英国新闻听力 103

Two senior judges in Britain have made a scathing¹ attack on the American authorities for putting pressure on them to withhold² information about how a British resident currently held in Guantanamo Bay was treated. The material relates to allegations that the suspect Binyam Mohamed was tortured. The High Court judges said they'd been told that if the evidence was published, the Americans would withdraw intelligence cooperation with Britain. The BBC's Danny Shaw reports.

Lawyers for Binyam Mohamed asked the court to release reports by the US government about his detention³ in Pakistan and his treatment by or on behalf of the Americans. But the judges said it was not in the public interest to release the documents because there was a real risk the Americans would reduce the intelligence provided to the UK as a result. The court criticized the US government, saying it did not consider that a democracy would expect a court in another democracy to suppress such material.

President Obama has announced that he will limit the salaries that can be paid to executives whose companies get financial aid from the government. He said incomes will be capped at half a million dollars because the government had to ensure that taxpayers⁴ weren't funding excessive compensation in the financial sector⁵. Mr. Obama said executives should not be rewarded for failure.

We all need to take responsibility. And this includes executives at major financial firms who turned to the American people hat in hand when they were in trouble, even as they paid themselves customary lavish⁶ bonuses. As I said last week, this is the height of irresponsibility. It's shameful⁷.

The British government's cultural organization, the British Council, has suspended operations in Iran following what it says was intimidation⁸ of its staff by the Iranian government. From Tehran, here is Jon Leyne.

The British Council says pressure from the Iranian government has been growing for the last two years. No British staff have been granted visas. That left the Council with just 16 Iranian staff in Tehran. When two of them tried to leave the country in December, they had their passports confiscated⁹. Then all of the staff were called in by the Iranian government when, according to the council, it was suggested to them that they should resign. They were gone, so there is no one left to run the office. There's been no comment yet from the Iranian side.

Jon Leyne reporting.

The Vatican has ordered a bishop¹⁰ who holds controversial views on the Nazi¹¹ Holocaust¹² to recant before he can be fully¹³ readmitted into the Roman Catholic Church. The Bishop Richard Williamson who is British has denied that gas chambers¹⁴ existed, and suggested that Nazi Germany murdered no more than 300,000 Jews. In a statement, the Vatican said it hadn't known about Bishop Williamson's views when it agreed to lift his excommunication which was imposed on an unrelated matter 20 years ago.

You are listening to the world news from the BBC.

An Israeli army investigation¹⁵ into the killing¹⁶ of three daughters of a Palestinian doctor has concluded that they died when an Israeli tank fired two shells into his home during the recent offensive in Gaza. The army said it opened fire on what it called suspicious figures in the doctor's house who it believed were directing attacks by nearby Palestinian militants¹⁷. The doctor had worked in Israel treating patients with fertility problems.

German and American media reports say that one of the most wanted Nazi war criminals, Aribert Heim, died in Egypt almost 17 years ago. He was known as Doctor Death for the deadly experiments he performed on inmates¹⁸ in a concentration camp in Austria. Tristana Moore reports.

According to reports in the German media, Aribert Heim was living in Cairo when he died in 1992. He'd converted to Islam and he was known to locals as Tarek Hussein Farid. But he was also one of the world's most-wanted Nazi war criminals. Aribert Heim was a ruthless Nazi doctor who committed atrocities¹⁹ against hundreds of Jews and other prisoners at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. The German public broadcaster ZDF claimed that it found Heim's passport, bank statements, letters and application for residency in a hotel room in Cairo.

The United Nations says it intends to investigate the assassination²⁰ of the former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto more than a year ago. Speaking in Islamabad, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would very soon establish a commission to probe the attack on Benazir Bhutto which happened at a campaign rally ahead of Pakistan's general election.

The fossilized remains²¹ of a giant snake, longer than a bus have been discovered in South America. The fossils were uncovered in an opencast coal mine in Colombia. Researchers believe the reptile²² lived 60 million years ago and snacked on animals the size of a cow. They said the reptile named Titanoboa must have weighed more than a ton.

1 scathing   

adj.（言词、文章）严厉的，尖刻的；不留情的adv.严厉地，尖刻地v.伤害，损害（尤指使之枯萎）( scathe的现在分词)

参考例句：

• a scathing attack on the new management 针对新的管理层的猛烈抨击
• Her speech was a scathing indictment of the government's record on crime. 她的演讲强烈指责了政府在犯罪问题上的表现。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 withhold   

v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡

参考例句：

• It was unscrupulous of their lawyer to withhold evidence.他们的律师隐瞒证据是不道德的。
• I couldn't withhold giving some loose to my indignation.我忍不住要发泄一点我的愤怒。

3 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

4 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

5 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

6 lavish   

adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍

参考例句：

• He despised people who were lavish with their praises.他看不起那些阿谀奉承的人。
• The sets and costumes are lavish.布景和服装极尽奢华。

7 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。

8 intimidation   

n.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• The Opposition alleged voter intimidation by the army.反对党声称投票者受到军方的恐吓。
• The gang silenced witnesses by intimidation.恶帮用恐吓的手段使得证人不敢说话。

9 confiscated   

没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their land was confiscated after the war. 他们的土地在战后被没收。
• The customs officer confiscated the smuggled goods. 海关官员没收了走私品。

10 bishop   

n.主教，（国际象棋）象

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• Two years after his death the bishop was canonised.主教逝世两年后被正式封为圣者。

11 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

12 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

13 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

14 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

15 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

16 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。

17 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

18 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

20 assassination   

n.暗杀；暗杀事件

参考例句：

• The assassination of the president brought matters to a head.总统遭暗杀使事态到了严重关头。
• Lincoln's assassination in 1865 shocked the whole nation.1865年，林肯遇刺事件震惊全美国。

21 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

22 reptile   

n.爬行动物；两栖动物

参考例句：

• The frog is not a true reptile.青蛙并非真正的爬行动物。
• So you should not be surprised to see someone keep a reptile as a pet.所以，你不必惊奇有人养了一只爬行动物作为宠物。