美联社新闻一分钟 2007-01-15

（单词翻译）

1. Mother Nature is walloping the country again. Ice is covering roads from California to Arkansas. In Oklahoma, at least 7 people died in an accident. And in Los Angeles, a firefighter lost control of his engine on black ice and skidded² off the road.

2. Federal investigators³ are looking into 2 fires in Greenville, North Carolina; a third church was broken into. Authorities say the fires do look suspicious. The blaze destroyed much of the Memorial Baptist Church, but the flames were limited to just one room at the second church.

3. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is now in Jordan meeting with King Abdullah. He reportedly told Rice that reconciliation⁴ in Iraq would fail if Sunni Muslims were not included in rebuilding the country. Earlier in the day, she met with Palestinian leader Mohammed Abbas in an effort to get peace talks with Israel back on track.

4. A six-legged calf⁵ born in Colombia is drawing the curious. The calf named Ponoma also has two female genitals and six udders. Her owner says he has never seen such deformities before.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. wallop : VERB (INFORMAL)
If you wallop someone or something, you hit them very hard, often causing a dull sound.

2. black ice : N-SING
黑冰：一层很薄的，几乎看不见的冰层，如在道路或人行道上，通常由霜雾造成，极危险
Black ice is a thin, transparent⁶ layer of ice on a road or path that is very difficult to see.

3. skid¹ : VERB
If a vehicle skids⁷, it slides sideways or forwards while moving, for example when you are trying to stop it suddenly on a wet road.

4. on track : PHR
If someone or something is on track, they are acting⁸ or progressing in a way that is likely to result in success.

5. genitals : N-PLURAL
Someone's genitals are their external sexual organs.

6. udder : N-COUNT
A cow's udder is the organ that hangs below its body and produces milk.

7. deformity : N-COUNT
A deformity is a part of someone's body which is not the normal shape because of injury of illness, or because they were born this way.