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路透社新闻
【精彩回顾】》》》---今日心情:
韩国海警打死中国渔民 中方抗议要求彻查
中国社保现状你知多少?
独家专访-莫言·乡情
1【Clashes erupt in streets of Athens】雅典街道区爆发冲突
TEXT:A large rally in Athens erupts into chaos Thursday afternoon. Demonstrators took to the city's streets to protest plans by the government to change working conditions and cut wages in a new wave of austerity measures to be imposed on the debt-stricken country. There was fierce fighting as police used pepper spray and tear gas on protesters hurling home-made petrol bombs and stones at officers. The unions also called for a second nation-wide general strike in just three weeks, disrupting transport and closing public facilities and services. Mired in its worst downturn since World War II, Greece is readying 11.5 billion euros of cuts in order to appease EU and international lenders ahead of a proposed 130-billion-euro bailout. But Greece's unions are hoping to send a message to EU leaders meeting in Brussels that the cuts will only worsen the plight of a populace worn down by five years of recession.
参考译文:周四下午，雅典一场大型的集会陷入混乱。示威者走上城市街头，反对政府将在这个债务累累的国家实施新一轮财政紧缩措施，改变工作条件削减工资。警方使用胡椒喷雾和催泪瓦斯驱散向官员投掷自制汽油炸弹和石头的抗议者。在短短三周内，该工会还呼吁进行第二次全国性大罢工，扰乱交通并关闭公共设施和服务。这是希腊自二次世界大战以来陷入最严重的衰退，在提议的1300亿欧元救助计划前，为缓和欧盟和国际借贷人希腊正准备进行115亿欧元的财政削减。但希腊的工会希望在鲁塞尔开会的领导人发出这样一条信息，度遭受五年经济衰退的百姓，削减政策只会将情况进一步恶化。
2【Gangnam Style continues to blanket the world】 江南style余热未减鸟叔献唱悉尼
TEXT:Psy brings Gangnam Style to Australia. The Korean rapper performed his hit on Sydney's Seven Network's Sunrise breakfast show on a stage set up in the central business district. The song has taken the pop world by storm with his catchy song and dance and has amassed almost 500 million YouTube hits. Psy sums up his style as "dress classy, dance cheesy." SOUNDBITE: Psy, rapper, saying (English): "Honestly, I've never heard about any sex symbol in my home country, honestly, and let me proudly say physically I'm not sexy but some sort of mentally a little bit." Psy plans to release a new record in the United States in November.
参考译文:Psy把他的江南风刮到了澳大利亚。在中央商业地区搭建间的舞台上，韩国说唱歌手Psy在悉尼第七网络电视早间秀中表演了他的风靡之作。朗朗上口的歌曲，趣味的舞步已使这首歌风靡流行乐坛，Youtube点击量累积达到5亿次。Psy将他的风格总结为“华丽的衣服搭配俗气的舞步”。韩国歌手Psy说：“老实的说，在我自己的国家我从没到过有人说我性感，老实来讲，我会自豪的说身体上我不性感，但精神上有一点点。”Psy预计在今年十一月份在美国发布一张新专辑。
3【Students divided on Obama vs. Romney rematch】奥巴马、罗姆尼二次辩论，学生意见不一
TEXT:Round two between President Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney gets underway, watched closely by students at New York's Hofstra University. Outside the auditorium where the debate was taking place, students gathered to watch. With just weeks to go before the election, both candidates came out swinging, hoping to gain momentum in a tight race for the White House. NICK DESMOND, HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY STUDENT STUDYING PSYCHOLOGY AND CRIMINOLOGY, SAYING : "I feel like Mitt Romney is a better choice for the economy because he's a businessman. I think he sure showed that today." SOUNDBITE: ROBIN CHRISTIAN, HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY STUDENT STUDYING MARKETING, SAYING: "Clearly it was Obama, clearly. I think he put forward his views. He said what his visions were." Over in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, students seemed split down party lines. Some welcomed a sharper Obama, after a disappointing performance in the opening debate. KYLE MASSLER, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA STUDENT, SAYING: "It was great to see Obama come out in full force. I think he came out and showed us what Campaign Obama looked like and he really wants to fight for the progress of our country." MATT PROSAK, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA STUDENT, ON THE DEBATE FORMAT, SAYING (English): "I have to say that Romney was more articulate. But, Obama had some more points that I think will stand up to fact checking and scrutiny better." The final debate will be held on Monday (October 22), before America goes to the polls on November 6.
