VOA标准英语2012--Syrian Forces Shell Homs, Block Aid to Rebel Stronghold

Syrian Forces Shell Homs, Block Aid to Rebel Stronghold 

A Syrian government military offensive continued across parts of the country Saturday, including the sporadic¹ shelling of parts of the beleaguered² city of Homs. An elite³ government brigade captured the opposition⁴ stronghold of Bab Amr several days ago, but the government still does not control all of the city.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Saturday appealed to Syrian authorities to allow aid workers to enter Baba Amr.

On Friday, Syrian authorities stopped an ICRC convoy⁵, consisting of seven trucks carrying medical supplies and food, from entering Baba Amr, where activists⁷ say the humanitarian⁸ situation is dire⁹. 

The Red Cross say they received permission on Thursday to bring aid to the people stranded¹⁰ in the district. But ICRC spokesman Sean Maguire told Britain's Sky News on Saturday that the organization still being blocked.

"We're being told it's not safe to proceed. Now we're trying to get to the bottom of that and get beyond that," said Maguire.

Meanwhile, Syrian state TV showed images of badly damaged buildings, shattered walls, and battered¹¹ storefronts. It interviewed a number of people who claimed to be residents of Bab Amr who said they had been held hostage by "gangs of armed terrorists" from outside the area. 

Despite eyewitness¹² accounts that Syrian forces shelled the area for nearly a month causing many buildings to collapse¹³, one middle-aged¹⁴ man told Syrian state TV that "armed gangs were responsible for all the damage in Bab Amr."

He says armed men were wearing masks and speaking a strange language that we couldn't understand. He claims that they were foreign mercenaries and had used U.S. dollars and Saudi riyals.

Syrian TV also reported that three people were killed and 20 wounded in what it called a suicide car-bombing in Daraa, near the Jordanian border. Opposition activist⁶ Aseel Abdallah, however, told Alhurra TV that he believed the government was behind the explosion:

Abdallah said that opposition activists in Daraa think the government was behind the bombing, because they noticed an unusual state of alert at military intelligence headquarters during the night, before the explosion, and that all was calm after the explosion, when one would have expected extra activity. Abdallah argued that the explosion coincided with a government media campaign to blame violence in the country on foreign terrorists and al-Qaida.

Middle East scholar Fouad Ajami of the Hoover Institution says that he thinks the Syrian media is declaring victory, now that it has defied the outside world. 

"This regime looked at the world, surveyed it and concluded that no cavalry¹⁵ was coming to the rescue of these embattled Syrians," said Ajami. "They want their population to understand that the world outside does not care. This is a very important message to them, to break the will of the population, that there is no cavalry coming to the rescue. And I think, by and large, the Syrian people now must have fully¹⁶ understood that message."

Ajami adds that the U.S. is preoccupied¹⁷ with presidential primaries and that U.S. officials are reluctant to get involved in Syria, absent public pressure to do so. He also notes that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad does not evoke¹⁸ loathing¹⁹ like a typical Hollywood villain²⁰:

"I think you have to give credit where credit is due to the killer²¹ in Damascus. Unlike Gadhafi, who was insane, and who said things in a brazen²² way, the man in Damascus kills, but he also has a referendum, so he still is faking out the international community," Ajami noted²³. "He is less newsworthy, if you will, than Moammar Gadhafi. Moammar Gadhafi's insanity²⁴ made him better copy. Moammar Gadhafi minced²⁵ no words and said he was coming to kill the people in Benghazi, while Bashar says, as he kills them in Bab al Amr, he's offering a referendum."

Ajami argues that U.S. military strategists believe there are still some things the United States could do to help the Syrian people, short of a military intervention²⁶. "The choice isn't just 'boots on the ground' or 'head in the sand'," he says. "The regime in Syria could be broken without massive U.S. intervention." He insists that a Western victory in Syria would represent a "strategic defeat" for Iran, Hezbollah and Russia - something, he says, U.S. public should reflect on. 

1 sporadic   

adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular；分散的

参考例句：

• The sound of sporadic shooting could still be heard.仍能听见零星的枪声。
• You know this better than I.I received only sporadic news about it.你们比我更清楚，而我听到的只是零星消息。

2 beleaguered   

adj.受到围困[围攻]的；包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词)；困扰；骚扰

参考例句：

• The beleaguered party leader was forced to resign. 那位饱受指责的政党领导人被迫辞职。
• We are beleaguered by problems. 我们被许多困难所困扰。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

4 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

5 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

6 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

7 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

9 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

10 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。

11 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

12 eyewitness   

n.目击者，见证人

参考例句：

• The police questioned several eyewitness to the murder.警察询问了谋杀案的几位目击者。
• He was the only eyewitness of the robbery.他是那起抢劫案的唯一目击者。

13 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

14 middle-aged   

adj.中年的

参考例句：

• I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
• The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。

15 cavalry   

n.骑兵；轻装甲部队

参考例句：

• We were taken in flank by a troop of cavalry. 我们翼侧受到一队骑兵的袭击。
• The enemy cavalry rode our men down. 敌人的骑兵撞倒了我们的人。

16 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。

17 preoccupied   

adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式)

参考例句：

• He was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to notice anything wrong. 他只顾想着心事，没注意到有什么不对。
• The question of going to the Mount Tai preoccupied his mind. 去游泰山的问题盘踞在他心头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 evoke   

vt.唤起，引起，使人想起

参考例句：

• These images are likely to evoke a strong response in the viewer.这些图像可能会在观众中产生强烈反响。
• Her only resource was the sympathy she could evoke.她以凭借的唯一力量就是她能从人们心底里激起的同情。

19 loathing   

n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢

参考例句：

• She looked at her attacker with fear and loathing . 她盯着襲擊她的歹徒，既害怕又憎恨。
• They looked upon the creature with a loathing undisguised. 他们流露出明显的厌恶看那动物。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

20 villain   

n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因

参考例句：

• He was cast as the villain in the play.他在戏里扮演反面角色。
• The man who played the villain acted very well.扮演恶棍的那个男演员演得很好。

21 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

22 brazen   

adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的

参考例句：

• The brazen woman laughed loudly at the judge who sentenced her.那无耻的女子冲着给她判刑的法官高声大笑。
• Some people prefer to brazen a thing out rather than admit defeat.有的人不愿承认失败，而是宁肯厚着脸皮干下去。

23 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

24 insanity   

n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐

参考例句：

• In his defense he alleged temporary insanity.他伪称一时精神错乱，为自己辩解。
• He remained in his cell,and this visit only increased the belief in his insanity.他依旧还是住在他的地牢里，这次视察只是更加使人相信他是个疯子了。

25 minced   

v.切碎( mince的过去式和过去分词 )；剁碎；绞碎；用绞肉机绞（食物，尤指肉）

参考例句：

• He minced over to serve us. 他迈着碎步过来招待我们。
• A young fop minced up to George and introduced himself. 一个花花公子扭扭捏捏地走到乔治面前并作了自我介绍。 来自《简明英汉词典》

26 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。