时间:2018-12-19 作者:英语课 分类:CNN2013年(四)月


英语课

Hi, welcome to the Thursday edition of CNN’s Student News. I’m Carl Azuz. Today we’re going to start at the U.S. Supreme 1 Court, and if you watched our show on Tuesday you know the court’s nine justices are hearing two cases this week about the issue of same-sex marriage. Yesterday, the focus was on a federal law. It’s called the Defense 2 of Marriage Act, or DOMA. It was passed in 1996 and what it says is that for federal purposes, so we’re talking about U.S. government purposes, marriage is defined as only between one man and one woman. That legal definition can impact things like taxes and benefits. For example, same-sex couples who get married in a state where that’s legal, don’t get access to the same federal benefits as other couples. 
 
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments about a law in California that bans same-sex marriage. So this week we focused on two cases - same general topic, but different legal focus. The court’s rulings aren’t expected for a few months, but we want to give you an idea of what it was like inside the Supreme Court. What you’re about to hear is from Tuesday’s hearings on the law in California.
 
Outside of the marriage context, can you think of any other rational basis, reason, for a state using sexual orientation 3 as a factor in denying homosexuals benefits?
 
Your honor, I cannot. I do not have any - anything to offer you. 
 
I’m curious - when did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage?
 
The label marriage means something. Even our opponents ….
 
Sir, if you tell a child that somebody has to be their friend, I suppose you can force that child to say this is my friend, but it changes the definition of what it means to be a friend. And that’s, it seems to me, what supporters of Proposition 8 are saying here. All you’re interested in is the label and you insist on changing the definition of the label. 
 
Traditional marriage has been around for thousands of years. Same-sex marriage is very new. I think it was first adopted in the Netherlands in 2000. So there isn’t a lot of data about its effect. 
 
If you’re over the age of 55, you don’t help us serve the government’s interest in regulating procreation through marriage. So, why is that different?
 
Your honor, even with respect to couples over the age of 55, it is very rare that both parties to the couple are infertile 4. And the traditional … 
 
I can assure you, if both the woman and the man are over the age of 55, there are not a lot of children coming out of that marriage.


1 supreme
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的
  • It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
  • He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
2 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。
3 orientation
n.方向,目标;熟悉,适应,情况介绍
  • Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
  • The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。
4 infertile
adj.不孕的;不肥沃的,贫瘠的
  • Plants can't grow well in the infertile land.在贫瘠的土地上庄稼长不好。
  • Nobody is willing to till this infertile land.这块薄田没有人愿意耕种。
学英语单词
-teenth
angular motion
appointment-only
ash-greys
autocratic leader
automatic data processing systems
Ban Nong Yang
Bandwidth-on-demand
bare the metal
basilar membranae
bonnett
catalogable permanent file
cheek retractor
chloroethylaminoanthraquinones
classical-styles
closure of simplex
collective body
community residents
copius
coraebus aesopus
crummy
cystomyxoma
dispension
disproportionateness
distrbuted processing
electro-gas arc welding
excitaton source
exhibition expenditures
false myxoma
fear-stricken
fibre grease
firiming agent
fix things up
fluidized layer
forage for
fund levy
go on an outing
graphic kernel system
gravity spectrum
gravity tectonics
green cormorant
guilt-trip
heliocentric declination
heterodyne interference
high speed steel end mill
Igo
in one piece nozzle
income-expenditures
interpretation of dreams
island-dwellers
Knelston
laid lower
lead crown glass
Leo III
linen fiber
load up on sth
lyme-hound
make gains
manufacturer's rep
mechano-chemical system
medical diagnostic radiation
metallographs
Middleton Stoney
missel-bird
Mogogelo
noas
note to the accounts
number identification
off-colo(u)r product
oystered
pal(a)eohydrology
Palespotted
pasta rocket
pasteur pipet
permineralised
planetary landing
plant room
plumbaginaceous
pulsed lasers
re-taining part of the extra profit
reed sweep
Resia
ring-a-ring
screen scarifier
sewerage of separate system
site autonomy
taint-hook
take springs out from
testing of soil
tetrazoles
think no small bear of
Tolbukhinski Okrǔg
toona sureni(bl.)merr.
total color blindness
Tristars
wages fund
wooden bridge
written calculation
yeast-liked
zero-zero gel
zhishi xiebai guizhi decoction