时间:2019-02-03 作者:英语课 分类:2007年VOA常速英语(十月)


英语课
By Malcolm Brown
Washington
10 October 2007
 


Activists 2 on both sides of America's contentious 3 debate over gun control are gearing up for what could be a major showdown. Their focus is on the nation's highest court, which has been asked to decide whether Washington D.C.'s ban on handguns is constitutional. If the Supreme 4 Court takes the case, that will set the stage for a high-stakes legal fight over the meaning of the Second Amendment 5 to the United States Constitution. Malcolm Brown reports from Washington.


Community activist 1 Sandra Seegars inspects another street memorial to a shooting victim in her southeast Washington neighborhood. It is a crime hotspot in a city with one of the highest murder rates in the United States. Seegars wants a gun for personal protection. "I say to the people who don't want one personally, I tell them, 'Then that's your choice, but everybody should have the right to say 'yes' or 'no' and not have them saying 'no' for you'."


Seegars went to court herself in a failed attempt to overturn Washington D.C.'s strict handgun law.


Now, the nation's highest court must decide whether it will take up the issue, after a lower court overturned the ban and the city appealed.


Tony Mauro, Supreme Court correspondent for the Legal Times, says the court has avoided the underlying 6 issue for nearly 70 years. "This is really the longest-standing unanswered question in American law -- the meaning of the Second Amendment --and I think the court probably will finally decide that now is the time to answer it."


The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution talks about the need for "a well regulated militia 7," as well as "the right of the people to keep and bear arms."


Opponents of the handgun ban here in Washington D.C., emphasize the individual's right. Gun control advocates stress the militia aspect.


Washington's police department supports the argument of city officials -- that if the ban is lifted the result will be more gun violence.


In the bowels 8 of police headquarters, a special unit processes seized firearms -- almost half of them handguns.


Even with the ban, the director of the Firearms Examination Section, Karen Wiggins, says her inbox is full. "On a typical day, we can get 15 to 20 firearms in a day. Last year we recovered over 2,600 firearms -- 2,656 to be exact. Previously 9, in 2005, we recovered about 2,400 firearms. Considering the fact that the District of Columbia, I believe, has one of the most stringent 10 gun laws in the land, I believe that shows that we clearly have a large volume of firearms coming into the District of Columbia."


The Supreme Court has just begun a new term, and has not yet indicated whether it will take the case. If it does, the decision would be historic.


Over at the Legal Times, Tony Mauro guesses that the ban would get struck down. "We now have a sharply more conservative Supreme Court. So, I think, again, if I had to predict, I think it might be a narrow decision, or a narrow margin 11, but I think the view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms will prevail." 


If the court does go that way, Mauro predicts decades of legal wrangling 12 to define the limits of that right.




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。
n.(政治活动的)积极分子,活动家( activist的名词复数 )
  • His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
  • Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adj.好辩的,善争吵的
  • She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
  • Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起,他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的
  • 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。
n.改正,修正,改善,修正案
  • The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
  • The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。
adj.在下面的,含蓄的,潜在的
  • The underlying theme of the novel is very serious.小说隐含的主题是十分严肃的。
  • This word has its underlying meaning.这个单词有它潜在的含义。
n.民兵,民兵组织
  • First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面,其次是民兵。
  • There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。
n.肠,内脏,内部;肠( bowel的名词复数 );内部,最深处
  • Salts is a medicine that causes movements of the bowels. 泻盐是一种促使肠子运动的药物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The cabins are in the bowels of the ship. 舱房设在船腹内。 来自《简明英汉词典》
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。
adj.严厉的;令人信服的;银根紧的
  • Financiers are calling for a relaxation of these stringent measures.金融家呼吁对这些严厉的措施予以放宽。
  • Some of the conditions in the contract are too stringent.合同中有几项条件太苛刻。
n.页边空白;差额;余地,余裕;边,边缘
  • We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
  • The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
v.争吵,争论,口角( wrangle的现在分词 )
  • The two sides have spent most of their time wrangling over procedural problems. 双方大部分时间都在围绕程序问题争论不休。 来自辞典例句
  • The children were wrangling (with each other) over the new toy. 孩子为新玩具(互相)争吵。 来自辞典例句
学英语单词
acft
additional document
alar plate
anachitis
anhydrous sodium sulfate
audio-recording
bilithic filter
bowyang
braeden
bulletheads
cellular sheet pile wharf
choosest
chromoneucleoprotein
chrysemys pictas
Consumer Reports
coppice-wood
coral spot
cordierite-anthophyllite rock
crack border
cylic compound
denumerable at infinity
Dictyodrama
Dihydrocoumarone
duncer
error routine address
family Ascaphidae
finger buff
finger-pick
follow feed
football leagues
fuel knock
gabeller
Geneva Bureau
gigabarrels
gished
heavyhanded
homentropic
incestous
incremental pricing
indol(e)amine
indolic
initial free volume
inverse suppressor
jeanbandyite
key schedule
knot-head
light-weight concrete
liquor sauce
longisporin
Lord President of the Court of Session
macro-cracks
magnetic detent
megamonuments
microcosmographic
need it!
nongeriatric
nonzero queue
one's word is as good as one's bond
paediatric psychopharmacology
pareucalanus sewelli
party to a case
penis palmatus
perpendicular susceptibility
pet subject
piscinest
plain snap gauge
plug and chug
plug-finishing bur
poeciloblast
polyimidoylamidine
Posang-ni
proportion of resin present
providers
RAM refresh operation
rauning
reaction control
return flow line
round bordered pit
rug? vaginales
saddle coil magnet
Samut Songkhram, Changwat
Sepyron
Silfiac
spinal lemniscus
stabilizing tester
starting torque in air
static memory interface
stellaria uliginosa murr.var. undulata franch. et sav.
swifterly
sy
the fag end of sth
threofuranoside
tocofersolan
trade identity
transition transient
Triodanis perfoliata
uncarboxylated
under water fittings
unequaladdendum system
venae spinales externae posteriores
William Caxton
willians