每日一篇之英语新闻

mirandawang

从BBC摘的，
尽量每日一篇。

想说一下，
关于新闻，
大家泛读就好了，
很多单词都是重复率很高的，
看几次你就知道怎么用了，
自然而然就可以用到你的日常生活对话中了。

mirandawang

Iceland volcano ash closes airspace in northern Germany

Germany has grounded air traffic across its northern airspace because of ash from an erupting volcano in Iceland.

        

Bremen and Hamburg airports closed early on Wednesday, with traffic at Berlin's airports due to stop later.

        

However air traffic is returning to normal in other parts of northern Europe, a day after about 500 flights were cancelled across the region.

        

Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano erupted at the weekend, but experts say ash levels in most places are now diminishing.

        

Europe's air traffic control body Eurocontrol said no flights were expected on Wednesday at Bremen and Hamburg airports, which on a normal day handle about 120 and 480 flights respectively.

        

The ash cloud is expected to affect Berlin from 1100 (0900GMT).  Lufthansa, the national carrier, said it expected a total of 150 of its flights to be cancelled.

        

Eurocontrol said the cloud could also affect parts of Poland. There are no restrictions on flights in any other part of Europe.

        

Experts say particles in the ash could cause jet engines to stall.

        

Germany's transport authorities have taken a tough view on the potential dangers posed by the ash, says the BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin.

        

There has been no outright criticism of the decision from German airlines, but there is unease in the industry that Germany's rules regarding flying through volcanic ash are different from the rest of Europe, our correspondent says.

        

The head of the country's airport organisation said Europe-wide rules were needed.

        

France's civil aviation authority has said it expects very little disruption to air traffic and was not expecting to close any of the country's airspace.

aviation 【ˌeviˈeʃən 】航空

Larger particles                

• 
  

        
Air traffic in Norway, Denmark and the UK was disrupted on Tuesday, with Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England especially badly hit.        

But Britain's weather service said the concentration of volcanic ash in UK airspace would decrease significantly over the course of Wednesday.

        

The Met Office said however that if Grimsvotn volcano continued to erupt at "current variables", much of the country could be affected by ash on Friday, with flights being potentially disrupted.

        

The volcano began erupting last Saturday, sending clouds of ash high into the air.

        

Experts say the eruption is on a different scale to that of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano last year, when millions of travellers were stranded amid concerns about the damage volcanic ash could cause to aircraft engines.

strand 【strænd】vt. 使滞留,使搁浅

amid [əˈmɪd]prep. (表示环境)处于…环境中, 处于…状态中

        

European Union transport commissioner Siim Kallas said: "We do not at this stage anticipate widespread airspace closure and prolonged disruption like we saw last year."

        

Icelandic President Olafur Grimsson told the BBC: "The eruption is gradually being diminished and the ash cloud is definitely smaller than it has been so we are pretty optimistic now."

The ash particles from Grimsvotn are larger than those from Eyjafjallajokull, and so fall to the ground more quickly.
A forecaster at Iceland's meteorological service said Grimsvotn was producing less ash on Tuesday and the plume had decreased in height to about 5,000m (16,400ft).

plume [plum] 羽毛状物

      

两汉司徒

零下68度

跟着学！

mirandawang

US withdraws diplomats from Yemen amid clashes

The US has ordered all its non-essential diplomats and family members of embassy staff to leave Yemen as fighting there escalates.

diplomat n. [ˈdɪpləˌmæt] 外交官

escalate v. [ˈɛskəˌlet] (使)逐步升级

At least 48 people have been killed since Monday in clashes between tribal fighters and government troops.

tribal adj. [ˈtraɪbəl]部落的

troops n. 军队, 装甲部队

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has again said he will not step down and leave Yemen, despite mounting protests.

step down 退休, 辞职

He has so far refused to sign a transition deal that would see him resign in favour of a unity government.

The US State Department has also warned Americans against travelling to Yemen.

Airport clashes     

"The security threat level in Yemen is extremely high due to terrorist activities and civil unrest. There is ongoing civil unrest throughout the country and large-scale protests in major cities," said the state department in a travel warning.

unrest n. [ʌnˈrɛst, ˈʌnˌrɛst] 动荡,动乱, 骚乱, 不安宁

"The Department of State has ordered all eligible family members of US government employees as well as certain non-emergency personnel to depart Yemen.

eligible adj. [ˈɛlɪdʒəbəl]有资格当选的

"US citizens currently in Yemen should depart while commercial transportation is available."

The UK Foreign Office also advises against all travel to Yemen, as it has done since April, strongly urging any British nationals in the country to leave by commercial means.

Fighters from a powerful tribal group, the Hashid, are said to have taken control of several public buildings in the capital Sanaa after several days of fighting government troops.

