四级新闻听力练习答案及高频使用词汇(4)

Ward off

截至29日，印尼海域发生的里氏9级地震和海啸中的遇难人数已近8万，红十字会预测最后的死亡人数将逾10万。印尼总统苏西洛指示全国对灾区实施救援，同时命令印尼军方派出通信、工程和卫生兵，使用大型工程机械清理灾区废墟，防止疫情和其他疾病的暴发流行。外电报道如下：As the world scrambled to the rescue, survivors fought over packs of noodles in quake-stricken Indonesian streets Wednesday while relief supplies piled up at the airport for lack of cars, gas or passable roads to move them. The official death toll across 12 countries soared to near 77,000 and the Red Cross predicted it could pass 100,000.

Bodies were piled into mass graves in the belief that burial would ward off disease. Paramedics in southern India began vaccinating thousands of survivors against cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and dysentery, and authorities sprayed bleaching powder on beaches where bodies have been recovered. In Sri Lanka, reports of waterborne disease such as diarrhea caused fears of an epidemic.

英语学习

Ward off表示“防止，挡住，避开”，例如：ward off an assault（击退一次攻势）。

Beef up

联合国官员日前称，南亚和东南亚地区将在一年内建立海啸预警系统，如果该系统在今年海啸灾难发生前已经存在，就可以挽救上万人的生命。专家认为，国家之间需要分享地震知识，并具备有效的国内通信网络，使政府得以快速将警报传递到有危险的地区，“问题主要不在技术系统，而在于通信网络 要让临海国家意识到这一点还有很多工作要做。”外电报道如下：A tsunami warning system could be built in the Indian Ocean in just a year and cost as little as $20 million, a scientist said Tuesday.

But experts warn the high-tech network of sensors and buoys would be useless unless countries like Indonesia beef up communications links to the coastal communities that would be hit by giant waves.

Many coastal villages that bore the brunt of last month's earthquake and tsunami lack modern communication networks. Many don't even have telephones.

Beef up是口语用法，表示“加强，补充”，因为beef作动词时有“使（菜牛）长膘，加强”的含义，例如：beef up the air force（加强空军力量）。此外，beef还有“发牢骚（美俚）；告发；密告”等含义，例如：Women can always find something to beef about.（女人们总会找点什么由头发发牢骚。）

Spearhead

1月3日，美国总统布什与前任总统比尔·克林顿联合发出倡议，号召美国民众

英语学习

和企业踊跃捐款，以帮助遭受地震和海啸灾难的东南亚和南亚国家。至此，美国已将援助力度提高到最初计划金额的十倍，增加到3.5亿美元，布什还派他的弟弟、佛罗里达州州长杰伯·布什随同美国国务卿鲍威尔前往受灾地区进行视察，对灾情进行评估。外电报道如下：U.S. helicopters rescued dozens of

desperate and weak tsunami survivors, including a young girl clutching a stuffed Snoopy dog, as the American military relief operation reached out to remote areas of Indonesia with cartons of food and water on Monday.

Although the United States was not among the first at the scene after last week's natural disaster thousands of miles from American shores, it is now spearheading the international relief effort and delivering more supplies than any other nation. A U.S. warship strike group carrying thousands more Marines was headed in to help.

Spearhead的名词含义是“先头部队，前锋，矛头”，在此表示“充当先锋，带头”，例如：Spearhead the effort to offer classes in settlement houses and provide lecturers to women's clubs（带头在定居区提供课堂并为妇女俱乐部配备演讲者）。

据悉，《洛杉矶时报》1月2日发表社论，敦促布什尽快提出类似于马歇尔计划的亚洲战略，拨款数十亿美元用于各国的饮用水净化、卫生设施等灾后重建项目。一些美国国际事务分析家认为，华盛顿可以利用这个“天赐良机”向世人说明，美国之所以发动战争，完全是打击恐怖主义和推翻独裁政权的正义之举。通过在救援中的积极表现，美国可以改变世界大多数地区由于美国发动伊拉克战争而对美国所持的不满态度。

（中国日报网站编）

Anonymity

一名不希望透露名字的北约官员10月20日透露，北约下个月将在挪威和德国培训一批伊拉克军官。外电报道如下：NATO will begin training Iraqi officers in Norway and Germany next month, as part of a NATO mission offered to the new interim government in Baghdad, officials said Wednesday.

Some 20 senior Iraqi army officers will travel to Stavanger in

southwestern Norway for a week's training at NATO's newly-created Joint Warfare Centre at the start of November.