美联社新闻一分钟 2005-10-20

（单词翻译）

1. Hurricane Wilma menaces Cuba and Central America, and visitors are ordered out of the Florida Keys as Wilma briefly¹ explodes into the most intensive Atlantic hurricane on record.

2. A defiant² Saddam Hussein pleads innocent to charges of murder and torture as his long-awaited trial begins with him rejecting the court's legitimacy³ and scuffling with guards.

3. China says some twenty-six hundred birds have been found dead of bird flu in its northern grasslands⁴ amid new reports of bird flu outbreaks in Europe and Russia.

4. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice refuses to rule out US troops still in Iraq in ten years or the US use of military force against Iran and Syria.

5. And Antonio Banderas is presented with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 16 years after the native Spaniard arrived as a penniless young actor

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. menace
4 menace menaces menacing menaced
If you say that one thing menaces another, you mean that the first thing is likely to cause the second thing serious harm.
The European states retained a latent capability⁵ to menace Britain's own security.
VB
= threaten

2. scuffle
2 scuffle scuffles scuffling scuffled
If people scuffle, they fight for a short time in a disorganized way.
Police scuffled with some of the protesters.
He and Hannah had been scuffling in the yard outside his house.
V-RECIP

3. rule out
2 rule out rules out; ruling out; ruled out
If something rules out a situation, it prevents it from happening or from being possible.
A serious car accident in 1986 ruled out a permanent future for him in farming.
PHR-V

4. penniless
penniless
Someone who is penniless has hardly any money at all.
They'd soon be penniless and homeless if she couldn't find suitable work.
...a penniless refugee.
ADJ: usu v-link ADJ