Sanaa's airport was reportedly shut temporarily on Wednesday after tribal fighters opposed to President Saleh clashed with government forces.

Civil war warning     

civil war 内战

The clashes began on Monday after forces loyal to President Saleh moved against the compound of Hashid leader Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar.

Witnesses say hundreds of people are fleeing the violence in the capital, where residents said fighting was continuing on Thursday.

"There are still sporadic artillery hits and gunfire in Sanaa and we're unsure what's happening outside the city," said the Yemen Times' managing editor, Jeb Boone, in a telephone interview with BBC World News.

sporadic [spəˈrædɪk, spɔ-] adj. 偶尔发生的

artillery [ɑrˈtɪləri] n. 炮, 大炮

"We don't know whether tribesmen are forcing their way into the city or whether the government forces are pushing them out."

Mr Saleh refuses to stand down, despite growing international pressure.

stand down 放弃席位

He has warned that Yemen could descend into civil war.

Eleina

好帖，跟踪

mirandawang

Mladic due at extradition hearing

The session against the 69-year-old was halted on Thursday when his lawyer said he was in "poor physical state".

extradition [ˌɛkstrəˈdɪʃən] n.  (根据条约或法令对逃犯等的)引渡

halt [hɔlt]vt. (使)停下来

Gen Mladic, arrested on Thursday after 16 years on the run, faces genocide charges over the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

genocide n.     [ˈdʒɛnəˌsaɪd] 种族灭绝

Bosnian 波斯尼亚(人)的

His extradition to the UN war crimes court at The Hague could take a week.

Gen Mladic was indicted in 1995 for genocide over the killings about 7,500 Bosnian Muslim men and boys that July at Srebrenica - the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War II - and other crimes.

atrocity n. [əˈtrɑsɪti] 暴行

'Delaying tactics'     

The BBC's Mark Lowen, outside the court in Belgrade, says Gen Mladic's wife, Bosiljka - who recently said she thought her husband was dead - turned up to visit him.

tactics n. [ˈtæktɪks] 策略,手段

turn up 出现

She did not reply when asked how her husband was - probably embarrassed because of what she had asserted before, our correspondent says.

Having lived freely in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, Gen Mladic is believed to have disappeared after the arrest of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 2001.

Following the arrest of former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic in 2008, Gen Mladic became the most prominent Bosnian war crimes suspect at large.

prominent adj. [ˈprɑmənənt] 著名的

The arrest was hailed internationally.

hail vt. [hel]致敬

On Thursday, Serbian TV showed footage of the former general wearing a baseball cap and walking slowly as he appeared in court in Belgrade.

The extradition hearing was stopped when Gen Mladic's lawyer, Milos Saljic, said his client was unable to communicate.

Mr Saljic argued that Mr Mladic - who looked frail and walked slowly during the initial hearing - was unfit to stand trial.

trial n. [ˈtraɪəl, traɪl] 审判, 审理

But a senior Serbian war crimes prosecutor said he believed the defence was exaggerating the general's health problems in an attempt to delay extradition.

prosecutor n. [ˈprɑsɪˌkjutɚ]  原告律师；控方律师

Reports in Serbian media suggested that one of Gen Mladic's arms was paralysed, which was probably the result of a stroke.

paralyse vt.     [ˈpærəˌlaɪz]  使瘫痪[麻痹]

stroke      n. [strok] (引起伤害、痛苦等的)突然打击

Mr Saljic said: "He is aware that he is under arrest, he knows where he is, and he said he does not recognise The Hague tribunal."

recognise vt. [ˈrekəgnaiz]承认…有效

tribunal n. [traɪˈbjunəl, trɪ-] 裁决,公断

Court officials believe he will fight the extradition.

Serbia had been under intense international pressure to arrest Gen Mladic and send him to the UN International Criminal Tribunal to the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

After the arrest, the government banned public gatherings in an effort to prevent any pro-Mladic demonstrations.

But hundreds of ultra-nationalists clashed with police in the northern city of Novi Sad, and there was a smaller demonstration involving several dozen protesters in the centre of Belgrade.

ultra-nationalist 极端民族主义者

The government is now keen for a speedy extradition of Gen Mladic, whom Serb nationalists still regard as a hero, the BBC's Mark Lowen in Belgrade reports.

President Boris Tadic said Gen Mladic's arrest had brought Serbia and the region closer to reconciliation, and opened the doors to European Union membership.

reconciliation n. [ˌrɛkənˌsɪliˈeʃən] 和解, 调和

'Stake-out'

Mr Tadic rejected criticism that Serbia had been reluctant to seize Gen Mladic.

stakeout n. [ˈstekˌaʊt] 监视

reluctant adj. [rɪˈlʌktənt] 不情愿的, 勉强的

seize vt. [siz] 逮捕

A spokeswoman for families of Srebrenica victims, Hajra Catic, told AFP news agency: "After 16 years of waiting, for us, the victims' families, this is a relief."

