【每日阅读训练第二期——速度越障2系列】【3-4】解析已上传

gray0505

速度
Black Friday, MREs and Rihanna's 'Talk That Talk'
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I'm Mario Ritter. Today we play new music from Rihanna ...
We also ask some Americans what they like to do on the day after Thanksgiving.
But, first, we tell about some foods specially prepared for American troops around the world.
(MUSIC)
Food for Troops
MARIO RITTER: Many people across the United States are enjoying the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Thanksgiving dinner is a big event for Americans, both at home and overseas. The United States military is responsible for feeding troops not only on Thanksgiving Day, but throughout the year. Recently, the military has been taking steps to improve the meals it serves troops. Shirley Griffith has more.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Since the early nineteen eighties, American troops have been given MREs, or Meals, Ready to Eat. For years, troops called MREs "Meals Rejected by Everyone" or "Meals Rejected by the Enemy."
But the Department of Defense has made changes to MREs. Among the changes is meat with caffeine added, and a more-nutritious applesauce it calls "Zapplesauce." Some of the new meals were recently shown to reporters at the National Archives building, in Washington, DC.
Gerald Darsch is the Director of the Defense Combat Feeding Directorate in Natick, Massachusetts. He says the troops of today want to eat different foods than those provided ten or twenty years ago. He says modern soldiers like a variety of foods.
GERALD DARSCH: "A lot of Mexican food, a lot of Chinese food, there's a lot of interest in Mediterranean cuisine that historically we haven't seen a lot of. Now there's obviously there's going to be that passion for fast food. But our job is to take fast food, make it look like it but make it nutritionally sound and we've had some pretty good luck in doing that."
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Current MRE choices even include vegetarian or holiday meals. Mr. Darsch says the goal of the effort is to make American troops the best-fed fighting forces in the world.
The Combat Feeding Directorate says it attempts to provide the best possible nutrition value to the troops. It says food affects the health, efficiency and morale of the troops.
Mr. Darsch says the current MREs are much improved because the military listened to American soldiers.
GERALD DARSCH: "What we're doing is we're going to the field every year and we're evaluating the MRE with the prototype test items."
Mr. Darsch says a single MRE costs the American taxpayer about seven dollars and twenty cents; that includes development costs and the cost of the food and packaging. He says MREs that the troops like can save lives and money. That is because large numbers of vehicles are not needed to transport hot meals to troops in the field. MREs have self-contained heaters – just add water and a special container heats the meal.
Gerald Darsch says American soldiers have liked the changes. But his research laboratory has yet to be completely successful. It has attempted, but failed to produce a pizza that can be put in an MRE. Yet, says Mr. Darsch, MRE no longer means "Meals Rejected by Everyone." Today's MREs, he says, are "Meals Relished by Everyone."
Black Friday
MARIO RITTER: Our question this week comes from Kazakhstan. Stanislav Ukiyev wants to know about Thanksgiving holiday traditions in the United States.
Thanksgiving is observed on the fourth Thursday in November. The day usually involves family gatherings leading up to a big dinner. The main dish is often turkey with stuffing. After dinner, sweet treats are usually offered. Pumpkin pie is a popular choice.
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Many Americans also have customs for the day after Thanksgiving, which has come to be known as Black Friday. Probably the one custom you have heard of is shopping. Many stores have big sales. Store owners lower prices to help increase business at the start of Christmas shopping season.
We talked to people around Washington to see if shopping was the tradition they followed on Black Friday. It is decidedly not the activity of choice for Amy Sosin of Arlington, Virginia.
AMY SOSIN: "Well, we don't have a specific tradition except that we make it a point not to go shopping on Black Friday. Because it scares all of us. We usually just do family time. We might watch a movie or play games together."
Megan Wright is of the same opinion. She is from Santa Monica, California.
MEGAN WRIGHT: "I prefer not to shop. Usually we go to the movies and, perhaps, out to coffee."
Megan Wright says she plans to see the new movie "The Muppets" on Black Friday.
The Flores family is from Orlando, Florida. They are spending this Thanksgiving in Washington. Jose Flores says his children love to study American history at school. So they decided to come to the nation's capital this holiday. They are visiting monuments, government buildings and other historical places.
