2007年VOA标准英语-Bush, Estonian Leader Discuss Iraq, Cyber Secur

By Paula Wolfson
White House
25 June 2007

President Bush has condemned¹ the latest round of suicide bombings in Iraq. VOA's Paula Wolfson reports the situation in Iraq, and new threats to the security of information technology were on the agenda when the president met at the White House Monday with Estonian President Toomas Hendrick Ilves.

Presidents George Bush (r) and Toomas Hendrick Ilves at the White House, 25 Jun 2007

President Bush welcomed the Estonian leader with words of praise for Estonia's devotion to democracy.

He said after years of Soviet² control, Estonia is now helping³ others build democratic governments, including Afghanistan and Iraq.

Mr. Bush said the task is not easy, and pointed⁴ to the latest suicide bombing in Baghdad just hours before their meeting. At least 12 people were killed in the incident, including several Sunni tribal⁵ leaders.

"Today, once again, we saw the brutality⁶ that extremists can inflict⁷ upon societies when a suicider killed innocent people who were working toward reconciliation," said President Bush. "[It is] all the more reason, Mr. President, for us to remain firm and strong as we stand for this young democracy - these young democracies."

Speaking to reporters after the White House meeting, Mr. Bush also brought up the need to provide greater security for computer systems world wide. Estonia was recently hit with a series of high-tech⁸ attacks on its computer systems - including government and corporate⁹ Web sites.

Estonia has complained that Russian hackers¹⁰ were responsible, and the attacks were related to a dispute over the relocation of an old Soviet-era statue in Tallinn, the Estonian capital. Moscow has denied any involvement.

And while President Bush did not refer to the origin of the attacks, he made clear the issue of cyber-security must be addressed. President Ilves agreed.

"It is a serious issue if your most important computer systems go down in a country like mine, where 97 percent of bank transactions are done on the Internet," said President Ilves. When you are a highly interneted country like we are, then these kinds of attacks can do very serious damage. And I do think it's the wave of the future - not that it's a good wave, but it is something that we have to deal with more and more."

The Estonian leader said the United States, Israel and Denmark have already experienced their own cyber-attacks. He said it is an issue that will require much more attention in the future.

1 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

2 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

5 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

6 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

7 inflict   

vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担

参考例句：

• Don't inflict your ideas on me.不要把你的想法强加于我。
• Don't inflict damage on any person.不要伤害任何人。

8 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

9 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

10 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网