Gen Mladic was seized in the province of Vojvodina in the early hours of Thursday.

He had two guns with him, but put up no resistance, officials said.

Serbian security sources told AFP news agency that three special units had descended on a house in the village of Lazarevo, about 80km (50 miles) north of Belgrade.

descend on 袭击

The single-storey house was owned by a relative of Gen Mladic and had been under surveillance for the past two weeks, one of the sources added.

surveillance     n. [sɚˈveləns] 盯梢, （对犯罪嫌疑人或可能发生犯罪的地方的）监视

Local resident Zora Prodariovic told the BBC: "I'm really surprised. "My mother lives four doors down from here and I've never seen him."

Reports that Gen Mladic had been living under the assumed name Milorad Komodic have been denied by Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.

Serbian media say he was not in disguise - unlike Mr Karadzic, who had a long beard and a ponytail when he was captured in Belgrade three years ago.

ponytail n. [ˈponiˌtel] 马尾辫

两汉司徒

回复 mirandawang 的帖子

还是赞一下吧。也悄悄回味一下自己当年拿着英文二手报纸和字典的岁月。
我还是不再看你的英语版了，还是看德语版的吧。

mirandawang

Ratko Mladic to file appeal against Hague extradition

His family says Gen Mladic is too sick to go, but the Serbian government is widely expected to reject the appeal.

appeal n. 诉请；申请

Gen Mladic is accused of committing war crimes during the Bosnian war, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 7,500 Muslim men and boys.

Thousands of people rallied in Belgrade on Sunday against Gen Mladic's arrest.

The demonstrators hailed the general as a Serbian national hero. About 100 people were arrested during clashes with police in the Serbian capital.

Health 'worsened'     

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Belgrade says it could take up to three days for the ministry of justice to decide on the appeal but he adds that it is likely to be rejected earlier, with Serbia's deputy war crimes prosecutor already dismissing the claim of ill health as a delaying tactic.

dismiss vt. [dɪsˈmɪs] 驳回；不受理

Our correspondent says the government will hope Gen Mladic's departure will quell any further demonstrations by his supporters.

quell vt. [kwɛl] 平息

The Hague tribunal says it will not specify on which day Gen Mladic will arrive, but our correspondent says there is speculation he could be sent on a night-time flight, without prior warning.

speculation n. 推断,推测;猜测

The BBC's Duncan Kennedy says Sunday's protest was held by a few thousand people for whom Gen Mladic remains a hero.        

Gen Mladic's lawyer, Milos Saljic, said on Sunday that his client's health had deteriorated, despite an earlier decision by a Belgrade court that he was fit to be handed over to the UN court.

deteriorate vi. 恶化

"I can tell you that his health condition today is much worse than yesterday. It is worse psychologically," Mr Saljic told the Associated Press.

psychologically adv. 心理上地

Serbia's deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said that "my impression is that he is acting in a very composed manner".

composed adj. [kəmˈpozd]镇静的，沉着的

"As far as his mental state is concerned, believe me, he looks more normal than many others," Mr Vekaric said.

He also dismissed as ungrounded media reports that Gen Mladic had hearing difficulties and that his right arm was paralysed.

'Treason'

At least 7,000 supporters of Gen Mladic rallied in central Belgrade on Sunday to hear speeches from nationalist politicians and decry Mr Mladic's arrest.

treason n. [ˈtrizən] 不忠, 叛逆

decry vt. <正>公开反对;谴责 [dɪˈkraɪ]

"Co-operation with The Hague tribunal represents treason," said Lidija Vukicevic of the Serbian Radical Party.

"This is a protest against the shameful arrest of the Serbian hero."

The demonstrators also denounced Serbia's pro-Western President Boris Tadic.

Gen Mladic's arrest is considered crucial to Serbia's bid to join the European Union.

crucial adj. [ˈkruʃəl]决定性的

He evaded capture for 16 years after the end of the Bosnian conflict - just one of the ethnic wars unleashed in the 1990s by the break up of Yugoslavia.

evade vt.[ɪˈved] 躲避

unleash  vt. [ʌnˈliʃ] 把(感情、力量等)释放出来, 发泄

As the rally ended, the mood turned ugly. Some of the demonstrators clashed with police, throwing stones and flares.

About 3,000 people, many of them former Bosnian Serb soldiers, earlier held a separate protest against Gen Mladic's arrest in the Bosnian village of Kalinovik, where he was born.