But Mrs. Flores says there will be some shopping Friday on the drive back to Florida. She plans to stop at some stores along the way.
Helen Zinner is from San Antonio, Texas. She describes her traditional Thanksgiving Friday.
HELEN ZINNER: "It's probably resting and relaxing from eating too much and spending time with family until late into the night before."
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Rihanna "Talk That Talk"
MARIO RITTER: The singer Rihanna was a winner at the recent American Music Awards. Her album "Loud" won in the soul/rhythm and blues category. Rihanna is currently performing in Europe as part of a campaign to advertise the album. On Monday, her new record, "Talk That Talk," also came out. Jim Tedder plays some of the songs.
(MUSIC)
JIM TEDDER: That was "You Da One" the first song on Rihanna's latest album "Talk That Talk." The record already has a number one single, "We Found Love."
(MUSIC)
"Talk That Talk" is Rihanna's sixth studio album. It was a surprise when she announced she was making it. She was travelling and performing shows for her album "Loud." She also had worked on albums for other artists, including Coldplay.
And she was busy creating a sexy line of clothing for the Italian designer Armani.
Maybe all this work is profitable, but Rihanna recently said it does not help her love life. She sings about being single in "We All Want Love."
(MUSIC)
In her six year career Rihanna has had eleven number one hits on Billboard's singles chart. But none of her albums have gone that high. Some critics say "Talk That Talk" will change that. We leave you with Rihanna performing "Farewell" from her new album.
(MUSIC)
MARIO RITTER: Finally we are pleased to tell you the results of a contest for VOA Special English listeners. Earlier this year, we asked listeners to answer four questions: where they live, how they listen to us, the best time for listening and how much news they would like to hear.
Many thanks to everyone who wrote to us. We were happy to hear from listeners from around the world -- about two hundred fifty in all.
The largest number, about forty percent, were in China. And the winner of the competition is in China's capital, Beijing. Qingmao-Luo has won a radio that receives shortwave, medium wave and FM.
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US Congressional Committee Fails to Identify Budget Cuts
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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
An American congressional committee reported failure earlier this week. The committee failed in its effort to cut the federal budget deficit by one point two trillion dollars over ten years.
The Co-Chairs of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction released a statement. It said, "we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee's deadline."
The twelve-member committee was created under the Budget Control Act of Twenty Eleven. The group was equally divided between the two main parties. The goal was to find acceptable ways to cut federal deficits. But, without an agreement, that will fall to involuntary cuts through the act of sequestration.
The budgetary terms, sequester and sequestration, mean that the Treasury Department will withhold or cancel a set amount of spending.
By law, equal cuts in both civilian and military spending will begin in twenty thirteen. A total of one point two trillion dollars needs to be cut. This is in addition to cuts of about nine hundred billion dollars required by the budget law that created the congressional supercommittee.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned the combination of cuts could hurt his department.
LEON PANETTA: "If the sequester goes into effect and it doubles the number of cuts, then it will truly devastate our national defense." 7 sec.
This has made some lawmakers feel uneasy. Representative Howard McKeon of California opposes new cuts in military spending.
HOWARD MCKEON: "National defense has contributed enough to deficit reduction."
Many lawmakers are concerned that, with elections next year, programs important to voters in their areas will be cut. That would add to increasing voter anger over what they consider a lack of action by lawmakers.
Many voters share the feelings of this man in Houston, Texas, when asked about Congress.
HOUSTON MAN: "They all need to be replaced -- every last one of them."
REPORTER: "How would you do that?"
HOUSTON MAN: "Don't vote for them next time; vote for somebody else."
But President Obama has warned Congress that he will block any efforts to cancel the spending cuts.
BARACK OBAMA: "Already, some in Congress are trying to undo these automatic spending cuts. My message is simple: No. I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts." 17 sec.
Experts say that Congress and the Obama administration could still reach agreement on budget cuts and taxes before the sequestration takes effect.
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越障
Bailouts and Austerity Measures Aren't Working: Is This the Euro's Last Stand?

