sex crimes charges against an army general is in its second day in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. A former subordinate testified today the Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair threatened to kill her and her family, if she told anyone about their affair. The hearing will determine whether there is enough evidence to court-martial Sinclair on charges of forcible sodomy, wrongful sexual conduct and having inappropriate relationships.

 

At last check on Wall Street, US stocks were high with the Dow gaining 156 points, more than 1%, at 13,268, NASDAQ up 15 at 3,050, and the S&P 500 up 14 points at 1,431.

1 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。

2 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。

3 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

4 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

5 barrage   

n.火力网，弹幕

参考例句：

• The attack jumped off under cover of a barrage.进攻在炮火的掩护下开始了。
• The fierce artillery barrage destroyed the most part of the city in a few minutes.猛烈的炮火几分钟内便毁灭了这座城市的大部分地区。

6 flares   

n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开

参考例句：

• The side of a ship flares from the keel to the deck. 船舷从龙骨向甲板外倾。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He's got a fiery temper and flares up at the slightest provocation. 他是火爆性子，一点就着。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

8 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》