英语听力精选进阶版 8500

The Syrian city of Palmyra appears to have fallen to Islamic State militants 1, leaving one of the greatest archaeological sites in the Middle East at great risk. Syrian State Television says the government troops have withdrawn 2. Our Arab Affairs Editor Sebastian Usher 3 has more.

叙利亚城市巴尔米拉已对付伊斯兰激进分子，致使中东的一处著名遗址处于极大危险的境地。叙利亚国家电视台声称，政府军队已撤退。下面是本台阿拉伯事件编辑萨巴斯蒂安·厄舍为您带来详细报道。

An eyewitness 4 in Palmyra told the BBC that Islamic State fighters have taken the city. He says that soldiers and pro-government militias 5 are no longer to be seen on the streets. The news raises fears for any remaining residents who may face brutal 6 reprisals 7, but may also give IS the opportunity to wreak 8 destruction on ancient Palmyra. That’s what they’ve taken great public relation doing in Iraq, bringing in bulldozers, power drills and explosives to eradicate 9 all trace of Nimrud and Hatra.

一位巴尔米拉的目击证人向BBC透露，伊斯兰士兵已占领该城。他说，在大街上已看不到伊斯兰士兵和支持政府的民兵。该新闻增加了剩余居民的恐慌，他们有可能面临更残忍地报复，这也可能给伊斯兰激进分子提供了掠夺报复这座古老的城市的机会。他们在伊朗建立更多的外交关系，引进推土机，动力钻机和爆炸品来彻底消除尼姆鲁兹和哈特拉的痕迹。

Six of the world’s largest banks have been fined nearly 6 billion dollars by British and American regulators, for colluding to manipulate currency markets and interest rates. They are Barclays, JP Morgan, CITI Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of America and UBS. Traders used internet chat rooms to fix rates, with one writing, “if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”. Michelle Fleury reports.

英国和美国监管部门对世界六大银行处以近6亿美元的罚款，因其串通勾结试图操纵货币市场和利率。这六大银行分别是 巴克莱银行，摩根大通公司，花旗集团，苏格兰皇家银行，美国银行和瑞士联合银行。贸易商通过因特网聊天室制定利率，有一条说到，“如果你不欺骗，就不会有过尝试”。下面是米歇尔·弗勒里发回的报道。

They called themselves the “Cartel”. In a secret chat room, traders of CITI Group, JP Morgan, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland colluded to manipulate the price of US dollars and euros between December 2007 and January 2013. The four banks pleaded guilty to conspiring 10 to rig the world’s biggest financial market, the foreign exchange market. Swiss bank UBS and Bank of America both avoided guilty pleas, but had to pay fines for their role in the scandal.

他们称呼自己为“卡特尔”。在2007年12月到2013年1月这段时间里，花旗集团、摩根大通公司、巴克莱银行和苏格兰皇家银行在秘密聊天室串通勾结，操纵美元和欧元价格。这四家银行对阴谋操纵世界最大的金融市场和外汇交易市场供认不讳。瑞士银行UBS和美国银行却不承认此罪行，但必须为他们在这项丑闻中的角色处以罚款。

US intelligence officials have released new documents seized from the raid in Osama Bin 11 Laden’s secret compound in Pakistan, in which he was killed four years ago. They include details about what books and newspaper articles the Al-Qaeda leader was reading at the time. Here’s Barbara Plett Usher.

美国情报局发布了在巴基斯坦奥萨马·奔·拉登的秘密和解的一次袭击中的最新档案，他本人在四年前已被杀害。这项新档案包括基地组织头目当时阅读的报纸和书籍。下面是芭芭拉·皮乐特·厄舍的报道。

There are application forms for people who wanted to join Al-Qaeda, so you have the standard questions like name, age, marital 12 status, but there are also questions like “do you wish to execute a suicide operation” and “who should we contact if you’re martyred”. He was trying to keep members coming, and trying to keep them organized, and trying to make sure they got the training that they needed and carry out operations he wanted them to carry out. But in this isolated 13 place in Pakistan there, with very poor communications, he had difficulty doing so.