Who has time for pleasantries when the fate of Europe and the global economy is at stake? After Mario Monti, an economist with little experience in the rough world of Italian politics, was sworn in as the country's new Prime Minister on Nov. 16, German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent him a congratulatory letter that minced no words. With Italy, the euro zone's third largest economy, gripped in a debt crisis, Europe was counting on him to repair his country and save the euro from disaster. "There are many hopes and expectations set on you," she wrote. "It would behoove you and your government to decide upon and implement decisive and significant reforms."
Monti is committed to doing his best. On Nov. 17, he told Italy's Senate he'd slice the national budget and introduce progrowth reforms. "We can't be considered the weak link of Europe," Monti warned. But even if Monti lives up to his nickname — Super Mario — the crisis roiling the euro zone has become far too big for Monti, or even Italy, to solve on their own. What Monti needs most of all wasn't mentioned in Merkel's letter — much greater cooperation among the members of the monetary union and significant changes to the euro zone. The only way to save the euro is to forge a renewed monetary union based on much deeper integration. "There is no way around it, if we want to avoid the euro breaking apart," says Sigmar Gabriel, the chairman of Germany's Social Democratic Party.
Virtually everyone in Europe, if not the world, agrees. At their many conferences and summits throughout the two-year debt crisis, Europe's leaders have routinely insisted that further coordination is the best solution. "We are indeed now facing a truly systemic crisis that requires an even stronger commitment from all," José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said on Nov. 16. Merkel expresses similar sentiments. As Italy tumbled into crisis, she called for "more Europe, not less Europe" to protect the euro.
But "more Europe" has come slowly and grudgingly, and crucially, there is no consensus among the zone's varied members on what, exactly, "more Europe" means or how to bring that goal to fruition. Many insist that euro-zone countries must inevitably give up more autonomy over national policies and take greater responsibility for the problems of their fellow members. But others, particularly in Germany and other more stable countries, don't necessarily see things that way, and have been reluctant to take drastic steps. As a result, a continent-wide wrestling match has broken out over who should bear the burden of rescuing the euro and what that critical balance between state and union should be. How much money and sovereignty should nations sacrifice for the greater good? The survival of the euro, and the dream of a peaceful, united Europe it symbolizes, may depend on that question.
Separated at Birth
What's paralyzing Europe is a flaw buried deep within the monetary union's structure — the unresolved conflict between the needs of the euro and the independence of its members. When the euro launched in 1999, critics pointed out that the monetary union was, in fact, only half a union, and thus susceptible to failure. The 11 original members surrendered their national currencies and control over monetary policy to the European Central Bank (ECB) but retained their power to tax, spend and borrow. With no overarching political authority, the individual states of the zone could easily march off in vastly different economic directions, tearing the monetary union apart. To prevent that from happening, all members were supposed to adhere to rules to keep their financial positions roughly the same. Budget deficits weren't to exceed 3% of GDP, and government debt 60%.
That didn't work. Few members followed the rules strictly. (Even austere Germany violated deficit limits.) As more countries joined the union — there are now 17 — the inequalities between their economies grew. Some, such as Greece and Portugal, used the luster of euro-zone membership to borrow at lower interest rates than they could have received otherwise, building up ever higher mountains of debt. Meanwhile, a core of more disciplined countries, led by Germany, controlled spending, reformed their economies and became more competitive in global markets. This schism went unchecked. Twelve years after its founding, there were in fact two euro zones — one of relatively healthy, competitive economies, mainly in the north, and another of slow-growth, indebted, uncompetitive countries, primarily in the south. Instead of fostering a greater convergence of Europe's economies, the euro had brought about dangerous divergence
All those years of avoiding these problems exploded in late 2009, when Greece first toppled into a debt crisis. The euro zone tried to stanch the problem with a $150 billion bailout for the country in May 2010, but with investors aware that Greece was just the first of several countries with potentially unsustainable debts coming due, that did nothing to squelch the contagion. By this summer, Ireland and Portugal had collapsed into bailouts as well, while Italy and Spain, both core members of the union, were at risk of default. The leaders of the euro zone have pressured these countries into gut-wrenching austerity and reform programs to stabilize debt levels and cut deficits, hoping such reforms could fix their finances, rebuild investor confidence and save the euro.
That strategy has failed. Investors aren't convinced Europe's politicians have the will, ability or political clout to push through such excruciating fiscal adjustments, at least not in any reasonable period of time. Research firm Capital Economics figures that even with reform, Italy will still need two decades to get its government debt level down to a more sustainable 100% of GDP from 120% today. The severe budget cuts Greece, Spain and Portugal have enacted have dampened growth, making the process of raising revenue and closing deficits even more difficult, all while generating widespread public resentment.
