美联社新闻一分钟 2006-03-27

（单词翻译）

1. Tragedy on the race track. IndyCar driver Paul Dana was killed in a two-car crash during this morning's warm-up for the season-opening IRL race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The other driver, Ed Carpenter, is awake and alert at a Miami hospital.

2. Conflicting reports about a clash at a mosque¹ in eastern Baghdad. Radical² Shiites say 18 people were killed by U.S. and Iraqi forces. Iraqi police say 22 people died, and the American military says 16 insurgents³ were killed by Iraqi special forces with U.S. troops on the scene as backup.

3. The grim task of sift⁴ing through debris⁶ for victims of Hurricane Katrina continues. Crews found a body of a child believed to be 10 years old yesterday. The young victim (was) found in the uninhabitable Ninth Ward⁷.

4. Tourists are flocking into the nation’s capital for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. The two-week event is expected to bring about 1 million people to the city. The blossom is expected to hit their peak bloom tomorrow

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. alert :adjective
quick to see, understand and act in a particular situation:
e.g. I'm not feeling very alert today - not enough sleep last night!

2. on the scene :
to arrive:
e.g. I phoned the police and they were on the scene within minutes.

3. backup :noun [C or U] (ALSO back-up)
(someone or something that provides) support or help, or something that you have arranged in case your main plans, equipment, etc. go wrong:
e.g. We're going to need some professional backup for this project.

4. grim :adjective grimmer, grimmest
worried or worrying, without hope:
e.g. When he lost his job, his future looked grim.

5. sift :verb [T]
to make a close examination of all the parts of something in order to find something or to separate what is useful from what is not:
e.g. The police are sifting⁵ the evidence very carefully to try and find the guilty person.

6. uninhabitable :adjective
if a place is uninhabitable, it is impossible to live in
e.g. Much of the country is uninhabitable because it is desert.

7. peak :adjective
used to talk about the best, highest, or greatest level or amount of something
e.g. Gasoline prices are 14% below the peak level they hit in November.