CNN 2009-05-16

Good morning. I'm Melissa Long at the CNN Center in Atlanta. It's Friday, TGIF. Here's a look at some of the stories making news this morning.

General Motors has told 1,100 dealerships they will be shut down by October of next year. It's the first step may planned a 40% cut in its retail¹ network. That's tens of thousands of jobs. The company has two weeks to work out several financial deals or else faces bankruptcy².

President Obama will restart military commission for a few Guantanamo detainees. The announcement is expected today. An administration official says the changes include more rights for terror suspects including picking their own attorneys and a ban on evidence obtained by cruel treatment such as waterboarding. The president suspended the commissions his first week in office. Critics say the system is fatally flawed despite the changes.

A swine flu outbreak is forcing New York City to close three schools. Mayor Michael Bloomberg says four students and an assistant principal have documented cases of the H1N1 virus. 4, 500 kids go to the schools and more than 50 have flu-like symptoms.

Most people haven't come down with it, and you have got to remember, we are talking about 4500 students here in a city of 8.4 million. It may very well be that even an awful lot of people have it and the symptoms are so minor³ that they don't even know it.

The assistant principal is in critical condition. The mayor says there may have been some pre-existing health problems.

And today is a big day for the astronauts trying to fix the Hubble space telescope. They are trying to install new gyroscopes /. Those help to point the telescope in the right direction. Yesterday they swapped⁴ out an old camera for a new one that is as big as a baby grand piano.

And California Senate has approved an annual Harvey Milk Day. It comes on the heels of the success of the Sean Penn biopic on the activist⁵, but the measure must be approved by the State Assembly before going to the governor's desk. Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed a nearly identical bill last year. Milk was the first openly gay man elected to public office in California. He was assassinated⁶ in 1978.

You're up-to-date. Those are the headlines making news at this hour. Do stay with CNN and CNN. com for more on these stories or other news develops today.

1 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

2 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

3 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

4 swapped   

交换（工作）( swap的过去式和过去分词 )； 用…替换，把…换成，掉换（过来）

参考例句：

• I liked her coat and she liked mine, so we swapped. 我喜欢她的外套，她喜欢我的外套，于是我们就交换了。
• At half-time the manager swapped some of the players around. 经理在半场时把几名队员换下了场。

5 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。

6 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句