这项档案里有加入基地组织的申请表，表上的典型的问题有姓名，年龄，婚姻状况，但还有“你想自杀吗”和“如果你死了我们该怎样联系”的问题。他试图使人员不断加入，使他们有组织性并训练他们，使他们能够实施他的命令。但是在巴基斯坦的偏僻隔绝的地方，通讯条件差，他很难做到这些。

Nearly 600 members of the Nigerian military have appeared before 2 courts martial 14, charged with disciplinary offenses 15 related to the ongoing 16 fight against the Islamist group Boko Haram. Human rights lawyers say some of them are accused of mutiny. They say corrupt 17 officers have often stolen funds meant for weapons and equipment.

将近600名尼日利亚官兵在两个军事法庭上被控告冒犯纪律罪，该罪与不断反击伊斯兰教组织博科圣地有关。人权律师称，他们中有些人被控诉叛乱罪。他们说，贪污军官偷盗用来购置武器和装备的军费。

World News from the BBC.

BBC世界新闻。

The British Finance Minister George Osborne has told the Confederation of British Industry that the European Union risks pricing itself out of the world economy through costly 18 regulation. But the Confederation’s President Sir Mike Rake said business leaders should make it crystal clear that EU membership was in the national interest. Britain’s membership will be put to a referendum by 2017.

英国金融部长乔治·奥斯本曾对英国产业邦联称，欧盟冒着越出世界经济轨道的风险定价，尽管代价很高。但是邦联，首领麦克·瑞克·先生表示，商业领袖应使欧盟成员国的国家利益透明化。2017年，英国的成员国身份将被提上议程。

Scientists working in northern Kenya have unearthed 19 the oldest stone tools ever found. More details from Rebecca Morelle.

肯尼亚北部的科学家发掘了最古老的石器工具。下面是丽贝卡·摩尔勒的详细报道。

About 150 tools were excavated 20 in Kenya. They include sharp flakes 21 of stone used for cutting, hammers and heavy rocks that most likely served as anvils 22. Tests show they are 3.3 million years old, which means they predate the earliest humans. It was thought that homo habilis was the first of our ancestors to use tools, but this find suggests even more primitive 23 species despite being ape-like with small brains may have been advanced enough to produce this early technology.

肯尼亚大概出土了150件器具，包括带尖的用来切东西的石块，锤子和可能用来做砧板的大块石头。实验表明，这些有3.3亿年，早于最早的人类。之前认为的巧手人是人类最早的祖先，但这次调查表明，不仅像猿这样有小的头脑的动物使用石器，甚至更原始的种类进化到创造这种先进的发明。

Brazil has stopped busing Haitian immigrants from northern Brazil to Sao Paolo, the country’s largest city, after some 500 Haitians arrive in search for jobs, overwhelming the city shelters. The government suspended the bus service for two months. More than 50 thousand Haitians have migrated to Brazil since 2012, when the country started granting humanitarian 24 visas after Haiti’s earthquake two years earlier.

巴西停止使用大巴接送海地移民从巴西北部到圣保罗。圣保罗是本国最大的城市，继500名海地移民来这里找工作后，该城市已拥挤不堪。政府暂停大巴服务已有俩月。2010海地大地震之后，巴西从2012年开始实行人道主义签证以来已有超过5万海地人民移居巴西。

The owner of an auction 25 house in Florida has been sentenced to three years in jail for helping 26 to smuggle 27 rhino 28 horns, elephant ivories and coral from the United States to China. Christopher Hayes was caught in a sting operation when he bought endangered black rhino horns from an undercover agent. In a statement, the US Justice Department said it was the first such conviction of an auction house and should serve as a warning.

佛罗里达一家拍卖行行主因参与从美国向中国偷渡犀牛角、象牙和珊瑚被判三年有期徒刑。克里斯托弗·海伊在从警方卧底手里收购濒临灭绝的犀牛角时被诱捕。审判中，美国司法部门称，这是首次拍卖行犯罪，应当以此为戒。