时间:2019-02-12 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2009年(九月)


英语课

By Brian Wagner
Miami, Florida
18 September 2009


 
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (l) and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez (r)
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is leading a new diplomatic effort to strengthen ties with a set of distant partners. He signed a new billion-dollar arms deal with Russia, and has promised to ship gasoline to Iran to circumvent 1 possible international sanctions.


Hugo Chavez is no stranger to foreign capitals, and he has just completed an 11-day tour of Africa that included stops in Libya, Iran and Russia. One of the outcomes was a deal to buy 100 Russian battle tanks and air-defense rockets - with all the funding coming from Moscow.


"The Russian government approved a $2.2 billion loan for weapons," Mr. Chavez said. "And we must thank them."


Mr. Chavez announced the deal only days after voicing support for pro-Russian separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Nicaragua is the only other nation in the world community to recognize those regions' breakaway from Georgia.


Some Latin American leaders fear the Venezuelan deal is part of an arms race. Uruguay's President Tabare Vazquez expressed his concern at a meeting in Washington.


 
Uruguay President Tabare Vazquez
"We have already expressed time and again our position against an arms race," Mr. Vazquez said. "We believe it is quite inconvenient 2 for the region to devote such significant economic resources to purchasing arms."


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Mr. Chavez has not been clear about how the weapons will be used.


"So there is concern that we have expressed, and we'll continue to raise with other countries in the region. And we hope that we can see a change in behavior and attitude on the part of the Venezuelan government," Clinton said.


The Venezuelan leader says the deals with Russia, which also include fighter jets, are for self-defense. Tensions are rising with Colombia, since Mr. Chavez denounced his neighbor for opening Colombian military bases for use by U.S. anti-drug missions.


Venezuela's oil sector 3, crucial to the national economy, also has been watching the new agreements Mr. Chavez signed. 


Jorge Pinon is a former executive for Amoco Oil and a researcher at the University of Miami.


"There are a lot of people concerned, even in the energy sector, with what we see in the region as an arms race. There is no need," Pinon says, "I am not aware of any armed conflict going on between two Latin American countries."


Pinon says the concern is that Venezuela's struggling oil sector may lose much-needed investment. Production has yet to recover from a major strike in 2002, and slumping 4 world oil prices have reduced government revenues.


Mr. Chavez also risks pushing away Western nations.


During his travels, Mr. Chavez slammed Israel as "genocidal," and he pledged to send 20,000 barrels of gasoline a day to Iran to offset 5 possible U.N. sanctions arising from Tehran's nuclear development program.


But Jorge Pinon says that may be a hard promise for Venezuela to keep."In the last 60 days, Venezuela has had problems with its refinery 6 structure, and is actually importing gasoline from Brazil. Anything Venezuela does today, you have to look at it," he adds, "Is it really a political issue, or is there an economic foundation behind it?"


Over time, Mr. Chavez's actions will show which alliances are more important to his government.  



vt.环绕,包围;对…用计取胜,智胜
  • Military planners tried to circumvent the treaty.军事策略家们企图绕开这一条约。
  • Any action I took to circumvent his scheme was justified.我为斗赢他的如意算盘而采取的任何行动都是正当的。
adj.不方便的,令人感到麻烦的
  • You have come at a very inconvenient time.你来得最不适时。
  • Will it be inconvenient for him to attend that meeting?他参加那次会议会不方便吗?
n.部门,部分;防御地段,防区;扇形
  • The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
  • The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。
大幅度下降,暴跌( slump的现在分词 ); 沉重或突然地落下[倒下]
  • Hong Kong's slumping economy also caused a rise in bankruptcy applications. 香港经济低迷,破产申请个案随之上升。
  • And as with slumping, over-arching can also be a simple postural habit. 就像弯腰驼背,过度挺直也可能只是一种习惯性姿势。
n.分支,补偿;v.抵消,补偿
  • Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
  • He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。
n.精炼厂,提炼厂
  • They built a sugar refinery.他们建起了一座榨糖厂。
  • The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。
学英语单词
AAGUS
advauncing
agenthood
antitraditionalism
apomixes
bartang r.
Beijing Geodetic Coordinate System 1954
biologic energy
blocked operation
BOL (beginning of life)
broadcast home
bunk covers
cesar chavezs
chronotron
Coast is clear
coilingly
crankum
CRW
cut-off valve
defence spending
detective time constant
dilacerating
dragon piece
Dueodde
ECLA
electriclpower station
elstein
equulites absconditus
etherising
Eurosam
external hemorrhoid
ferte
fish strainer
fishing bank
fore line
forward lead of the brushes
funds for fisheries
Greenwich mean noon
helping-hand phenomenon
Holtwood
homotaxia
hot and hot
how are you fixed for sth?
ingan
initial orders
integrated camera
interior escape stair
isolated phase bus bar
isolated sign
Jovian magnetopause
klammers
La Gloria
Latimeridae
leprosied
leukorrheal diseases
liriodendra
Lithcarb atmosphere
logging depot
love-egg
mariner project
Minalpha
mother wart
Mountain Lakes
NOC (network operation center)
nondimensional
number of magnetic flux inter linkage
oilnut
optical shutter
papaveraceous
Payong, Bukit
photoelectrical refrigeration
polyformate
prescribed value
pressure-main
printed substrate
psychiatric drugs
radioiodinated steroid
random schedule
red-lead putty
ridged beach plain
Rose-cold
semidarkened
silktails
single-particles
sound post
strobe memory
study-time
swastikas
tallow-tree
tallowing
the-writings
Tongoy
trans-regulator
trolley-jib tower crane
unmediatized
vitellogenins
water tight sluice door
welfare building
wet calender stack
window film
wine-based
working principle diagram