王曉波:news digest 1-10(高口)

發布時間：2010-02-03

作者：

來源于：昂立外語網站

1 | China, Let's Make a Deal

On July 15, a week after detaining four Rio Tinto employees for "stealing state secrets," Beijing expanded its corruption investigation of the Australian mining giant by accusing the company of bribing nearly all of China's major steelmakers to gain access to industry data. The broadening scandal comes amid stalled negotiations over setting iron-ore prices, which Rio Tinto, the world's second largest iron exporter, had been scheduled to lead.

detain 拘押

Rio Tinto 力拓公司，世界鐵礦石巨頭 △

stealing state secrets 盜取國家機密

corruption investigation 反腐敗調查

mining giant 采礦巨頭

bribe 行賄，賄賂

broadening scandal 愈演愈烈的丑聞

stalled 停滯的

iron-ore 鐵礦石

2 | Washington, Narrowing the Achievement Gap

A new Department of Education report contains heartening news for Southern states, which have made progress in closing the long-standing performance gulf between white and black students. Federal testing data show that though they still lag behind white students' results, scores among black pupils have risen more quickly since the early 1990s in states such as Florida and Arkansas than they have in many Northern areas. The largest achievement gaps in the nation are now in places like Illinois and Connecticut rather than in Southern states still struggling to erase the stain of segregation. The report does not address why widespread racial disparities persist.

achievement gap 這里表示學習成績上的差距

heartening 振奮人心的

long-standing 長期存在的

performance gulf 這里表示學習成績上的鴻溝，巨大差距

lag behind 落后

erase 消除

stain of segregation 種族隔離的污點

racial disparities 種族差異

persist 持續存在

3 | Washington, An Election of Firsts

Yes, we all know why the 2008 U.S. presidential election was a historic racial milestone. But according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the contest also virtually eliminated the long-standing gap in participation rates between black and white voters. For the first time, younger blacks voted in greater proportion than their white peers, and black women voted at a higher rate than any other demographic. Overall, though, the number of ballots cast rose only modestly from 2004, as gains in minority voting were offset by stagnant or declining turnout among other groups.

milestone 里程碑

U.S. Census Bureau 美國人口普查局

eliminate 消除

in greater proportion than 比…比例更高

demographic 人口統計

ballots cast 投票

stagnant 停滯的

turnout 這里表示參與投票的人數

4 | Jakarta, Terrorism Returns

Indonesian authorities suspect that the July 17 suicide bombings of two Jakarta luxury hotels were the work of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, which was responsible for the 2002 Bali attacks that killed 202 people. The blasts were condemned by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who had kept the group at bay for four years after taking office and was re-elected just nine days earlier.

suicide bombings 自殺爆炸

luxury hotels 豪華酒店

2002 Bali attacks 指2002年巴厘島恐怖主義襲擊

blasts 爆炸

condemn 譴責

keep the group at bay 指控制、牽制該組織

5 | Rome, Abortion Drug Okayed

The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency has voted to approve the use of the abortion-inducing drug Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, prompting condemnation in the predominantly Roman Catholic country and a threat of excommunication by the Vatican for prescribing doctors and their patients. In its ruling, the agency noted that the "well-being of citizens" supersedes "personal convictions" about the pill, which is already available in the U.K., the U.S. and China. Senior church bioethicist Monsignor Elio Sgreccia blasted the drug as a "poison."

MIFEPRISTONE A steroid, it blocks the action of progesterone, a naturally produced hormone that prepares the inner lining of the uterus for implantation of a fertilized egg

Pharmaceuticals Agency 藥監局

abortion-inducing drug 墮胎藥物

prompt 引發

condemnation 譴責

predominantly 占主導地位，主要地

Roman Catholic 羅馬天主教

excommunication 逐出教會

Vatican 梵蒂岡

prescribe 開處方，規定

well-being of citizens 公民的健康幸福

supersede 取代，淘汰

bioethicist 生物倫理學家

blast 攻擊，抨擊

steroid 類固醇

progesterone 孕酮，黃體酮

hormone 荷爾蒙，激素

uterus 子宮

implantation 植入

fertilized egg 受精卵

6 | California, Tech Titans Untangled

In a sign of the deepening rivalry between two of Silicon Valley's giants, Google CEO Eric Schmidt stepped down from Apple's board of directors after a three-year stint. With the companies increasingly squaring off over lucrative markets like the mobile-computing field, many analysts suggested the move was overdue. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Schmidt's position on his competitor's board may have violated antitrust provisions.

