VOA标准英语2012--Actor George Clooney Arrested During Sudan Protest

Actor George Clooney Arrested During Sudan Protest

Clooney was the star attraction at a protest outside the Sudanese embassy.

The demonstrators accuse Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir of provoking a humanitarian¹ crisis by blocking food and aid deliveries to people in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile regions.

“Immediately, we need humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, immediately,” said Clooney.

Clooney, on a recent visit to Sudan, saw people fleeing in terror to the hills and into caves because of the constant buzzing of government planes dropping bombs meant for insurgents², but frequently killing³ civilians⁴.

The conflict severely⁵ hinders agriculture in the region, leading to fears of famine for hundreds of thousands of people.

“The second thing we are here to ask is a very simple thing, is for the government in Khartoum to stop randomly⁶ killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping⁷ them and stop starving them. That is all we ask,” said the actor and activist⁸

Clooney was swarmed⁹ by flashing cameras and TV crews, as hundreds of demonstrators waved signs and chanted slogans.

Selma Talhagebril is from the Sudanese capital Khartoum. 

“It is unacceptable what is happening in Sudan. We need to stop the violence. We need to stop giving arms to the children. We need to stop having children soldiers. We need to stop starvation. We need to stop what happened in Sudan because that would never happen in any western country,” said Talhagebril.

Police arrested Clooney, his father, Nick, several members of the U.S. Congress and religious and civil rights leaders after warning them several times not to cross a police line in front of the embassy. They were released several hours later.

1 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。

2 insurgents   

n.起义，暴动，造反( insurgent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The regular troops of Baden joined the insurgents. 巴登的正规军参加到起义军方面来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Against the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents, these problems are manageable. 要对付塔利班与伊拉克叛乱分子，这些问题还是可以把握住的。 来自互联网

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

5 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

6 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

7 raping   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的现在分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• In response, Charles VI sent a punitive expedition to Brittany, raping and killing the populace. 作为报复，查理六世派军讨伐布列塔尼，奸淫杀戮平民。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The conquerors marched on, burning, killing, raping and plundering as they went. 征服者所到之处烧杀奸掠，无所不做。 来自互联网

8 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。

9 swarmed   

密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• When the bell rang, the children swarmed out of the school. 铃声一响，孩子们蜂拥而出离开了学校。
• When the rain started the crowd swarmed back into the hotel. 雨一开始下，人群就蜂拥回了旅社。