美联社新闻一分钟 2006-02-01

（单词翻译）

1. Coretta Scott King, the widow of slain¹ civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has died. An activist² in her own right, she created the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, following her husband’s assassination³ in 1968.

2. Samuel Alito has been sworn in as a Supreme⁴ Court justice. President Bush hailed the Senate's confirmation⁵ of Alito that takes Sandra Day O' Connor’s place on the high court.

3. A former postal⁶ worker opened fire at a mail-processing plant Monday night, killing⁷ 5 people before turning the gun on herself. It was the biggest bloodbath at a US postal installation since a massacre⁸ twenty years ago.

4. The crew woke just before dawn to the sounds of twisting metal. A chemical tanker⁹ and cargo¹⁰ ship collided in the English Channel early Tuesday, setting off a rescue of 22 sailors by helicopter and lifeboat. The tanker was carrying 11000 tons of phosphoric acid. But authorities say there was no risk of pollution as the liquid dissolved in the sea

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. hail : verb
to describe someone or something as being very good
e.g. Lang's first film was immediately hailed as a masterpiece.

2. bloodbath : noun [S]
an extremely violent event in which a great number of people are killed:
e.g. Is there nothing that the outside world can do to prevent a bloodbath?

3. phosphoric : adj.
of, relating to, or containing phosphorus, especially with a valence of 5 or a valence higher than that of a comparable phosphorous compound [化]磷的(尤指含五价磷的), 含磷的