NPR 2012-07-16

 President Obama says Washington feels as broken now as the day he took office in 2009. NPR's Allison Keyes reports the president's comments come as polls show him to be in a tight race with his Republican opponent.

 

President Obama says he won't criticize presumptive Republican presidential nominee¹ Mitt² Romney for saying the White House hasn't pulled the economy far enough out of the hole that was in 4 years ago, because if he were the challenger, he'd be making the same argument. He tells CBS at Sunday Morning that the thing that's frustrated³ him most is 

 

I haven't been able to change the atmosphere here in Washington to reflect the decency⁴ and common sense of ordinary people--democrats, republicans and independents--who I think just want to see their leadership solve problems. 

 

Several recent polls including Gallup and McClatchy/Marist showed the president had a virtual tie with Romney. Allison Keyes, NPR News, Washington.

 

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today urged Egyptians to commit to a strong durable⁵ democracy that protects the rights of all citizens. She met yesterday with the newly elected Islamic president and today with the generals who have been running Egypt since the fall of Hosni Mubarak last year. Clinton said the Egyptian military deserves praise for the way its handle the transition.

 

As compared to what we are seeing in Syria, which is the military murdering its own people. The SCAF here protected the Egyptian nation.

 

She said democracy is more than just elections，that it has to mean the majority will protect the rights of the minority. 

 

The International Committee of the Red Cross said today it now considers the conflict in Syria to be a civil war. This means that international humanitarian⁶ law will apply. The assessment⁷ could form the basis for the prosecution⁸ of war crimes. 

 

UN observers in Syria say the government attack on the village of Tremseh seems to have targeted mostly army deserters and opposition⁹ supporters. They say heavy weapons were used. The BBC's Jim Muir reports.

 

The UN mission said the scale of casualties were still not clear. But it said the attack appeared to target specific houses or buildings used by army deserters or opposition activists¹⁰. That runs countered at some of villagers' accounts of heavy random¹¹ bombardment killing¹² many civilians¹³ and others being killed at close range. The UN reports that there were pools and traces of blood in several of the targets houses and a school and five /brunnings/? had been set on fire. Although it avoids drawing conclusion, its findings certainly do not confirm that it was a wholesale¹⁴ indiscriminate massacre¹⁵ of civilians as activists initially¹⁶ reported.

 

The BBC's Jim Muir.

 

The UN team is to return to the village later today to continue its work. 

 

An overcrowded bus skidded¹⁷ off a rain slipped highway in Kathmandu today. Officials say 35 people were killed. The bus was carrying pilgrims to Hindu shrines¹⁸.

 

This is NPR News.

 

A /sweas/?? spaceship was launched into orbit today from a Russian base in Kazakhstan. It's heading for the international space station with 3 astronauts, one each from Russia, Japan and the United States.

 

China has refloated a warship¹⁹ which had run aground on disputed territory near the Philippines. NPR's Louisa Lim reports from Beijing.

 

The warship was removed from half-moon shore about 17 miles from the western Philippines. It's now heading back home along with 6 other Chinese ships seen in the disputed area. Ties between the two countries are tense, following a months long standoff earlier this year at another location Scarborough Shore. Six countries have /vival/?? claims in the south China sea which became a central issue at an ASEAN regional summit last week where members failed to agree a concluding statement. Chinese sovereignty claims out also complicating²⁰ ties with Japan. It's recorded its ambassador to Beijing for talks over another disputed island chain. This is time in the East China Sea. Louisa Lim, NPR News, Beijing.

 

Actress Celeste Holm died early this morning at her New York apartment. She was 95. Her great niece said Holm has been in hospital for 2 weeks but asked to go home on Friday. Holm performed on stage, in movies and on the small screen. On Broadway she played the girl who couldn't say no in Oklahoma. She was Betty Davis' best friend in the film All about Eve and over the years, Holm also appeared as a guest star on a variety of television shows, such as Fantasy Island. 

 

I'm Nora Raum. NPR News in Washington. 

1 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

2 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。

3 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 decency   

n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重

参考例句：

• His sense of decency and fair play made him refuse the offer.他的正直感和公平竞争意识使他拒绝了这一提议。
• Your behaviour is an affront to public decency.你的行为有伤风化。

5 durable   

adj.持久的，耐久的

参考例句：

• This raincoat is made of very durable material.这件雨衣是用非常耐用的料子做的。
• They frequently require more major durable purchases.他们经常需要购买耐用消费品。

6 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

7 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

8 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。

9 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。

10 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

12 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。

13 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

14 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

15 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

16 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。

17 skidded   

v.（通常指车辆） 侧滑( skid的过去式和过去分词 )；打滑；滑行；（住在）贫民区

参考例句：

• The car skidded and hit a lamp post. 那辆汽车打滑撞上了路灯杆。
• The car skidded and overturned. 汽车打滑翻倒了。

18 shrines   

圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• All three structures dated to the third century and were tentatively identified as shrines. 这3座建筑都建于3 世纪，并且初步鉴定为神庙。
• Their palaces and their shrines are tombs. 它们的宫殿和神殿成了墓穴。

19 warship   

n.军舰，战舰

参考例句：

• He is serving on a warship in the Pacific.他在太平洋海域的一艘军舰上服役。
• The warship was making towards the pier.军舰正驶向码头。

20 complicating   

使复杂化( complicate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• High spiking fever with chills is suggestive of a complicating pylephlebitis. 伴有寒战的高热，暗示合并门静脉炎。
• In America these actions become executive puberty rites, complicating relationships that are already complicated enough. 在美国，这些行动成了行政青春期的惯例，使本来已经够复杂的关系变得更复杂了。