美国有线新闻 CNN 2012-11-18

 First up, we are looking at President Obama’s first news conference since he was reelected to a second term. The president took questions from the media for about an hour at the White House yesterday afternoon. One topic that came up, the so-called "fiscal¹ cliff." It’s a set of spending cuts and tax increases that could go into effect soon. The president and congressional leaders are considering ways to avoid that cliff. President Obama was set to meet with business leaders after yesterday’s news conference to talk about the issue. He said he wants input² from everyone.

 

I’m open to new ideas, if Republican counterparts or some Democrats³ have a great idea for us to raise revenue, maintain progress already, make sure the middle class isn’t getting hit, reduces our deficit⁴, encourages growth, I’m not going to just slam the door in their face. I want to hear idea - I want to hear ideas from everybody.

 

We don’t leave Washington now and head over to the Middle East, specifically Gaza, one of the territories at the center of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The violence between these two groups has been increasing recently. Yesterday, Israel launched air strikes against what it said were terrorists targets. Palestinian officials said there were at least 35 strikes in an eight-hour span of time. At least nine people were killed in the air strikes, and that includes the leader of the military wing of Hamas, that group controls the Palestinian government and the US classifies it as the terrorist organization.

 

Israel said its air strikes were a response to increased rocket attacks from Gaza. One of those rockets hit a shopping center in southern Israel yesterday. Both sides, Israel and Hamas, say they are defending themselves against attacks from the other side.

 

Finally, we are gonna head all the way over to Australia. Some people made their way to the northeastern part of the country this week, and they went there to see this: a total solar eclipse that was visible over Australia’s northern territories. According to NASA, this kind of thing happens on average about every 18 months. But that’s in different spots around the world. This parts of Australia might not see another full solar eclipse for 375 years. So, what exactly is going on in a solar eclipse? It has to do with orbits and shadows. Solar eclipse happens when the Moon, while it’s orbiting the Earth, passes directly in front of the Sun. That casts a shadow on the Earth surface. In the outer part of that shadow, the penumbra⁵, part of the Sun, is blocked. In the inner part, the umbra, that’s where the eclipse is total.

1 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。

2 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

3 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

5 penumbra   

n.（日蚀）半影部

参考例句：

• This includes the continuous survey of umbra and penumbra of the sunspot.这包括对太阳黑子本影和半影持续的观测。
• A penumbra of doubt surrounds the incident.疑惑的阴影笼罩着该事件。