On Sunday, Gen Mladic's son, Darko, said that despite the tribunal's indictment, his father had told him he was not responsible for the killings in Srebrenica, committed after his troops overran the town.

indictment  n.       [ɪnˈdaɪtmənt]控告;起诉

troop n. [trup] 军队, 部队

"He said that whatever was done in Srebrenica, he had nothing to do with it," he said after visiting Gen Mladic.

Reconciliation hopes     

Gen Mladic was seized in the village of Lazarevo, about 80km (50 miles) north of Belgrade.

reconciliation n. [ˌrɛkənˌsɪliˈeʃən] 和解

Following the arrest of Radovan Karadzic in 2008, Gen Mladic had become the most prominent Bosnian war crimes suspect still at large.

He was indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague in 1995 for genocide over the killings that July at Srebrenica - the worst single atrocity in Europe since World War II - and other alleged crimes.

atrocity n. 邪恶, 暴行 [əˈtrɑsɪti]

Having lived freely in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, he disappeared after the arrest of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 2001.

President Tadic has said the arrest brought the country and the region closer to reconciliation, and opened the doors to EU membership for Serbia.

mirandawang

China aircraft carrier confirmed by general

The head of China's General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) has confirmed that China's first aircraft carrier is under construction.

Gen Chen Bingde refused to say when the carrier - a remodelled Soviet-era vessel, the Varyag - would be ready.

A member of his staff said the carrier would pose no threat to other nations.

The 300m (990ft) carrier, which is being built in the north-east port of Dalian, has been one of China's worst-kept secrets, analysts say.

Gen Chen made his comments to the Chinese-language Hong Kong Commercial Daily newspaper.

Symbol of power

The PLA - the largest army in the world - is hugely secretive about its defence programme.

The carrier was constructed in the 1980s for the Soviet navy but was never completed. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the rusting hull of the Varyag sat in dockyards in Ukraine.

rusting      [ˈrʌstiŋ] n. 生锈

hull [hʌl] n. 船体, 船身

dockyard n. [ˈdɑkˌjɑrd] 造船所,修船所

A Chinese company with links to the PLA bought the Varyag claiming it wanted to turn it into a floating casino in Macau.

The carrier is thought to be nearly finished, and is expected to begin sea trials later this year.

But the BBC's Michael Bristow in Beijing says that does not mean it will then be ready to undertake operational duties.

Learning how to operate it - and fly planes off it - will take a few more years to master, our correspondent says.

Lt Gen Qi Jianguo, assistant chief of the general staff, told the Hong Kong Commercial Daily that even after the aircraft carrier was deployed, it would "definitely not sail to other countries' territorial waters".

deploy vt. [dɪˈplɔɪ] (尤指军事行动)使展开; 施展; 部署

"All of the great nations in the world own aircraft carriers - they are symbols of a great nation," he was quoted as saying.

Lt Gen Qi said China had always followed a "defensive" principle for its military strategy.

"It would have been better for us if we acted sooner in understanding the oceans and mapping out our blue-water capabilities earlier.

"We are now facing heavy pressure in the oceans whether in the South China Sea, East China Sea, Yellow Sea or the Taiwan Straits," he said.

strait [stret] n. 海峡

China is engaged in maritime border disputes with several countries - including Vietnam and the Philippines.

dispute [dɪˈspjut] n. 辩论, 争端, 争执

The US, which has 11 fully-capable carrier strike groups, has also expressed concern about its rising naval ambitions.

ambition [æmˈbɪʃən] n. 抱负, 雄心, 野心

The PLA has invested heavily in submarines. It is believed to be close to deploying the world's first "carrier-killer" ballistic missile designed to sink aircraft carriers while they are manoeuvring at sea up to 1,500km offshore, and it is building its own stealth fighter aircraft along with advanced carrier-based aircraft built from Russian designs.

submarine [ˈsʌbməˌrin, ˌsʌbməˈrin] n. 潜艇

ballistic adj. [bəˈlɪstɪk] 发射的;弹道(学)的; 衡量冲击强度的

missile [ˈmɪsəl, -ˌaɪl] n. 导弹

manoeuvre [məˈnuvɚ, -ˈnju-] (使某物)移动, 运动

stealth     [stɛlθ] n. 悄悄的行动,秘密的行动

All of these can target US bases, US ships and US carriers in Asia.

India is another emerging power pursuing a similar path - with an ex-Soviet carrier being modified for the Indian Navy, and work already under way on a first home-built vessel as well.

Over time, these developments will affect the maritime balance of power in Asia, says the BBC's defence and security correspondent Nick Childs.

China says other countries have nothing to fear, but its recent assertive diplomatic and military muscle-flexing has created waves in the region, he says.

assertive [əˈsətɪv] adj.  武断的,独断的

diplomatic adj. [ˌdɪpləˈmætɪk] 外交上的

muscle-flexing ['mʌsl 'flεksɪŋ] adj. 炫耀武力；炫耀力量的