美联社新闻一分钟 2006-03-05

（单词翻译）

1. After meeting with General John Abizaid, chief of the U.S. Central Command, Iraq President Jalal Tablabani said he had been assured that U.S. troops will remain in Iraq as long as needed, "no matter what the period".

2. A University of North Carolina graduate student facing attempted murder charges after allegedly driving his sport utility vehicle through a popular campus gathering¹ spot on Friday. The FBI says the suspect "allegedly made statements said he acted to avenge² the American treatment of Muslims."

3. Antarctica is melting, at least according to NASA which just finished its first ever gravity survey of the continent. The survey shows the continent's ice mass decreased significantly between 2002 and 2005.

4. And President Bush is on his way back from talks in Pakistan, but earlier tried his hand at cricket, taking a turn at bat with some students on the lawn of the U.S. embassy “I was fooled by a googly, otherwise I'd have been a better batsman.”

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. avenge :verb [T] FORMAL
to do harm to or punish the person responsible for something bad done to you or your family or friends in order to achieve a fair situation:
e.g. He swore he would avenge his brother's death.

2. cricket :noun [U]
a sport in which two teams of eleven players try to score runs by hitting a small hard leather-covered ball with a bat, and running between two sets of small wooden posts:

3. bat :noun [C]
a specially³ shaped piece of wood used for hitting the ball in many games:
e.g. a baseball/cricket/rounders/table tennis bat

4. googly :noun [C]
in cricket, a ball that looks like a leg break on delivery and then moves unexpectedly in the opposite direction after it pitches

5. batsman :noun [C]
in cricket, a person whose turn it is to hit the ball or a person who regularly does this activity: