VOA常速英语2021--美俄首脑日内瓦会晤,将会如何较量?

This is VOA News. Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton. U.S. President Joe Biden meets with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for the first time in Geneva Wednesday amid deteriorating¹ relations between the U.S. and Russia. The meeting takes place in the final hours of Biden's first trip abroad as president during which he has already attended the 47th G7 summit in the English town of Carbis Bay, as well as talks with NATO and EU leaders in Brussels. The White House said Saturday that Biden would appear alone at a post-summit news conference unlike former President Donald Trump², who addressed reporters together with Putin following their 2018 summit in Helsinki. A White House official said Saturday that a solo press conference is useful for clearly communicating the meeting's content to reporters including topics of contention³.

欢迎收听美国之音新闻，我是玛丽莎·梅尔顿，为您远程报道。在美俄关系恶化之际，美国总统拜登星期三在日内瓦首次会见俄罗斯总统普京。这次会晤是拜登作为总统首次出国访问的最后几个小时进行的。在这次访问期间，拜登已经出席了在英国小镇卡比斯湾举行的第47届七国集团峰会，并在布鲁塞尔与北约和欧盟领导人举行了会谈。白宫周六表示，与前总统特朗普不同的是，拜登将单独出席峰会后的新闻发布会，特朗普曾在2018年赫尔辛基峰会后与普京一起向记者发表讲话。一位白宫官员星期六说，单独召开记者招待会有助于向记者清楚地传达会议内容，包括争论的话题。

In April, Biden expelled 10 Russian diplomats⁴ and imposed new sanctions on six Russian technology companies that provide support to the cyber program run by Putin's intelligence services that have been linked to the hacking⁵ of the SolarWinds information technology company. In May, two key U.S. businesses - Colonial Pipeline⁶, which transports fuel in the southeastern U.S., and the JBS meat production company - were targeted in cyberattacks believed to have originated in Russia. Both Colonial and JBS paid millions of dollars in ransom⁷ demands. Some of that was recovered from the Colonial ransom. The White House also said it expects the Biden-Putin meeting "to be candid⁸ and straightforward⁹" and that Biden will bring up the ransomware attacks originating in Russia, the Kremlin's aggression¹⁰ toward Ukraine, the imprisonment¹¹ of dissidents and other issues. Putin has rejected U.S. claims that Moscow and Russian hackers¹² are carrying out debilitating¹³ cyberattacks on American companies and government agencies. This is VOA News. 

今年4月，拜登驱逐了10名俄罗斯外交官，并对6家俄罗斯技术公司实施了新的制裁，这6家公司为普京情报部门运营的网络项目提供了支持，且该项目与SolarWinds信息技术公司遭黑客攻击有关。今年5月，美国两家重要企业——在美国东南部运输燃料的Colonial Pipeline和JBS肉类生产公司——据信遭到俄罗斯网络攻击。Colonial和JBS都支付了数百万美元的赎金。不过Colonial交付的部分赎金被追回了。白宫还表示，预计拜登与普京的对话将“坦诚和直截了当”，拜登将提出源自俄罗斯的勒索攻击、克里姆林宫对乌克兰的侵略、关押持不同政见者等问题。普京驳斥了美国有关莫斯科和俄罗斯黑客正在对美国公司和政府机构实施破坏性网络攻击的说法。欢迎收听美国之音新闻。

1 deteriorating   

恶化，变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The weather conditions are deteriorating. 天气变得越来越糟。
• I was well aware of the bad morale and the deteriorating factories. 我很清楚，大家情绪低落，各个工厂越搞越坏。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 contention   

n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张

参考例句：

• The pay increase is the key point of contention. 加薪是争论的焦点。
• The real bone of contention,as you know,is money.你知道，争论的真正焦点是钱的问题。

4 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 hacking   

n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动

参考例句：

• The patient with emphysema is hacking all day. 这个肺气肿病人整天不断地干咳。
• We undertook the task of hacking our way through the jungle. 我们负责在丛林中开路。

6 pipeline   

n.管道，管线

参考例句：

• The pipeline supplies Jordan with 15 per cent of its crude oil.该管道供给约旦15%的原油。
• A single pipeline serves all the houses with water.一条单管路给所有的房子供水。

7 ransom   

n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救

参考例句：

• We'd better arrange the ransom right away.我们最好马上把索取赎金的事安排好。
• The kidnappers exacted a ransom of 10000 from the family.绑架者向这家人家勒索10000英镑的赎金。

8 candid   

adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的

参考例句：

• I cannot but hope the candid reader will give some allowance for it.我只有希望公正的读者多少包涵一些。
• He is quite candid with his friends.他对朋友相当坦诚。

9 straightforward   

adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的

参考例句：

• A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
• I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。

10 aggression   

n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害

参考例句：

• So long as we are firmly united, we need fear no aggression.只要我们紧密地团结，就不必惧怕外来侵略。
• Her view is that aggression is part of human nature.她认为攻击性是人类本性的一部份。

11 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

12 hackers   

n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 )；私自存取或篡改电脑资料者，电脑“黑客”

参考例句：

• They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒，他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面，他们最终同意了。 来自互联网

13 debilitating   

a.使衰弱的

参考例句：

• The debilitating disease made him too weak to work. 这个令他衰弱的病，使他弱到没有办法工作。
• You may soon leave one debilitating condition or relationship forever. 你即将永远地和这段霉运说拜拜了。