时间:2018-12-07 作者:英语课 分类:2010年慢速英语(二)月


英语课

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.


This week, President Obama led a meeting of Democratic and Republican lawmakers to discuss health reform. Thursday's meeting lasted more than six hours and was broadcast live on television and the Internet.


Some experts think the president could be making his last major push to get a health care bill through Congress. He urged the two sides to look for common ground.


BARACK OBAMA: "I hope that this isn't political theater where we are just playing to the cameras and criticizing each other, but instead we are actually trying to solve the problem."


But it did not take long for the health care meeting to become heated. Republicans said the majority Democrats 1 in Congress had ignored them in writing legislation.


LAMAR ALEXANDER: "Our country's too big, too complicated, too decentralized for Washington, a few of us here, just to write a few rules about remaking seventeen percent of the economy all at once."



President Obama shakes hands with Republican Congressman 2 Joe Barton of Texas during the talks Thursday at Blair House, across from the White House


Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said cutting health care costs step by step is better than the Democrats' plan.


LAMAR ALEXANDER: "So our view, with all respect, is that this is a car that can't be recalled and fixed 3, and that we ought to start over."


But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Democrats would not start the legislative 4 process all over again. She urged the lawmakers at the meeting to remember all of the American families that are struggling to pay for medical care.


NANCY PELOSI: "What we do here must be relevant to their lives. And for them, they don't have time for us to start over."


At the end of the day, even President Obama admitted that differences between the two sides may be too great for compromise.


BARACK OBAMA: "At least we will have better clarified for the American people what the debate is about."


Democratic leaders say they are hopeful that some good will come out of the meeting. But they also made it clear that they are willing to act alone, if necessary, to pass a health care bill.


Democrats in the Senate have lost their sixty-vote supermajority needed to block any effort by Republicans to kill legislation. But the Democrats could try to pass a health care bill using a process called reconciliation 5. It requires only a simple majority of fifty-one votes.


On Monday, for the first time, President Obama offered his own version of a plan to breathe new life into the legislation in Congress. His proposal calls for insuring thirty million more Americans at a cost of about one trillion dollars over ten years. Republicans have a plan to insure three million more Americans at a cost of sixty billion dollars for the same period.


The Republicans propose taking smaller steps to reform the health care system. Their ideas include permitting Americans to shop for health insurance in other states and expanding health care savings 6 accounts.


Democrats call the Republicans the party of "no." But on Wednesday, thirteen Republicans supported a jobs bill passed by the Senate. It combines a tax cut for employers and spending for road projects in an effort to reduce unemployment. The fifteen billion dollar bill now goes to the House.


And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake with Paula Wolfson and Elizabeth Lee. Transcripts 7, MP3s and podcasts are at voaspecialenglish.com, where you can also comment on our programs. I'm Steve Ember.


 



1 democrats
n.民主主义者,民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )
  • The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
  • The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
2 Congressman
n.(美)国会议员
  • He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
  • The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。
3 fixed
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的
  • Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗?
  • Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定,我们就不应该随意改变。
4 legislative
n.立法机构,立法权;adj.立法的,有立法权的
  • Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
  • Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。
5 reconciliation
n.和解,和谐,一致
  • He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
  • Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。
6 savings
n.存款,储蓄
  • I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假,那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
  • By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时,他的存款已全部用完。
7 transcripts
n.抄本( transcript的名词复数 );转写本;文字本;副本
  • Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样,都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
  • You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书,你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句
标签: proposal
学英语单词
accept
aggregate average propensity to consume
albumimeter
angle control system
aponea
automatic moisture shutdown
auxiliary stake
banterer
barium-iodide
Be. No.
Bellewstown
bicrossproduct
british library method
catburglars
ceratium vultur sumatranum
cercospora gaultheriae
cholecystolithiases
conductivity tensor
conventional accounting
cooled maser
cross sectional area of the uncut chip
deep seeding
deep-field
dinitroethyl phenol
disimbitters
e-mail bombs
efferent lymphatic vessel
email software
Esameter
farthest
fatigue creep
feasible
forging method
free-ash coke
front pinacoid
funeral-residences
Gabil
generatrices
genus amarylliss
getting-ready
glowsing
graces of god
ground potential
high class joiners' work
HWLI
in re
in support of
in-phase yarn
insectile
intalio press
jack brick
kazakh
king begonis
line of quickest descent
Little-Spotted
lower return lower risk
magnetic retention
maladministrations
Manouane
medium alcohol
megascopic structure
metallic net
microcercous cercaria
morned
multiterminal system
N-1-naphthylbenzamidine
neodymium(element)
Ombai, Pulau
ordering heat treatment
original payee
palindrome (wilson & thomas 1944)
polarized light microscope
previou
pulsus bisferiens
Queen Elizabeth National Park
randanini
rear surface
Request denied
resident macrophage
resource plan
rigid-plastic material
rural proletariat
saver kelly
self respect
semi-uniformly continuous
sfm (space frequency modulation)
shrimp meat
signals-to-noise ratio
stroudings
subsystem design
sweet gales
syphilitic tophus
topside model
Tosasimizu
trash separator
trial steel work fixing
tubewells
uncoated oxide fuel particle
up the ass
upper die
vapor superheater
venae intercostalis suprema