英国新闻听力 34

BBC News with Marian Marshall

The leaders from 20 of the world’s biggest economies have agreed a six-point action plan to stimulate¹ worldwide economic growth at their summit in Washington. They also agreed to set a deadline of the 31st of March for proposals to improve how international markets are regulated and monitored. Greg Wood reports from Washington.

The G20 leaders know they have to deliver something to restore a little confidence. Some members within this new family of nations would like to see the summit agree a coordinated² round of tax cuts and increases in government spending to kick start the world economy. It’s doubtful whether the G20 summit can agree on a global plan to revive economic growth. But it will set out new rules to monitor and control the world’s financial system to stop it malfunctioning³ in future.

President Bush has said the G20 summit was very successful. He said the leaders had rejected protectionism and obstacles to free trade. He said much more work was needed to improve transparency and accountability in global financial markets.

The Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who was also in Washington said that even six months ago he would never have been able to imagine that emerging economic powers like Brazil would be given a role in restructuring the global economy which they had at the summit.

The new UN envoy⁴ to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has arrived in the east of the country on a mission to end the fighting there. He said the Congolese President Joseph Kabila hadn’t set conditions for talks with the rebels when he met him in Kinshasa on Friday. The BBC reporter Thomas Fessy is in Goma.

Olusegun Obasanjo came to talk to us as soon as he arrived and we asked him whether or not he would meet with the Tutsi rebels’ leader, the dissident General Laurent Nkunda. “Well, I will meet him before I leave.” Former Nigerian president is here to boost the peace process, everybody here is expecting a lot from his first visit. And his team, told us that, he was supposed to meet with United Nations officials from the peacekeeping mission for a quick brief before he would actually fly over the region on a UN helicopter to get a better picture of the crisis here.

More than 66 people have been killed in Burkina Faso when a bus and a truck collided and caught fire, at least thirty people were injured, many with serious burns, our West Africa correspondent Will Ross reports.

Eyewitnesses⁵ described the gruesome scene as charred⁶ bodies were still being pulled from the bus wreckage⁷ several hours after the accident, they said bodies littered the road whilst more passengers were trapped inside the bus, there were apparently⁸ seventy five passengers on board and they were headed to Ivory Coast. Close to the town of Boromo, a hundred and sixty kilometers west of the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou, the bus collided with a truck full of sugar and both vehicles burst into flames on impact.

World News from the BBC

The Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Santa Babara County where wildfires are blazing out of control, thousands of people have been ordered to leave their homes, police have closed the main road linking southern California to the north. Winds of over 120 kilometers of an hour have spread the fires and prevented some aircraft from dropping water on them.

The United Nations-led peacekeeping mission in Darfur is to investigate claims by rebel groups that the Sudanese government has bombed settlements in the north of the region. The Sudanese army has strongly denied this. Two days ago, President Omar al-Bashir announced an immediate⁹ cease-fire.

The President of Somalia Abdullahi Yusuf has said Islamist insurgents¹⁰ now control most of the country, and have advanced to the edge of the capital Mogadishu. President Yusuf was speaking to Somali parliamentarians in neighboring Kenya, a day after talks on forming a new transitional government failed.

“The government controls Mogadishu and Baidoa and people are killed there everyday, Islamist have taken over everywhere else, so I ask you parliamentarians, do you know the situation we face, who causes all these problems? We are to blame.”

President Yusuf and his Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein have been unable to agree on the make-up of a new cabinet missing a deadline issued by regional leaders last month.

Thousands of people have gathered in Johannesburg, to remember one of South Africa’s best known singers and anti-apartheid campaigners Miriam Makeba who died last weekend. In an emotional memorial service fellow musicians performed her songs with the crowd joining in. Affectionately known as Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba died of a heart attack after performing in Italy, she was 76. The memorial service followed two days of national mourning.

BBC News

1 stimulate   

vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋

参考例句：

• Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
• Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。

2 coordinated   

adj.协调的

参考例句：

• The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

3 malfunctioning   

出故障

参考例句：

• But something was malfunctioning in the equipment due to human error. 但由于人为的错误，设备发生故障了。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• Choke coils are useful for prevention of malfunctioning electronic equipment. 扼流圈对于防止电器设备的故障很有帮助。 来自互联网

4 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

5 eyewitnesses   

目击者( eyewitness的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The examination of all the eyewitnesses took a week. 对所有证人的质询用了一周的时间。
• Several eyewitnesses testified that they saw the officers hit Miller in the face. 几位目击证人证明他们看见那几个警官打了米勒的脸。

6 charred   

v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦

参考例句：

• the charred remains of a burnt-out car 被烧焦的轿车残骸
• The intensity of the explosion is recorded on the charred tree trunks. 那些烧焦的树干表明爆炸的强烈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

8 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

9 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

10 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