美国有线新闻 CNN 2012-11-10

 We are starting with the US presidential election. The election night audience wasn’t limited to the United States. From South America to Europe, Africa to the Middle East and Asia, the world was watching as results came in on Tuesday night.

 

It’s a day to celebrate for Barack Obama supporters. Let’s get to the big headlines at this moment. Barack Obama is reelected US president. The first picture of the first couple’s victory as Obama tweets a thank you to his voters for a second term.

 

So people were watching the election in the real world, and many of them were talking about the election in the digital one. Karin Caifa look at the role that social media took on during election day and some of the trends that defined the day.

 

As election day turned into election night, millions of votes and how they added up generated million of tweets, leading up to this one: a thank you from a newly reelected president of the United States.

 

For the United States of America, the best is yet to come.

 

Election day 2012 took its place as Twitter’s biggest political event ever. And as TV networks called the race, second screens lit up at a rate of more than 327,000 tweets per minute. Google searches pointed¹ to an anxious electorate². Top search terms during the day included "election results", "exit polls", "election news" and "Who’s winning the election?" On Facebook, the number one term Tuesday morning and afternoon, variations of "vote", "voted", and "go vote." After projections³, "Obama wins" jumped to the top spots on both Facebook and Google.

Meanwhile, among Instagram(一款运行在iPhone平台上的应用程序，以一种快速、美妙和有趣的方式将你随时抓拍下的图片与他人分享) photos, a bevy⁴ of proud ballot⁵ shots raised legal questions in states with restrictions⁶ on photography in polling places. In November 2008, about 37 percent of Americans said they used a social networking site. Fast forward to 2012, two thirds are socially engaged.

 

You guys are the best.

 

And while Republicans made social strides, they are still catching⁷ up to do - Mitt⁸ Romney amassed⁹ a respectable 1.7 million Twitter follows during his campaign; still, just a fraction of President Obama’s over 22 million.

 

In Chicago, I’m Karin Caifa.

 

Well, President Obama has been elected to a second term in the White House, but the next four years could present some big challenges for the president and the country. The fiscal¹⁰ cliff has to do with the US debt, some spending cuts and tax increases are said to kick in unless President Obama and Congress can come up with other ways to get the country’s debt under control. Most American voters said the economy was the number one issue in this election. One thing the financial experts look at in order to figure out how the economy is doing is the US stock markets, specifically, the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Yesterday, it dropped more than 300 points, the worst one day drop in a year. So, things are still pretty rough on Wall Street, and that’s why economic issues like the fiscal cliff are going to get a lot of attention.

 

What else lies ahead for the president’s second term? There is a possibility he could nominate more justices to the US Supreme¹² Court. He nominated two during his first term, plus some members of the president’s cabinet have said they’ll step down, so he’ll need to fill those positions as well.

 

Before we leave election night behind, we want to point out some firsts that happened on Tuesday. Same-sex marriage became legal in Maryland and Maine. A similar vote in Washington was still pending¹¹. Judges and legislators have approved it in other states, but this was the first time that voters approved same-sex marriage.

 

In Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay politician elected to the US Senate. She’s also the first woman elected to the Senate from Wisconsin.

 

Voters in two states, Colorado and Washington, approved legalizing marijuana. That’s a first, but it’s also not a done deal(木已成舟的事情，无法改变的决定). The federal government says marijuana is illegal, and that overrules states rights in this case. And for the first time, a majority of voters in Puerto Rico said they would like the US territory to change its status and become a US state.

 

1 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。

2 electorate   

n.全体选民；选区

参考例句：

• The government was responsible to the electorate.政府对全体选民负责。
• He has the backing of almost a quarter of the electorate.他得到了几乎1/4选民的支持。

3 projections   

预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物

参考例句：

• Their sales projections are a total thumbsuck. 他们的销售量预测纯属估计。
• The council has revised its projections of funding requirements upwards. 地方议会调高了对资金需求的预测。

4 bevy   

n.一群

参考例句：

• A bevy of bathing beauties appeared on the beach.沙滩上出现了一群游泳的美女。
• Look,there comes a bevy of ladies.看，一群女人来了。

5 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

6 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

7 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

8 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

9 amassed   

v.积累，积聚( amass的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He amassed a fortune from silver mining. 他靠开采银矿积累了一笔财富。
• They have amassed a fortune in just a few years. 他们在几年的时间里就聚集了一笔财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

11 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

12 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。