Google vs. Apple

Browser, Chrome vs. Safari

Operating system, Chrome vs. OS X

Voice, Google Voice vs. AT&T (iPhone partner)

Mobile OS, Android vs. iPhone

Tech Titans 技術巨人

untangle 理清，解開

deepening rivalry 日益激烈的競爭

board of directors 董事會

stint 這里表示一段時間

square off 拉開架勢，做好準備

lucrative 利潤豐厚的

mobile-computing field 移動計算領域

overdue 遲到的，早該到來的

antitrust provisions 反不正當競爭條款

7 | Washington, Unsparing with the Rod

According to a new report by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, more than 200,000 U.S. schoolchildren were subjected to corporal punishment during the 2006-07 academic year, with disabled students receiving a disproportionate share. In Tennessee, one of 20 states where physical discipline is legal, children with disabilities were twice as likely to be paddled.

unsparing with the rod 棍棒底下不留情

ACLU American Civil Liberties Union 美國公民聯合會

subjected to corporal punishment 遭到體罰

academic year 學年

paddle 原指用于體罰的棍棒，這里表示體罰，揍

8| Florida, Tensions Rise over Health Care

In the ongoing debate over health-care reform, critics have fixated on the bogus suggestion that "death panels" could deny end-of-life care to ailing seniors. The contention, voiced by Republicans like Sarah Palin, sparked a series of skirmishes at town halls around the country. Defending his proposals in New Hampshire, President Obama denounced the claim as a "scare tactic."

ongoing 進行中的

fixate on 專注于，集中于

bogus 偽造的，假的

death panels對可能決定部分民眾是否享有醫療權的專家小組的攻擊，字面意思“死亡審判委員會”

end-of-life care 臨終關懷

ailing seniors 生病的老年人

contention 爭辯

skirmish 沖突，這里表示爭論

town halls 市政廳

denounce 譴責

scare tactic 恐嚇戰術

9 | Washington, The Supreme Court Steps In On the Death Penalty

Troy Davis, a Georgia man sentenced to death in 1991 for the murder of an off-duty cop, has long maintained his innocence. In the first decision of its kind in nearly 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Court is giving him a chance to prove it. The court ordered a federal judge in Georgia to hear new evidence in the case, including the fact that seven of nine key witnesses have recanted their original testimony. The ruling highlighted the Justices' divergent views on death-row appeals: "The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification" for a new hearing, wrote John Paul Stevens. "This Court has never held," dissented Antonin Scalia, "that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent."

off-duty 下班

maintain 這里表示聲稱，堅持認為

hear 這里表示舉行聽證

recant 撤回，推翻

testimony 證詞

highlight突出，凸顯

divergent 不同的，存在分歧的

death-row appeals 對死刑的上訴

justification 辯護，證明得當

dissent 持異議

habeas court 人身保護法院 △

10| New Jersey Hacker Caught

Albert Gonzalez, a 28-year-old hacker, was indicted on Aug. 17, along with two Russian co-conspirators, in what is believed to be the largest retail-store theft in U.S. history. Gonzalez, who had been arrested on similar charges before, allegedly cracked the databases of 7-Eleven, two other retail chains and a New Jersey--based credit-card-processing company to steal some 130 million credit-card numbers.

indict 起訴，控告

co-conspirator 同謀，同伙

allegedly 據稱

crack 侵入

retail chains 零售連鎖店

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