Meanwhile, assistance from the rest of the zone has been offered reluctantly. The euro zone formed a $1 trillion rescue fund called the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), backed in part by guarantees from its members, to provide emergency bailouts while troubled economies mend their ways. But as the crisis has spread to giants like Italy, the EFSF has become too small to be a credible euro defender. Euro-zone leaders, fearful of exposing their taxpayers to further potential losses, have resisted enlarging it. Instead, they've gone begging to China and other emerging economies, hoping to woo them into donating cash.
Other euro-zone agreements have also drifted. A second bailout of Greece, approved in July, has been held up by political bickering, while a plan to boost the firepower of the EFSF has faltered. Frustration with this lack of action is building. "Where is the implementation of these long-standing decisions?" asked ECB President Mario Draghi in a Nov. 18 speech.
Much More Europe, Please
Marshaling the might of the entire euro zone — a $13 trillion economy — could provide an extinguisher powerful enough to put out the debt fire. That's why Italy and other weak economies need not platitudes about "more Europe" but measures more sweeping than anything seriously being negotiated within the euro zone right now.
One such measure could be the introduction of a eurobond — a bond jointly backed by all euro-zone governments. Under such a scheme, euro-zone countries could issue eurobonds in place of regular national bonds, with certain limitations. Since they'd have the entire financial heft of the zone behind them, Italy, Spain and other weakened countries would be able to borrow at lower interest rates, alleviating the crisis.
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单项攻克
Passage 53 (53/63) (OG-20)
Although genetic mutations in bacteria and viruses can lead to epidemics, some epidemics are caused by bacteria and viruses that have undergone no significant genetic change. In analyzing the latter, scientists have discovered the importance of social and ecological factors to epidemics. Poliomyelitis, for example, emerged as an epidemic in the United States in the twentieth century; by then, modern sanitation was able to delay exposure to polio until adolescence or adulthood, at which time polio infection produced paralysis. Previously, infection had occurred during infancy, when it typically provided lifelong immunity without paralysis. Thus, the hygiene that helped prevent typhoid epidemics indirectly fostered a paralytic polio epidemic. Another example is Lyme disease, which is caused by bacteria that are transmitted by deer ticks. It occurred only sporadically during the late nineteenth century but has recently become prevalent in parts of the United States, largely due to an increase in the deer population that occurred simultaneously with the growth of the suburbs and increased outdoor recreational activities in the deer’s habitat. Similarly, an outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever became an epidemic in Asia in the 1950’s because of ecological changes that caused Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that transmits the dengue virus, to proliferate. The stage is now set in the United States for a dengue epidemic because of the inadvertent introduction and wide dissemination of another mosquito, Aedes albopictus.
1. The passage suggests that a lack of modern sanitation would make which of the following most likely to occur?
(A) An outbreak of Lyme disease
(B) An outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever
(C) An epidemic of typhoid
(D) An epidemic of paralytic polio among infants
(E) An epidemic of paralytic polio among adolescents and adults
2. According to the passage, the outbreak of dengue hemorrhagic fever in the 1950’s occurred for which of the following reasons?
(A) The mosquito Aedes aegypti was newly introduced into Asia.
(B) The mosquito Aedes aegypti became more numerous.
(C) The mosquito Aedes albopictus became infected with the dengue virus.
(D) Individuals who would normally acquire immunity to the dengue virus as infants were not infected until later in life.
(E) More people began to visit and inhabit areas in which mosquitoes live and breed.
3. It can be inferred from the passage that Lyme disease has become prevalent in parts of the United States because of which of the following?
(A) The inadvertent introduction of Lyme disease bacteria to the United States
(B) The inability of modern sanitation methods to eradicate Lyme disease bacteria
(C) A genetic mutation in Lyme disease bacteria that makes them more virulent
(D) The spread of Lyme disease bacteria from infected humans to noninfected humans
(E) An increase in the number of humans who encounter deer ticks
4. Which of the following can most reasonably be concluded about the mosquito Aedes albopictus on the basis of information given in the passage?
(A) It is native to the United States.
(B) It can proliferate only in Asia.
(C) It transmits the dengue virus.
(D) It caused an epidemic of dengue hemorrhagic fever in the 1950’s.
(E) It replaced Aedes aegypti in Asia when ecological changes altered Aedes aegypti’s habitat.
5. Which of the following best describes the organization of the passage?
(A) A paradox is stated, discussed and left unresolved.
(B) Two opposing explanations are presented, argued, and reconciled.
(C) A theory is proposed and is then followed by descriptions of three experiments that support the theory.
(D) A generalization is stated and is then followed by three instances that support the generalization.
(E) An argument is described and is then followed by three counterexamples that refute the argument.
6. Which of the following, if true, would most strengthen the author’s assertion about the cause of the Lyme disease outbreak in the United States?
(A) The deer population was smaller in the late nineteenth century than in the mid-twentieth century.
(B) Interest in outdoor recreation began to grow in the late nineteenth century.
(C) In recent years the suburbs have stopped growing.
(D) Outdoor recreation enthusiasts routinely take measures to protect themselves against Lyme disease.
(E) Scientists have not yet developed a vaccine that can prevent Lyme disease.
答案：
1. C 2. B 3. E 4. C 5. D      6. A

