News Spotlight (4)
时间：2018-11-28 作者：英语课 分类：疯狂英语2003年
News 1: 政治
In Canada, Quebec's pro-independence party has suffered a 1)setback 2. Partial results show the Party Quebecois has lost its bid for a third straight term in the 125-member National Assembly. Incomplete results also show Liberal Party candidates winning 65 races and leading eight others. Election observers predicted that a win for the Parti Quebecois would lead to another 2)referendum on independence. A 1995 referendum, to separate French-speaking Quebec from the rest of Canada, failed by less than a percentage point.
News 2: 政治
An Argentine lawyer, Luis Moreno Ocampo, has been appointed as the first 3)prosecutor 3 of the new 4)International Criminal Court. Mr. Moreno Ocampo made his name in the 1980's when he helped prosecute 4 the former leaders of Argentina's military government for human rights abuses.
News 3: 经济
Phillip Morris got a partial 5)reprieve 5 when an Illinois judge cut in half the amount of money that the nation's biggest cigarette maker 6 must 6)come up with to begin appealing a 10.1 billion dollar 7)verdict. The judge ordered the tobacco giant to deposit six billion dollars in 8)escrow to begin its appeal. The company had previously 7 faced paying a 12 billion dollar appeal bond.
Now the accounting 8 9)probe into HealthSouth could widen beyond the nine former executives who reached 10)plea agreements with the government, The Wall Street Journal, reporting that additional plea agreements could be reached by the middle of the week. Meantime, the 11)hearing on whether to unfreeze former Chairman and CEO Richard Scrushy's assets continuing in Birmingham.
Some big changes at the company formerly 9 known as Worldcom. The second-largest U.S. long-distance company, is 12)dumping its name for a familiar one, M.C.I., and it will also shift its headquarters from Mississippi to Virginia. Worldcom filed for bankruptcy 10 last year amid a growing accounting scandal. Now the company says it will come out of bankruptcy later this year with debt of about four billion dollars. It had more than thirty billion dollars in debt when it filed for 13)Chapter Eleven.
News 4: 科技
History's in the making when an international group of scientists unveiled what's 14)dubbed, "The Book of Life? or the complete map of the human 15)genome. The research is widely expected to revolutionize biology and medicine. The completed map of the human genetic 12 code was finished two years after a rough draft of the code was published. The data, which is said to be 99.9 percent accurate, has been uploaded into a public database for the benefit of all humanity.
Dr. Robert Waterston (International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium): After three billion years of evolution, and several years of work by this 16)coalition 13, we have before us the instruction set that carries each of us from a one-celled egg, to adulthood 14, to the grave.
Scientists said that the work done in final year of sequencing the human genome proved wrong an earlier notion that some human DNA 15 was 17)junk.
Dr. Eric Lander (Whitehead Institute): Even regions that we thought were quite unimportant, we're finding out some of them are perfect duplications that make new copies of existing genes 16 18)embedded with them, and they become nurseries for new genes.
There are high expectations the complete map of the human genome, will, in future, revolutionize research into preventing, diagnosing, and treating disease from Parkinson's to cancer.
News 5: 社会
Gunmen, armed with an AK-47 rifle and a handgun, had opened fire in yet another high school shooting in the U.S. A fifteen-year-old boy died and three other students were injured in the assault in New Orleans. Two hundred students who were inside a 19)gymnasium had to scramble 18 for cover when the gunmen went on a 20)rampage, apparently 19 targeting the victim in revenge for an earlier shooting. The police arrested four suspects near the scene shortly afterwards.
News 6: 体育
It was a 21)bittersweet 22)sendoff for the retiring Michael Jordan, who played his final home game for the Washington Wizards.
A capacity crowd in Washington, 20,178 people, packed the stadium to watch Michael Jordan's final home game for the Wizards. Jordan, who plans to retire at the end of the season, received the Stars and Stripes flag from Defense 20 Secretary Donald Rumsfeld before the game against the New York Knicks. The Knicks won the contest 93-79, but Jordan will be hoping to end his career on a winning note when the Wizards travel to Philadelphia for their last game of the season.
