CNN 2011-04-07

I'm Carl Azuz and this is CNN Student News! It's the first full week of April, and we have a very full show for you today, starting things off in Japan.

Workers there have figured out how radioactive materials are leaking out into the Pacific Ocean. Last week, there were tests that showed high levels of radiation about 360 yards offshore¹. As you could probably expect, it's coming from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and that was damaged by Japan's earthquake and tsunami² last month.

The exact culprit is the crack you see right here. Doesn't look very big, but that is how the radioactive water is getting from inside the plant out into the Pacific. A Japanese official said one theory is that the water they were pumping into the reactor³ to cool off the nuclear fuel rods inside, somehow leaked out. Engineers are trying different ideas to plug the leak. At first, they tried to use concrete to seal it up. Didn't work. Yesterday, they tried a chemical compound that's designed to expand as it sticks.

From Japan, we move to the African nation Ivory Coast, a country that's seeing violence and political chaos⁴. It's been going on since a disputed election back in November. The international community has recognized Alassane Ouattara as the winner. But the man who has been president, Laurent Gbabgo, refuses to step down. The fighting between the two sides has been deadly. Hundreds of people have been killed. One million people fled the capital, Abidjan, that's been the focus of some intense fighting recently. There are about 9,000 United Nations peacekeeping forces in Ivory Coast. The International Crisis Group says the situation there is as "urgent as any facing the international community right now."

Our next story starts off in the state of Florida, where a church in Gainesville announced recently that it had burned a Quran, the Muslim holy book. The Dove World Outreach Center said the Quran was "found guilty and a copy was burned." The announcement caused anger and outrage⁵ in Afghanistan, a Muslim country. People took to the streets, speaking out against the Quran burning. During three days of protests, more than 20 people died. That includes seven United Nations workers who were killed when protesters stormed a U.N. building in one Afghan city. Top U.S. officials in Afghanistan have condemned⁶ the Quran burning, calling it "hateful, intolerant and extremely disrespectful." The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan added, though, "that to attack and kill innocent people in response to the deplorable act of one individual is outrageous⁷."

1 offshore   

adj.海面的，吹向海面的；adv.向海面

参考例句：

• A big program of oil exploration has begun offshore.一个大规模的石油勘探计划正在近海展开。
• A gentle current carried them slowly offshore.和缓的潮流慢慢地把他们带离了海岸。

2 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

3 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

4 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

5 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

6 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。

7 outrageous   

adj.无理的，令人不能容忍的

参考例句：

• Her outrageous behaviour at the party offended everyone.她在聚会上的无礼行为触怒了每一个人。
• Charges for local telephone calls are particularly outrageous.本地电话资费贵得出奇。