shelvey

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2’03.。。我晕，退化了。。。
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balapupu

超喜欢rihanna的~她的新歌farewell真的很好听·~吼吼~~
~貌似大最近忘记发帖的情况比较多嘛~~看来我要监督起来了~~~gray不会是因为晚上语法讨论的事情吧~~嘿嘿~
1.1‘04’
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xeyyxzty

1'12''1'15''
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队长真的是好快...

5'51''
many people have negative opinions on euros~
Italy's new president~Ms. Merkel 对他期望很高~but it's really hard for him to save the economy of Italy
there are conflicts in euro-zone right now~
when the euro-zone was found, there was an agreement~but most countries didn't it
as time went by, euro zone was divided into two parts
--one is countries that have healthier and stable economies
--the other is countries that borrow money with low interest rates
the problem broke out in the collapse of economy in Greece.
then Spain, Portugal, and Italy
ECB refused to offer more money
euro zone countries are now seeking help from countries such as China
Ms Merkel --"more Europe to save Europe"
......忘了一些

南瓜0729

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zz42050524

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Jane412

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gray0505

超喜欢rihanna的~她的新歌farewell真的很好听·~吼吼~~
~貌似大最近忘记发帖的情况比较多嘛~~看来我要监督起来了~~~gray不会是因为晚上语法讨论的事情吧~~嘿嘿~
1.1‘04’
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-- by 会员 balapupu (2011/11/27 20:54:23)

嘿嘿 米啦~~我在研究逻辑小分队的说~~~但是感觉很复杂的样子无从下手呀!!!

bananazoo

1‘16
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fox0923

bana~~我来了~~被bible摧残以后需要小憩一下调整心态~

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