时间:2018-12-02 作者:英语课 分类:CNN美国有线新闻2017年4月


英语课

 


Our first story, there's been an apparent chemical weapons attack in the Middle Eastern nation of Syria. We've been covering the country's civil war for years. It started in 2011. The United Nations estimates that 400,000 Syrians have been killed and millions have fled their homes.


What made Thursday's attack so horrible, even in this war-torn country, was that it reportedly involved a poisonous gas, according to multiple activist 1 groups in the country.


Witnesses say it killed dozens of people, including families, though there have been different reports on exactly how many people died. Hundreds have been injured. Doctors say the victims had breathing problems, pale skin, sweating, narrow pupils, all symptoms of a chemical attack.


It happened in a western Syrian city that's held by rebels who are fighting the government. Activist groups say the attack was carried out by Syria's government. It's been blamed for previously 2 using chemical weapons in the war.


Syrian government forces said yesterday, they categorically denied using chemical weapons in the area and that they held terrorist groups and their supporters responsible.


Leaders from all over the world gave enraged 3 responses yesterday to the apparent chemical attack.


JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Chemical weapons are known as the "poor man's atom bomb", because at relatively 4 little cost, they could have devastating 5 effect, both in terms of casualties, but also in the sheer horror of the injuries and the sheer fear of contamination.


In the history of warfare 6, they've been used very seldom. You have to go back to World War II for widespread use, although Saddam Hussein used them in the late 1980s, killed some 5,000 people in northern Iraq, in Kurdistan. More recently, the Assad regime has used them repeatedly in the war in Syria. It's estimated, some 1,500 people have been killed, 15,000 injured in chemical weapons attacks in Syria.


The Geneva protocol 7 of 1925 banned the use of chemical weapons in warfare, but not the production. It wasn't until the early 1990s that the Chemical Weapons Convention banned the production and stockpiling as well. And since then, some 90 percent of the world's chemical weapons have been destroyed.


But still, to this day, there's a lot out there in 17 countries still have them. From the ones you'd expect, North Korea for instance, which did not sign on to any of those treaties, but also the U.S., although the U.S. has committed never to use them in warfare and is committed to destroy all of them by the 2020s.



1 activist
n.活动分子,积极分子
  • 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。
2 previously
adv.以前,先前(地)
  • The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
  • Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿,解释原先发生了什么。
3 enraged
使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 ); 歜; 激愤
  • I was enraged to find they had disobeyed my orders. 发现他们违抗了我的命令,我极为恼火。
  • The judge was enraged and stroke the table for several times. 大法官被气得连连拍案。
4 relatively
adv.比较...地,相对地
  • The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
  • The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。
5 devastating
adj.毁灭性的,令人震惊的,强有力的
  • It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
  • Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。
6 warfare
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突
  • He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
  • Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。
7 protocol
n.议定书,草约,会谈记录,外交礼节
  • We must observe the correct protocol.我们必须遵守应有的礼仪。
  • The statesmen signed a protocol.那些政治家签了议定书。
学英语单词
activity sampling
Alberoni, Giulio
antecedent of an implication
antivirjulin
arbah
astronomical geodesy
barses
Barth Seamount
bicolourable graph
binary functions
Binatang
blanfordii
blendes
Bonnefond
bottom pallet jewel
bright pick
by pass superheater
calculating chart
Carburol process
chester
chortle
circulating storage
Clanwilliam Dam
colpostat
complex inversion
convention of biological diversity (cbd)
cross-train
Cymodocea rotundata
dead center gauge
degree of covering
depue
double-strength pipe
e-govemment affairs
electronic analogue-to-digital converter
emergent vertex
Encapsulated PostScript
exposed approachability conductive part
fake bake
family lepidodendraceaes
ferrite-excited machine
forcione
gil
Gleditsia vestita
glucosylmannitol
hamula
hard-goings
height marker
helpship
henao
hexaphenylbenzene
hocksley
hot air stove
housewifery
hydrator
iballidae
implicit rent
indian blankets
interest bearing loans
iron removal
kitadai
La Bastide-de-Sérou
Lacrisert
lake outflow
laryngoscopically
liberal pluralism
linear single equation model
magnetomotor winch
manna gums
marriage money
Menzingen
meteorological telegraph
modulation device
mulliners
mvtampicillin
nakasone
neutron-irradiated bromobenzene
Newton model
Otase
pedrito
perspective sketch
photoconductive cell
Plains Cree
price indexation
ring pipeline
secure Web server
servo typer
sight words
sikyons
slocker
special arts and crafts
standard electrode potential
stereo lithography apparatus
subfile record format
swarms
symmetric DSL
talk to you later
tribunal des conflits
Tschernogowbou's test
tubular through-flow pump
unbalanced increase
vorsicht
whares