美联社新闻一分钟 2005-09-27

（单词翻译）

1.As residents begin returning to areas hit by Hurricane Rita on the Texas-Louisiana Coast, the death toll¹ from the storm rises to 7.

2.The mayor of New Orleans reopens the Algiers section of the city which largely escaped flooding from Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

3.President Bush says he's prepared to tap the Strategic Petroleum² Reserve again to offset³ more big gasoline price hikes due to Hurricane Rita.

4.A suspected Al-Qaeda cell leader is convicted in Spain of conspiring⁴ to commit murder in connection with the September 11th attacks.

5.And Hollywood sweethearts Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore reportedly tie the knot during a ceremony in front of 100 guests.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. tap
4 tap taps tapping tapped
If you tap a resource or situation, you make use of it by getting from it something that you need or want.
He owes his election to having tapped deep public disillusion⁵ with professional politicians.
The company is tapping shareholders⁶ for s15.8 million.
The Campbell Soup Company says it will try to tap into Japan's rice market.
VB

2. offset
offset offsets⁷ offsetting⁸
If one thing is offset by another, the effect of the first thing is reduced by the second, so that any advantage or disadvantage is cancelled out.
The increase in pay costs was more than offset by higher productivity.
The move is designed to help offset the shortfall in world oil supplies caused by the UN embargo⁹.
VB The form offset is used in the present tense and is the past tense and past participle of the verb

3. hike
3 hike hikes
A hike is a sudden or large increase in prices, rates, taxes, or quantities. (INFORMAL)
...a sudden 1.75 per cent hike in Italian interest rates...
His economic plan, with its tax hikes and spending cuts, will slow the economy.
N-COUNT: usu supp N
= rise

4. cell
3 cell cells
You can refer to a small group of people within a larger organization as a cell.
...Communist Party cells.
N-COUNT: usu n N

5. sweetheart
2 sweetheart sweethearts
Your sweetheart is your boyfriend or your girlfriend. (OLD-FASHIONED or JOURNALISM)
I married Shurla, my childhood sweetheart, in Liverpool.
N-COUNT: usu supp N

6. knot
10 knot
If you say that two people tie the knot, you mean that they get married. (INFORMAL)
Len tied the knot with Kate five years ago.
PHR: V inflects
= get spliced