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CNN学生新闻
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: President Barack Obama, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 90 minute debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, but the set up for this one was different than their first debate two weeks ago. This time it was a town hall format. That means instead of the candidates just answering questions from a moderator, they were asked questions directly by members of the audience. And for last night`s debate, those questions came from people who hadn`t yet made up their minds about whom they would be voting for in November. This second presidential debate covered domestic and foreign policy issues, here is a look at some of the questions and some of the candidates` answers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As a 20-year old college student, all I hear from professors, neighbors and others is that when I graduate, I would have little chance to get employment. What can you say to reassure me, but more importantly, my parents that I`ll be able to sufficiently support myself after I graduate?
MITT ROMNEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The key thing is to make sure you can get a job when you get out of school. And what`s happened over the last four years, it`s been very, very hard for America`s young people. I want you to be able to get a job. I know what it takes to get this economy going. With half of college kids graduating this year without a college - without a job and without a college level job, that`s just unacceptable. And likewise, you get more and more debt on your back. So, more debt and less jobs. I`m going to change that. I know what it takes to create good jobs again.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The most important thing we can do is to make sure that we are creating jobs in this country, but not just jobs, good paying jobs, ones that can support a family. And what I want to do is build on the 5 million jobs that we`ve created over the last 30 months in the private sector alone, and there are a bunch of things that we can do to make sure your future is bright. Number one, I want to build manufacturing jobs in this country again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In what new ways do you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace? Specifically regarding females, making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?
OBAMA: Women are increasingly the breadwinners in the family. This is not just a women`s issue, this is a family issue, this is a middle class issue. And that`s why we`ve got to fight for it. It also means, that we`ve got to make sure that young people like yourself are able to afford the college education.
ROMNEY: We are going to have employers in the new economy, in the economy I`m going to bring to play that are going to be so anxious to get good workers, they are going to be anxious to hire women. In the last four years, women have lost 580,000 jobs. That`s the net of what`s happened in the last four years. We are still down 580,000 jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See if you can I.D. me. I`m a position in the U.S. presidential cabinet. I`m fourth in line to the presidency. My primary job is to give the president advice on foreign policy and then carry out the president`s policy.
I`m the Secretary of State, a position currently held by Hillary Clinton.
AZUZ: Secretary Clinton says another part of her job is to be in charge of security at American diplomatic facilities, that means U.S. embassy and consulate buildings in other countries. One of those facilities, the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was the target of a terrorist attack last month. Four Americans were killed and there have been a lot of accusations and questions about whether there was enough security at the consulate, and about which government officials should be held accountable.
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I take responsibility. I`m in charge of the State Department. 60,000 plus people, all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice president certainly wouldn`t be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals.
AZUZ: A group of center Republicans responded to Secretary Clinton statement. They called it, a laudable gesture, but said the security of Americans serving the nation around the world is ultimately the job of the president.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s "Shoutout" goes out to the social studies teachers and classes at Bemidji Middle School in Bemidji, Minnesota.
Who was the first person to break the sound barrier? Here we go. Was it Chuck Yeager, Sally Ride, Neil Armstrong or Usain Bolt? You`ve got three seconds, go.
Chuck Yeager broke the barrier when he flew faster than the speed of sound in a rocket plane named after his wife. That`s your answer and that`s your "Shoutout."
AZUZ: Yeager made that supersonic flight back in 1947. He was an Air Force test pilot who flew more than 200 types of military aircraft. Yeager said his historic flight help give the U.S. a huge advantage in aviation advancement. Now, the speed of sound is the rate at which sound waves move through different materials. In the air it can depend a little on temperature. But it`s usually around 750 miles per hour. On Sunday, Felix Baumgartner was traveling faster than that without a plane on his record breaking skydive. But he wasn`t the only one breaking the sound barrier. That same day exactly 65 years to the minute after he first broke it, Chuck Yeager did it again, the 89-year old retired general went up in an F-15 jet to fly faster than the speed of sound again.
