NPR美国国家公共电台 NPR 2015-08-23

 From NPR News in Washington, I’m Lakshmi Singh. The sell-out in major markets around the world is playing out on Wall Street. In late trading, the Dow plunged¹ more than 400 points; it’s now down more than 500 points, or more than three percent. The S&P 500 was down by as much, while the Nasdaq slipped more than three percent of 1 point. The volatility² is the result of multiple factors. Investors³ are worried about a slow-down in the world’s second economy—China. Beijing is reporting unexpectedly weak manufacturing data, also wondering about what the Fed will do about raising interest rates. Also it’s August; a lot of people are on vacation. So the result of world trading may be more pronounced. NPR’s James Roly discusses the broader impact on the market. Well, this has been a bad week for the stock market. It’s basically wiped out all of the gains the market has had this year. The S&P 500 has actually fallen below 2,000. It is just one of the sort of important measure psychologically that investors look to. This really has happened everywhere. All over the world, it happened in Japan, it happened in London, Frankfort and Hong Kong. NPR’s James Roly reporting. Preliminary tests indicate that the self-proclaimed Islamic State used chemical weapon during an attack in northern Iraq earlier this month. NPR’s Tom Boben reports a senior military official says more testing needs to be done before any solid conclusions can be reached. The attack occurred on August 11 not far from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Mortar⁴ rounds fired by ISIS landed near Kurdish forces. After the attack, some of those Kurdish troops said their skin started blistering⁵. Others had trouble breathing and suspected the rounds included chemicals. The US collected some of the mortar fragments and conducted a field test. Here’s Brigadier General Kevin Killea. “They show the presence of HD, or what’s known as sulfur⁶ mustard. That is, a class one chemical agent.”

Still Killea said more detail test will be needed to determine the exact nature of the chemical and where it came from. Tom Boben, NPR News, Washington. The White House reports that Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, the second in command of ISIS has been killed in a US military airstrike. The administration says the operation was carried out this week near Mozul, Iraq. Cries erupted from a crowd of thousands of migrants as Macedonian special police forces fired stun⁷ grenades to disperse⁸ them. Large influx⁹ of migrants who were heading north to the European Union were stuck on the border with Greece after police sealed off the crossing. This hour Macedonia is again allowing migrants through but in controlled numbers as local authorities say they will be able to handle. Before close, the Dow was down 531 points, more than three percent of its 16,460. All major markets ended down more than three percent. This is NPR. Britain has just released its historic top secret files on the working of its domestic intelligence service MI5. Several well-known people were under suspicion for alleged¹⁰ subversive¹¹ activity that included Nobel Prize winning author Doris Lessing, who was monitored more than 20 years. Larry Miller¹² reports. MI5 considered Doris Lessing a person of high interest as a result of her openly communist politics and what it is described as her fanatic¹³ opposition¹⁴ to racial separation in southern Africa. Surveillance began in 1943 even before she left for Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, from London, and well before she began writing. Intelligence followed her, bugged¹⁵ her phone, letter and mail, and ran through her luggage. Lessing’s neighbors were informants. Her writings were analyzed¹⁶ for being subversive. Even after Lessing left Britain’s communist party in 1956, she was still considered to be a risk. MI5 stopped tracking her in 1964 by which time she had become a successful writer. Lessing died two years ago. For NPR News, I’m Larry Miller in London. Federal safety regulators in the US are investigating reports of defective¹⁷ airbags on some older Honda Accords that may not inflate¹⁸ during a collision. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it is looking into more than 380,000 vehicles from the 2008 model year. The agency is acting¹⁹ on 19 consumer complaints of failure with certain Honda airbags. In a separate case, the agency is rejecting a request by an electrical engineer to investigate low-speed unintended acceleration²⁰ to Toyota and Lexus cars. This is NPR.

1 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

2 volatility   

n.挥发性，挥发度，轻快，（性格）反复无常

参考例句：

• That was one reason why volatility was so low last year.这也是去年波动性如此低的原因之一。
• Yet because volatility remained low for so long,disaster myopia prevailed.然而，由于相当长的时间里波动性小，灾难短视就获胜了。

3 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

4 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

5 blistering   

adj.酷热的；猛烈的；使起疱的；可恶的v.起水疱；起气泡；使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡

参考例句：

• The runners set off at a blistering pace. 赛跑运动员如脱缰野马般起跑了。
• This failure is known as preferential wetting and is responsible for blistering. 这种故障称为优先吸湿，是产生气泡的原因。 来自辞典例句

6 sulfur   

n.硫，硫磺（=sulphur）

参考例句：

• Sulfur emissions from steel mills become acid rain.炼钢厂排放出的硫形成了酸雨。
• Burning may produce sulfur oxides.燃烧可能会产生硫氧化物。

7 stun   

vt.打昏，使昏迷，使震惊，使惊叹

参考例句：

• When they told me she had gone missing I was totally stunned.他们告诉我她不见了时，我当时完全惊呆了。
• Sam stood his ground and got a blow that stunned him.萨姆站在原地，被一下打昏了。

8 disperse   

vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散

参考例句：

• The cattle were swinging their tails to disperse the flies.那些牛甩动着尾巴驱赶苍蝇。
• The children disperse for the holidays.孩子们放假了。

9 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

10 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

11 subversive   

adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子

参考例句：

• She was seen as a potentially subversive within the party.她被看成党内潜在的颠覆分子。
• The police is investigating subversive group in the student organization.警方正调查学生组织中的搞颠覆阴谋的集团。

12 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

13 fanatic   

n.狂热者，入迷者；adj.狂热入迷的

参考例句：

• Alexander is a football fanatic.亚历山大是个足球迷。
• I am not a religious fanatic but I am a Christian.我不是宗教狂热分子，但我是基督徒。

14 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。

15 bugged   

vt.在…装窃听器（bug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The police have bugged his office. 警察在他的办公室装了窃听器。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had bugged off before I had a chance to get a word in. 我还没来得及讲话，他已经走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 defective   

adj.有毛病的，有问题的，有瑕疵的

参考例句：

• The firm had received bad publicity over a defective product. 该公司因为一件次品而受到媒体攻击。
• If the goods prove defective, the customer has the right to compensation. 如果货品证明有缺陷， 顾客有权索赔。

18 inflate   

vt.使膨胀，使骄傲，抬高（物价）

参考例句：

• The buyers bid against each other and often inflate the prices they pay.买主们竞相投标，往往人为地提高价钱。
• Stuart jumped into the sea and inflated the liferaft.斯图尔特跳到海里给救生艇充气。

19 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

20 acceleration   

n.加速，加速度

参考例句：

• All spacemen must be able to bear acceleration.所有太空人都应能承受加速度。
• He has also called for an acceleration of political reforms.他同时呼吁加快政治改革的步伐。