时间:2019-01-14 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2011年(十月)


英语课

High Prices Trigger Rise in Copper 1 Thefts


 


When you heard the word “copper” in old gangster 2 movies, you were talking about the good guys: the police, the cops. Now, when you speak of copper and crime, you’re referring to the bad guys.



A combination of circumstances has led to a meteoric 3 rise in thefts of copper from buildings, construction sites, and homes. Prices paid for scrap 4 metal, especially copper, have skyrocketed, in part because of high demand from rapidly industrializing nations such as Brazil, China, and India.



Pipes, wires, cables, gutters 5, copper coils in air conditioners and generators 6, even power lines are being ripped off - literally 7. Thieves have even disabled entire electrical substations.



And the damage caused by these rip-and-run criminals far exceeds the replacement 8 costs for the stolen metal.



In rural Pennsylvania earlier this month, two brothers were charged with stealing an entire 15.5-ton bridge - cutting it apart with a blowtorch and selling it to a scrap-metal company. Since the recycling company doesn’t get many bridges, its owners called the coppers 9.









This 150-year-old weathervane in Vermont had a lovely antique copper horse atop it until a thief scaled the roof and stole it




The problem has been compounded by the number of foreclosed and otherwise vacant buildings, sitting empty and tempting 10.



Copper thefts have caused gas leaks, water damage, and darkened streetlights in jurisdictions 11 across the country. A historic church in downtown Washington, D.C., lost its protection against lightning when thieves snipped 12 away a grounding cable.



And now criminals are committing what authorities are calling “a brand new crime” in and around buildings - especially restaurants. They’re siphoning new and used cooking oil out of storage tanks and reselling it for up to 4 dollars a gallon.



And if the storage tanks are copper, they’re carrying away the whole thing.



n.铜;铜币;铜器;adj.铜(制)的;(紫)铜色的
  • The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
  • Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。
n.匪徒,歹徒,暴徒
  • The gangster's friends bought off the police witness.那匪徒的朋友买通了警察方面的证人。
  • He is obviously a gangster,but he pretends to be a saint.分明是强盗,却要装圣贤。
adj.流星的,转瞬即逝的,突然的
  • In my mind,losing weight is just something meteoric.在我眼中,减肥不过是昙花一现的事情。
  • His early career had been meteoric.他的早期生涯平步青云。
n.碎片;废料;v.废弃,报废
  • A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
  • Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。
(路边)排水沟( gutter的名词复数 ); 阴沟; (屋顶的)天沟; 贫贱的境地
  • Gutters lead the water into the ditch. 排水沟把水排到这条水沟里。
  • They were born, they grew up in the gutters. 他们生了下来,以后就在街头长大。
n.发电机,发生器( generator的名词复数 );电力公司
  • The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
  • Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实
  • He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
  • Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候,她不走到真正要昏厥了,决不肯坐下来。
n.取代,替换,交换;替代品,代用品
  • We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
  • They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。
铜( copper的名词复数 ); 铜币
  • I only paid a few coppers for it. 我只花了几个铜板买下这东西。
  • He had only a few coppers in his pocket. 他兜里仅有几个铜板。
a.诱人的, 吸引人的
  • It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
  • It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。
司法权( jurisdiction的名词复数 ); 裁判权; 管辖区域; 管辖范围
  • Butler entreated him to remember the act abolishing the heritable jurisdictions. 巴特勒提醒他注意废除世袭审判权的国会法令。
  • James I personally adjudicated between the two jurisdictions. 詹姆士一世亲自裁定双方纠纷。
v.剪( snip的过去式和过去分词 )
  • He snipped off the corner of the packet. 他将包的一角剪了下来。 来自辞典例句
  • The police officer snipped the tape and untied the hostage. 警方把胶带剪断,松绑了人质。 来自互联网
学英语单词
a smoking bimbo
A-team
acid fumarole
adhesive hair
Artur Schnabel
as safra
asterolecanium corallinum
autoradiolysis
autosynchronous motor
barmaid
battery-operated
be kidding
Becke test
bellisle
bitchwork
blue glazed porcelain
British Leyland Motor
bumbles
butylparaben
calcium-manganesesilicon alloy
cancerous wart
capitalist farming
clapping
competitive strategy
concussion grenades
condensed structural formula
consistence of reading
course to steer
crossly
current-carryings
cut sth out
Daphniphyllum yunnanense
deterrent options
digesting
dolny kubin
effectiveness of regenerator
filamentosas
friendshippers
general diffuse illumination
Germlayer
give sb. a dirty look
grand-slam home run
gun club cheek
half forward
hand control valve
Helendale
Hilton's muscle
hold state
horizontal development
Internet content provider
isohistoincompatibility
key switch
kitchen ranges
less-attractive
live up to something
loby
Margilon
mastostasis
microdosimetric
nephropyelitis
non-designated
off resistance
olistherozone
ornithogalum umbellatums
osteoarthrotomy
perform as
peshe
Pibor River (Pībor Wenz)
pivot-ball bearing
play to hard luck
postischemic papillary muscle rupture
pre-stretch
precision measuring tool
productive memory
receptual ly
reciprocating table
reigning winds direction
repose angle
scientific effort
seasoning matter
second flank
Sedum wilsonii
shrewd-headed
slitlets
spatchcock
spy novel
stalth
standard costs
sublevel set
surface treating agent
template frame
thirdness
thread chasing
triangulation base
tripotential
true critical property
ultimate yield
uneven subsidence
vapor lock index
venable
Zacapa, R.
zoophysiology