时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:2007年VOA标准英语(六月)


英语课
By Al Pessin
Pentagon
29 June 2007

The commander of U.S. troops in Baghdad says al-Qaida cells are being cornered into fighting rather than fleeing the new offensive by his forces and the Iraqi army.  Major General Joseph Fil says the result is continuing high U.S. casualties, but also progress toward taking control of previously 1 hostile neighborhoods.  VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon.






US soldiers prepare to search homes in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq Thursday, June 28, 2007


US soldiers prepare to search homes in the Dora neighborhood of Baghdad, June 28, 2007



Speaking via satellite from Baghdad, General Fil pointed 2 to an insurgent 3 attack on Thursday that involved a large bomb, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire, resulting in the deaths of five American soldiers and the wounding of six more.


"Well, it was a very violent attack," he said.  "And we did think it showed a level of sophistication we had not often seen so far in this campaign."


General Fil says insurgents 4 are confronting U.S. troops that way because their freedom of movement has been restricted by the surge of U.S. and Iraqi troops into the city and its surrounding areas.


"They have previously been, frankly 5, elusive 6 when we actually got into an area and started to clear it," he added.  "And we're seeing that in this area of East Rashid they're standing 7 and fighting, and we're fully 8 prepared for that."


General Fil provided statistics to back up his claim that the new Baghdad Security Plan is working.  He said in April about 19 percent of the capital's neighborhoods were under control.  He said that is up to 48 percent now, with another 36 percent of neighborhoods in the process of being cleared of insurgents.


Still, the general would not predict when the city might be fully under control, or how much of the job might be done by September, when senior officials are to make a progress report to the U.S. Congress.


"I am certainly cognizant of that, but I can tell you that we haven't altered any of our plans based on this date, which will be an important one, but it will come and go," he said.


General Fil says the number of insurgent attacks is down in Baghdad, and their overall impact has been reduced.  But he says the insurgents are burying larger and larger bombs in the path of U.S. troops, like the one that exploded Thursday.  That keeps the U.S. casualty rate high, but the general says casualties are not a good measure of success or failure, because they result in part from the higher operational tempo 9 of his forces since the new security plan went into effect in January.






Robert Gates speaks with the media at NATO headquarters in Brussels, 15 June 2007


Robert Gates 15 June 2007



At a Pentagon news conference Friday, Defense 10 Secretary Robert Gates said a special Pentagon task force is working hard to find ways to protect troops from the bombs, through technology, neighborhood diplomacy 11 and military operations.


"This is not a problem, I think, that's going to be confined to Iraq.  And so we need to keep working on it and find ways to protect our soldiers and marines," he said.


Secretary Gates said that includes developing relationships with local leaders who can help monitor activities in their neighborhoods.  General Fil says there is a major effort to do that in Baghdad, with a formal application and vetting 12 process for former insurgents who want to cooperate with the government.  He says the program gets 300 applicants 13 a day who are willing to swear allegiance and come under Iraqi army or police control.


General Fil also says his forces are finding more Iranian munitions 14 in Baghdad.


"There's no doubt that they're coming out of Iran," he noted 15.  "Most of them are made fairly recently, in the past several years, and they have lot numbers that we can trace through to Iran."


The general says the Iranian weapons are mainly rockets and mortar 16 shells, and many of them are being fired from the mainly Shi'ite Sadr City neighborhood into the heavily protected Green Zone, where the U.S. embassy and Iraqi government buildings are located.




1 previously
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。
2 pointed
adj.尖的,直截了当的
  • He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
  • She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。
3 insurgent
adj.叛乱的,起事的;n.叛乱分子
  • Faruk says they are threatened both by insurgent and government forces.法鲁克说,他们受到暴乱分子和政府军队的双重威胁。
  • The insurgent mob assembled at the gate of the city park.叛变的暴徒聚在市立公园的门口。
4 insurgents
n.起义,暴动,造反( insurgent的名词复数 )
  • The regular troops of Baden joined the insurgents. 巴登的正规军参加到起义军方面来了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Against the Taliban and Iraqi insurgents, these problems are manageable. 要对付塔利班与伊拉克叛乱分子,这些问题还是可以把握住的。 来自互联网
5 frankly
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说
  • To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说,我一点也不赞成这个主意。
  • Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说,我不反对改革。
6 elusive
adj.难以表达(捉摸)的;令人困惑的;逃避的
  • Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
  • Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。
7 standing
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
8 fully
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气,然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
9 tempo
n.(音乐的)速度;节奏,行进速度
  • The boss is unsatisfied with the tardy tempo.老板不满于这种缓慢的进度。
  • They waltz to the tempo of the music.他们跟着音乐的节奏跳华尔兹舞。
10 defense
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩
  • The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
  • The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。
11 diplomacy
n.外交;外交手腕,交际手腕
  • The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
  • This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。
12 vetting
n.数据检查[核对,核实]v.审查(某人过去的记录、资格等)( vet的现在分词 );调查;检查;诊疗
  • Scripts had to be submitted to Ministry of Information officials for vetting. 必须把脚本提交给信息部官员审查。 来自互联网
  • Their purpose in clicking deeper into a site is one of vetting. 他们深入点击网站的目的是一种诊疗。 来自互联网
13 applicants
申请人,求职人( applicant的名词复数 )
  • There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
  • He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。
14 munitions
n.军火,弹药;v.供应…军需品
  • The army used precision-guided munitions to blow up enemy targets.军队用精确瞄准的枪炮炸掉敌方目标。
  • He rose [made a career for himself] by dealing in munitions.他是靠贩卖军火发迹的。
15 noted
adj.著名的,知名的
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
16 mortar
n.灰浆,灰泥;迫击炮;v.把…用灰浆涂接合
  • The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
  • The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。
学英语单词
a priori value
arujo
ataxinomic
britt
capacity to act
Comblain-au-Pont
compensation award
constitution of the earth
convertiplanes
corporate group
credit cycles
cut cost
d-hill
declaratory judgments
directional radioactive force
doctrine of collaboration between labour and capital
dog-tired
drageffect
drift biota
dybbukking
early-bird
East Aberthaw
electronic invoice
eustachian catheter stylet
extra-label
francavilla
gendas
gravity heater
grove
Górzno
Haemulon album
haliporus taprobanensis
hautin
hexandria
high-speed machining
Hkasin
hudibras
hughey
inconvincedly
jar down spear
Kanguma
kantars
keeping the spirit in the interior
labyrinthodonts
laqueat
late stages of development
lifegiving
Madagascar
make a nuisance of make oneself a nuisance
Mandel
Melia azederach
monetary aggregates
mouse-ear hawkweed
multilocular foraminifera
multipleswitch
multiplication time
myohypertrophia
Neuburg an der Kammel
Neunkirchen
nonclay
noncommercial enterprise
nonswappable
OpenNT
optical power density
p-hydroxyazobenzene
palettizes
parallel added
Pedro Calderon de la Barca
pinafores
plug-assist forming
premiere danseuse ?toile
priestesshood
primary cutout
printing trolley
process entity
puromucous
quensyl
raar
Rainy River
reformulated
repplye
resectionist
resoitol
rhitidectomy
Saletin
schell
sevum praeparatum
sheath thermocouple
silicon iron sheet
single doped laser
stereoscan microscope
subterraneans
tabtoxin
temporary association
teratologists
three-phase three-wire system
thrust unit
transmission power
unpleasant person
unrevoked
Urban Dicktionary
wreck sacrificed