All right, here is a quick quiz for you. What is the best-selling toy of all time? Your hint: it is not a doll, it`s not a videogame, it`s not an action figure or a toy car. It`s a puzzle, and it`s based on geometry. It`s named after the guy who invented it and if you give up, because I probably would have by now, we are going to let Nick Glass fill in the answer.
NICK GLASS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a stainless steel sculpture of the world`s best-selling toy here in a park in Hungary. We know better from the handheld version, and hundreds of millions of these can be found around the world.
It`s named after the professor who first dreamt up the puzzle in 1974. Although, against his wishes, Erno Rubik didn`t really want to be famous.
The Rubik`s Cube, the toy of 1980s, is now enjoying the revival with 7 million sold last year.
A professor in interior design, Rubik first used the cube as a teaching aid.
ERNO RUBIK, INVENTOR: I believe the most characteristic part of the cube is contradiction between simplicity and complexity. First of all, I love geometry, because geometry is the knowledge of how the whole universe is structured.
GLASS: The three-by-three cube consists of 27 cube faces. Color- coded, these can be arranged in 43 quintillion different ways. But there is only one solution.
The last few years has seen a rise in speed cubing competitions, demon cubers racing against each other and the clock. It`s been proved that every cube can be solved in surprisingly just 20 moves or less. If only it was that easy.
Erno Rubik himself cannot compete with the young guns. It took him a month to crack it way back in 1974. And now ...
(on camera): Are you a good Rubik cube player?
RUBIK: It`s for me it was about one minute, my time when I was practicing, and actual world record is five point something seconds.
GLASS: Most toys come and go. But not Rubik`s cube. It`s now almost 40 years old, and it`s here to stay.
AZUZ: Felix Baumgartner`s record skydive, this video makes it look like child`s play. But what do you expect when you recreate the moment with Legos? They got it pretty close, too, although I don`t think this capsule is going up quite as high as Felix`s did. That first step is still a doozy, and chances are, this guy didn`t break the speed of sound on his way down, but there were some cheers, probably, when his chute open and he made a successful landing. Of course, he refused to give interviews afterward, he was kind of a blockhead about it. But how do you come up with the idea to recreate something like that? You really have to use your homagination. We were toying around with other ideas for the pun, but it`s just time for us to Lego your attention. We`ll see you tomorrow when CNN STUDENT NEWS returns.
VOA常速新闻
【US President Chosen by Electors, Not Popular Vote】
Americans vote for their next president on November 6. But the real presidential election takes place on December 17, and only 538 people are involved. This small group is called the Electoral College.When the U.S. Constitution was forged in 1787, no European nation had its citizens directly elect their Head of State. Therefore, the Constitution’s writers devised a two-step system by which people would cast ballots, but their votes would be conveyed to a small group, the Electoral College, which meeting state-by-state about a month after the popular vote, actually selects the president.
"Those Electors are, in number, the Congressional delegation in each state -- two for the Senate, and however many Representatives," says American University Professor Curtis Gans. "And, they are elected by a winner-take-all in the states."
The only exception is for two states, Nebraska and Maine, which assign Electors proportionately according to the popular vote in each Congressional district. There are also three additional Electors representing non-state entities such as the District of Columbia, for a total of 538.
A simple majority of 270 produces a president. However, if no presidential candidate comes up with that, the Constitution provides for the House of Representatives to select the next president, though that has not happened in more than 200 years.
And, while most presidential elections have one candidate winning both a majority of the popular vote and the Electoral College, an exception took place in 2000.
Democrat Al Gore won the national popular vote by over 500,000 ballots, and had clear control of 266 Electoral College votes. But his challenger, Republican George W. Bush, led by a tiny fraction in the State of Florida.
Gore launched a state ballot recount, which Bush then challenged all the way to the Supreme Court. More than a month after the election, the Court sided with Bush, effectively awarding him Florida’s 25 electoral votes and the White House.
Both parties are so entrenched in gaming the current Electoral College system that George Mason University Professor Dennis Johnson says he does not expect a change.
"The parties are kind of looking over the strategy, and looking over the map, and saying, 'You know, for us, no, let's keep it the way it is, winner take all,’" said Johnson.
And, Johnson adds that the Democratic Party’s domination of the nation’s cities means the Republicans, who are stronger in much less populated rural areas, are not inclined to support a change to election by direct vote.