新闻聚光灯
1 政治
在加拿大，魁北克倾向独立的党派遭到了挫折。部份统计结果表明，在有125个议席的国民大会上，魁北克人党失去竞选连任第三期的资格。据不完全资料显示，自由党候选人赢得65个议席，并领先于其它八名候选人。选举观察员预测，如果魁北克人党胜出，有可能会导致就独立问题进行另一轮投票。1995年曾进行过一次投票，试图将说法语的魁北克地区从加拿大独立出来，最后因支持率少于一个百分点而以失败告终。
2 政治
一位名叫卢斯·莫雷诺·奥堪珀的阿根廷律师近日被指派为新国际刑事法庭的第一位检控官。莫雷诺·奥堪珀先生早在20世纪80年代就因协助指控阿根廷军事政府前领导人滥用人权一案而声名鹊起。
3 经济
伊利诺斯州法官的一项决定使菲利普·莫里斯国际烟草公司得到缓压。这家美国最大的烟草制造商必须缴纳一笔费用才能对101亿美元的判决提出上诉，而法官将费用减去一半。法官要求这家烟草巨头缴纳60亿美元的保证金，并开具保人契约，然后才能上诉。这家公司此前原本需要支付120亿美元的上诉保证金。
对HealthSouth公司在财政方面的调查工作可在原九位执政层人物的基础上再有进展，此前政府已与这九位人员达成了有关辩诉协议。而据《华尔街日报》报道，辩诉协议的附加协议也可在本周三或周四之前签订。与此同时，有关是否解冻HealthSouth公司前任主席兼首席执行官理查德·斯克鲁西的财产的听证会仍会在伯明翰继续进行。
原世界通讯公司--美国第二大长途电信公司做出了一些重大变革，首先更名为大众熟悉的M.C.I，其次公司总部将从密西西比州搬迁至弗吉尼亚州。世通公司去年在发生会计丑闻热潮时申请破产。目前这家公司发表申明，公司将在今年下半年走出破产阴影，届时公司债务只剩下40亿美元。公司去年按破产法第十一条申请破产时负债超过了300亿美元。
4 科技
历史记载又增添了光辉的一笔：一组来自各个不同国家的科学家揭开了被称为“生命之书”--或者也可以说是人类基因组的完整架构图的神秘面纱。这项研究成果被广泛地认为将在生物学与医药学领域产生重大革新。这个完整的人类基因组密码架构图是在原密码草图发表两年后绘制完成的。据说其精确度高达99.9%的数据已被输入公众资料库，将使整个人类受益。
罗伯特·沃特斯顿博士（国际人类基因组测序组织）∶经过30亿年的进化，以及这些科学家们数年的研究工作，我们终于揭开了基因组织的奥秘，而它将伴随每个人的一生，从一个单细胞卵到成人时代再到死亡的过程。
科学家们说，最后一年的人类基因组排序工作的完成证明了以前认为某些人类DNA是无用的的观点是错误的。
埃里克·兰德博士（怀特黑德生物医学研究所）：甚至对于那些原本我们认为极不起眼的部分，我们发现它们当中有些竟然是极为完美的复制品，这些基因在自身内进行分裂复制，制造新的基因，并成为新基因成长的良好环境。
将来，人们期望这个完整的人类基因组织架构图会为各项科学研究带来重大改进，研究项目可涉及对从帕金森症到癌症的预防、诊断及治疗。
5 社会
在美国的另一所高校又发生枪击案，配备有一支AK47步枪和一把手枪的持枪人员在校园内开火。在新奥尔良发生的这次袭击中，一名15岁男孩死亡，三名学生受伤。在一座体育馆内，持枪分子在馆内疯狂地开枪扫射，很显然他们是在为早前的一次枪击事件对当事人进行报复行动，近两百名学生不得不仓惶地寻找掩体保护。事件发生不久，四名嫌疑犯在枪击案现场附近被警察逮捕。
6 体育
乔丹为华盛顿奇才队打了他最后一场主场比赛，对即将退休的迈克尔·乔丹来说，那是一场苦乐参半的送别仪式。
在华盛顿，20178名球迷挤满了体育馆，观看乔丹为奇才队打的最后一场主场比赛。乔丹计划在本季末退出球坛，在这场与纽约尼克斯队对抗的比赛开始之前，他接受了由美国国防部长唐纳德·拉姆斯菲尔德颁发的美国国旗。最终尼克斯队以93: 79打败了奇才队。奇才队将赴费城参加本赛季他们的最后一场比赛，而乔丹也希望这次比赛能为他的职业生涯划上一个完美的句号。
注释：
1) setback [5setbAk] n. 挫折，退步
2) referendum [7refE5rendEm] n. 公民投票
3) prosecutor [5prCsikju:tE] n. 检举人
4) International Criminal Court: 国际刑事法庭
5) reprieve [ri5pri:v] n. 缓刑
6) come up with: 赶上，追上
7) verdict [5vE:dikt] n.[律]（陪审团的）裁决，结论
8) escrow [es5krEu] n. 由第三者保存、待条件完成后即交受让人的契约
9) probe [prEub] v. 探查
10) plea agreement: 又作plea bargain, 意为辩诉协议或辩诉交易，指在检察官签署控诉书之前，作为国家代表的检察官可以同作为被告代表的辩护人就被告是否有罪、所受刑罚的轻重进行交易，达成一个双方都满意的协议，这种协议很容易得到法庭的许可。
11) hearing [5hiEriN] n. 听证会
12) dump [dQmp] v. 抛弃
13) Chapter Eleven: 又称Bankruptcy protection，美国联邦破产法的第11条规定，当一家公司或个人不再有能力向债权人偿还债务，或预计今后也无法偿还时，可申请Chapter 11破产保护。根据规定，债权人不得向受保护公司或个人提出要求还债的诉讼，而公司则可在规定期限内继续营业，并进行整顿。
15) genome [5dVi:nEum] n. 基因组
16) coalition [7kEuE5liFEn] n. 合并，联合
17) junk [dVQNk] n. 垃圾
18) embed 17 [im5bed] v. 使插入，使嵌入
19) gymnasium [dVim5neiziEm] n. 健身房，体育馆
20) rampage [5rAmpeidV] n. 狂暴或激动的行为
21) bittersweet [5bItEswi:t] a. 苦乐参半的
22) sendoff [5sendaJf] n. 送别；起动
- This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
- The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。
- Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
- She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。
- The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
- The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。
- I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
- Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？
- He was saved from the gallows by a lastminute reprieve.最后一刻的缓刑令把他从绞架上解救了下来。
- The railway line, due for closure, has been granted a six-month reprieve.本应停运的铁路线获准多运行6 个月。
- He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
- A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。
- 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。
- A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
- There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。
- We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
- This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。
- You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
- His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。
- I intend to use simultaneous recording to dub this film.我打算采用同期录音的方法为这部影片配音。
- It was dubbed into Spanish for Mexican audiences.它被译制成西班牙语以方便墨西哥观众观看。
- It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
- Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。
- The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
- Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。
- Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
- Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。
- DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
- Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。
- You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪
- The harpoon struck but did not embed.鱼叉击中了但并没有插入。
- This photo showed us how did the root of plant embed the soil deeply.这张照片显示植物的根是如何深入到土壤里去的。
- He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
- It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。
- An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
- He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。