美联社新闻一分钟 2006-10-01

（单词翻译）

1. A bombshell on Capitol Hill as Florida Congressman¹ Mark Foley announced his sudden resignation in the wake of questions about suggestive e-mails he wrote a former teenage male congressional page. In a brief statement, Foley apologized to his family and constituents² but didn't address the contents of the e-mails.

2. A fifteen-year-old charged in the shooting death of a school principal complained that schoolmates picked on him. A criminal complaint filed against the rural Wisconsin teens says the boy felt his teachers and his principal weren't doing anything about it.

3. Family members of the 100 victims killed in a 2003 nightclub fire in Rhode Island are outraged³ over what they consider to be a lenient⁴ sentence for the owners of the club. In a plea bargain, Mike Derderian was given four years in prison, his brother Jeffrey received no jail time.

4. The government is officially lifting its two-week-old warning about most fresh spinach⁵. The warning now applies only to packaged produce that has already been recalled due to E. coli contamination.

WORDS IN THE NEWS

1. bombshell: n-count
A bombshell is a sudden piece of bad or unexpected news.

2. pick on: phrase
If someone picks on you, they repeatedly criticize you unfairly or treat you unkindly. (INFORMAL)

3. lenient: adj.
Is someone in authority is lenient, they are not as strict or severe as expected..