美联社新闻一分钟 2005-10-22(在线收听

1. Hurricane Wilma tore into the heart of Mexico’s Caribbean resort strip on Friday, trapping thousands of tourists in darkened shelters pounded by torrential rains as Cancun’s half-million residents watched their streets filled with water.

2. The President of Lebanon Emile Lahoud rejected demands from anti-Syrian politicians that he step down from office.

3. Fighting continued Thursday in Operation River Gate, an offensive led by 3000 US and Iraqi forces in and around Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad.

4. A defense lawyer in Saddam Hussein's mass murder trial who was kidnapped has been found dead, his body dumped near a Baghdad mosque.

5. And Danish researchers have come up with an unusual solution for insomnia - MusiCure, a soft pillow that chirps like a bird and is designed to sing soldiers to sleep in Kosovo, Iraq and other hotspots

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. insomnia
insomnia
Someone who suffers from insomnia finds it difficult to sleep.
N-UNCOUNT

2. chirp
1 chirp chirps chirping chirped
When a bird or an insect such as a cricket or grasshopper chirps, it makes short high-pitched sounds.
The crickets chirped faster and louder.
VB
= chirrup
+ chirp chirps
Also a noun.
The chirps of the small garden birds sounded distant.
N-COUNT

· chirping
...the chirping of birds.
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3. hot spot
2 hot spot hot spots
You can refer to an area where there is fighting or serious political trouble as a hot spot. (JOURNALISM)
There were many hot spots in the region, where fighting had been going on.
N-COUNT also hotspot.

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