时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2011年(八月)


英语课

Tripoli Neighborhood Checkpoints Help Keep the Peace


The Moammar Gadhafi government in Libya has collapsed 2 after 42 years, and many people question whether Tripoli will descend 3 into the chaos 4 that plagued Baghdad after the fall of Iraq's Saddam Hussein. An answer may be found in neighborhood checkpoints.

“You are Americans? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.”

We meet Mohammed Abou Gabha manning a checkpoint on a central Tripoli street.

Mohammed, a 21-year-old pilot trainee 5, grew up on Zawiya Street.

For the past week, he and his lifelong neighbor, Mohammed Badi, a student of French, have been manning a checkpoint, stopping cars and trucks traveling through the neighborhood.

“We need to be safe here, because we know mafias, Gadhafi’s mafias...,” Abou Gabha says.

This checkpoint, multiplied by the thousands across this sprawling 6 city of 1.5 million people, helps explain why Tripoli has suffered only small-scale looting since the sudden collapse 1 of the Gadhafi government. 

Pausing from checking cars, Abou Gabha explains the checkpoints did not spring up by accident.

Since May, underground military councils formed neighborhood by neighborhood.

“If Gadhafi's government know we have a council here, they will kill us, and catch us, and put us in prison,” says Gabha.

Critics say the city is awash with guns. Mohammed says the guns at his checkpoint are strictly 7 controlled by his neighborhood military council.

“They count it...and if I shoot one, I will be in trouble,” he says.

Mohammed Badi grew up across the street from Mohammed Abou Gabha.

“I trust him too much. If I do not trust him, I do not give him my back," says Badi. "He has a gun. We do not like guns very much in Libya.”

One week after Tripoli’s uprising, as the city returns to normal, there is no evidence of looting on Zawiya Street. The key, Mohammed Abou Gabha says, is neighborhood unity 8. Referring to the multi-story apartment buildings on his street, he says, “All the buildings, we are just like one man.”

Later, I encounter Mohammed down the street, directing traffic in front of the neighborhood mosque 9.

“This car and this guy is coming from Misrata. And there's another guy is coming from Benghazi also," says Gabha. "That means we are one country. We live one country.”

With luck, the unity displayed on the block level here in Tripoli, will play large in Libya, allowing for a new government of national unity.



1 collapse
vi.累倒;昏倒;倒塌;塌陷
  • The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
  • The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。
2 collapsed
adj.倒塌的
  • Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
  • The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。
3 descend
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降
  • I hope the grace of God would descend on me.我期望上帝的恩惠。
  • We're not going to descend to such methods.我们不会沦落到使用这种手段。
4 chaos
n.混乱,无秩序
  • After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后,城市一片混乱。
  • The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。
5 trainee
n.受训练者
  • The trainee checked out all right on his first flight.受训者第一次飞行完全合格。
  • Few of the trainee footballers make it to the top.足球受训人员中没有几个能达到顶级水平。
6 sprawling
adj.蔓生的,不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 );蔓延;杂乱无序地拓展;四肢伸展坐着(或躺着)
  • He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
  • a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇
7 strictly
adv.严厉地,严格地;严密地
  • His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
  • The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。
8 unity
n.团结,联合,统一;和睦,协调
  • When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结,并非一团和气。
  • We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前,我们必须加强团结。
9 mosque
n.清真寺
  • The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
  • Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前,清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。
学英语单词
4-on-the-floor
acoustic energy
arteriae sternocleidomastoidea
aurous potassium cyanide
b-nt2(broadband network termination 2)
beam orifice
bilateral chorea
brevibacterial
Bromanilpromide
careenages
centre diameter of pin holes
cheesepie
closed type single action crank press
cold-applied coal-tar coating
collision matrix
compact the soil
convolutional encoding
cooling duct
crestomicina
Delta alloy
ekiben
epistulae
F-bombs
FFMS (fuel failure monitoring system)
field of employment
flow maldistribution
function definition
Gambians
hall-markeds
heavy neutral oil
hidden rashes
homenaje
hysterical mutism
impounding
incomplete dislocation
jolting moulding machine
key pulsing
kgc
kmpg
late-in-life
lay-by material
live off
localization of boundary stress
machine chest
magnesio dolomite
magnetic storage system
micro projector
mikester
modulation-demodulation method
molal volume (molar volume)
monorchidism
near-contact binary
ninetythree
noisance
non-conventional machine tools
nuclear-warhead missile
Oldenbrok
Opheusden
p-aminobenzoic acid
Parabarium
parnevik
passive antiroll system
Pasteuriacese
peak responsibility factor
pediatrists
phormium fibre
picniclike
pig bank
pillagers
portable hotspot
purple zebrina
quiver trees
radiograph
raised head
Ramone
reaction vessel
rock-hole
Rophidiodea
sammlers
self-existent
semen cassiae torae
semiconductor air conditioner
seventy-fourth
slope sensitivity
solid probe
sondland
sorority
standard rotor
state employee
stenonabis tibialis
subcritical state
syr darya (sirdaryo)
tar dye
to-who
transfer capsule
trifoliosis
unloader clutch
unsolaced
Virtual Machine Manager
wanzing
wind angle
Yasmin