VOA慢速新闻
【Uneven Signs of Growth in the Transport Industry】
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道。
A look at some industries in the United States shows that the economic recovery is somewhat uneven. And growth seems to be slowing down. VOA's Jim Randle spoke with experts in the tran
sportation industry, which is easily affected by economic changes.
看看美国的一些行业就会知道，经济复苏有些不平衡，同时增长似乎有所放缓。美国之音记者吉姆·兰德尔（Jim Randle）采访了交通运输行业的专家，该行业容易受经济变化的影响。
Economists say trucks carry nearly seventy percent of the freight, or goods, transported in the United States.
经济学家说，卡车运输了美国近70%的货物。
The American Trucking Association represents the interests of the trucking industry. It says freight is a good measure of the economy. This is because businesses have to move unprocessed materials, carry parts to factories, and transport imports and exports.
美国卡车运输协会代表着卡车货运业的利益。该机构称，货运可以很好地衡量经济。这是因为企业必须把未加工原料和零件运到工厂，并运输进出口货物。
Bob Costello is the chief economist for the group.
鲍勃·科斯特洛（Bob Costello）是该协会的首席经济学家。
BOB COSTELLO: "We are actually a very good indicator, a leading economic indicator in fact. And so if tonnage starts to fall, we get nervous. If it's going up, we are pretty happy. "
科斯特洛：“我们这个行业确实是一个很重要的经济指标。如果运输吨位下降我们就会紧张。如果吨位上涨，我们就会高兴。”
The amount of freight carried by trucks is going up slowly. The American Trucking Association says total freight tonnage increased in June, but remained unchanged in July. That is good news to Bob Costello.
卡车货运量缓慢上升。美国卡车运输协会表示，6月份总货运吨位有所增长，但7月份保持不变。这对科斯特洛来说是个好消息。
BOB COSTELLO: "It is telling me that the economy is not falling into another recession. It will continue as a sort of a slow growth recovery."
科斯特洛：“这表示经济没有陷入到另一次衰退，仍会保持一种缓慢增长的复苏。”
Other information about economic growth comes from air freight, or goods transported by air. Recent reports show demand for air freight fell more than three percent around the world during July.
有关经济增长的其它信息来自航空货运。最近的报告显示，7月份全球航空运货需求下降了3%以上。
Perry Flint speaks for the International Air Transport Association. That group represents about two hundred forty airline companies worldwide. It gathers information about air passenger travel and air freight. The group says the amount of international air freight decreased in July from the same period the year before. But other signs show increases.
佩里·弗林特（Perry Flint）代表国际航空运输协会讲话。该协会代表了全球240家左右的航空公司。它会收集航空客运和货运信息。该协会表示，与去年同期相比，今年7月国际航空货运量有所下降。但其它指标有所增长。
PERRY FLINT: "It can also, as you start to see air cargo dropping off and you are seeing other signs -- it can also be a leading indicator of a downturn."
弗林特：“当你看到航空货运量下降时，你还可以看看其它指标，其它指标也是经济下滑的先行指标。
The same report shows that passenger traffic increased over three percent from last year. That may be why a top official of Cambria Suites Hotels says travel, not just business travel, is strong. Michael Murphy is with the company.
同一份报告还显示，去年航空客运量增加了3%以上。这也许可以解释为什么坎布里亚套房酒店声称旅游很旺盛，而不仅仅是商务旅游旺盛。迈克尔·墨菲（Michael Murphy）就职于该公司。
MICHAEL MURPHY: "We are seeing the highest demand in the history of the hotel industry right now. More people are traveling now than ever before, and that's in all segments of travel."
墨菲：“我们现在看到酒店业需求处于历史最旺盛时期。现在出游的人比以往任何时候都多，从旅游的各个环节都能看出来。”
Conflicting economic signs have made it difficult for economists to predict future growth. For example, government experts first said the American economy expanded at a yearly rate of one point five percent from April to June.
互相矛盾的经济指标使得经济学家难以预测未来增长。例如，政府专家最初表示美国经济四到六月份的年增长率为1.5%。
But they amended that prediction as new information became available and showed growth was higher -- more likely a rate of one point seven percent. Changes like that have made it harder for many people to see the road ahead.
但当新数据出现并显示增长更高，更可能为1.7%的时候，他们修正了这一预测。这样的变动让很多人很难预测未来趋势。
