VOA100

1 VOA新闻听力100篇 News Item 1 This week, the chairman of America’s nuclear agency said there is little chance that harmful radiation from Japan could reach the United States. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko also said America has a strong program in place to deal with earthquake threats. No new nuclear power centers have been built in the United States since nineteen seventy-nine. That was when America’s worst nuclear accident happened at the Three Mile Island center in Pennsylvania. The accident began to turn public opinion against nuclear energy. News Item 2 Most restaurants in the United States offer their customers a glass of tap water at no charge with their meal, but this week many restaurants are asking diners to pay a dollar, or more, for a glass of water. Placards on their tables explain that this small amount helps bring clean water to children around the world. It’s called the UNICEF Tap Project. News Item 3 Japan has confirmed radiation contamination of some agricultural products near a nuclear power plant crippled by last week’s earthquake and tsunami that is still spewing radiation. Yukio Edano, the chief Cabinet secretary, says high levels of radiation have been detected in milk in Fukushima prefecture and spinach from Ibaraki prefecture have been found to be contaminated. He tells reporters there is no immediate health risk and the government is considering regulating shipments of farm products from the affected area. At the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant efforts continue to try to cool overheating reactor cores and water in tanks containing spent fuel rods. News Item 4 Some of America’s brightest students came to Washington for the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science competition. The awards ceremony was the culmination of an intense week during which the 40 finalists were queried by judges and the public. They met with scientists, politicians and even President Barack Obama, who welcomed them to the White House. These high achievers were whittled down from nearly 2,000 contestants’ nationwide, representing excellence across many disciplines. News Item 5 The billionaires’ club is growing. Forbes magazine’s annual list shows there are now 1,210 billionaires around the world—that is 199 more than last year. Although the world’s top three earners are unchanged from last year, the newcomers in the list of the world’s richest did not come from the U.S. or Western Europe, but from Russia and the Asia Pacific region. Magazine chairman Steve Forbes says of the 200 new 2 billionaires this year, the majority are from the BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India and China. News Item 6 Defense attorneys for former Liberian president Charles Taylor say testimony from prosecution witnesses is tainted by cash payments from a special fund provided by the United States. Mr. Taylor’s war crimes trial is drawing to a close after more than three years. Defense attorney Terry Munyard says money “lavished” on prosecution witnesses has polluted “the pure waters of justice.” He told the court that those payments went far beyond the simple reimbursement of expenses and were used in such a way “as to taint the testimony of some of the prosecution witnesses.” News Item 7 Many world leaders are expressing shock and sympathy following the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and are offering to assist the country as it struggles to recover from the disaster. U.S. President Barack Obama pledged assistance for what he called a potentially catastrophic disaster in Japan. Mr. Obama called Japan one of America’s strongest allies and said the U.S. is offering whatever assistance is needed. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said a preliminary assessment indicates that American troops, ships and military facilities were not seriously damaged by the quake or tsunami. News Item 8 Women are joining together all over the world to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8. Women poured through London’s streets on Tuesday singing loudly for women’s rights. The banners they carried trained a spotlight on the range of issues still at hand: health, education, and politics to name a few. News Item 9 Food prices continue to rise, threatening to push more and more people into poverty and hunger. A new report from the UN food agency says one of the best ways to boost agricultural productivity worldwide would be to remove the barriers women farmers face that their male counterparts do not. Studies show when women have financial resources, they are more likely than men to spend them on food, health and educating their children. Women farmers tend to be less productive than men, but there are good reasons for that, says Agnes Quisumbing, an economist with the International Food Policy Research Institute. News Item 10 Ronald Reagan’s Hometown Celebrates His 100th Birthday. Though he gained prominence as an actor in Hollywood and later as President of the United States, the people of Dixon, Illinois, remember Ronald Reagan as a hometown hero who saved the lives of 77 people while working as a lifeguard. The town is honoring Reagan’s 100th birthday this year, with a year-long celebration. The 40th President’s hometown was never very far from his heart. 3 News Item 11 The National Football League wrapped up the 2010 season with the biggest football game of the year: Super Bowl XLV—played in a huge stadium in Arlington, Texas. But without the small, midwestern town of Ada, Ohio—population 5,400—the game would not have been the same. Ada is where the Wilson Sporting Goods company makes footballs. Wilson has been the official football maker of the National Football League since 1941, and many of the 130 employees at its factory in Ada have spent most of their lives there—many working for 25 to 45 years. News Item 12 Scientists say a common headache medicine dramatically reduces the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, a physically-disabling brain disorder that mostly strikes elderly adults. In a six-year study of just over 136,000 nurses and health professionals, researchers at Harvard University School of Public Health in Massachusetts found that people who take ibuprofen（布洛芬镇痛药）regularly for headache or other pain reduced their risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by nearly 40 percent. Taking one or two pills of ibuprofen two or more times per week was considered regular use. Other non-prescription pain relievers, including aspirin and acetaminophen, did not show a similar protective benefit. News Item 13 Insurgents opposed to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi continue to hold two strategic towns along the road to eastern Libya, after unsuccessful attempts by pro-Gadhafi forces to retake them. Libyan warplanes launched new air strikes Thursday against the key eastern oil port of Brega, but the son of embattled leader Moammar Gadhafi says the bombs were only intended to “frighten” rebels there.Libyan warplanes struck at the rebel-held oil port of Brega on Thursday, a day after anti-government fighters turned back an assault by forces loyal to the country’s longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. News Item 14 A new study of more than 1.1 million people in six Asian countries finds that, like Westerners, Asians are more likely to die if they are overweight or obese. However, some of the highest death rates were seen in people who were severely underweight. Many previous studies have found that the risk of death increases as body-mass index increases. Body-mass index, or BMI, is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. The trouble is, those studies mostly analyzed Europeans and other Westerners. So scientists couldn’t be sure if the results applied to other groups. News Item 15 Agriculture is one of the most important economic activities in Africa. In addition to providing employment, agriculture has the potential to transform African societies through the increased export of produce to Western markets. Many agree that transformation will not take place without increased investment in agriculture, including public or private loans to small farmers. Statistics show that Africa has about 12% of the world’s arable land but 80% of it is not in use. 4 News Item 16 In July 2012, the world’s largest AIDS conference comes to Washington, D.C. It’s the first time the gathering will be held in the United States since 1990 and preparations are already underway. Despite the massive U.S. financial, medical and scientific contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS, a major issue blocked the conference from being held here. That was a law that prohibited HIV infected people from traveling to the United States. It was passed in 1987 in the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Efforts to lift the ban began during President George W. Bush’s second administration. It was finally repealed in January 2010 under President Obama. News Item 17 As Discovery begins its 39th and final mission into Earth’s orbit Thursday, America’s 30-year space shuttle program comes one step closer to its scheduled end this April. Discovery has been a regular visitor to Earth’s orbit since its maiden flight in 1984. It is the oldest and longest-serving vehicle in the U.S. space agency’s shuttle fleet. Discovery’s final flight follows several delays due to technical problems and repairs to its external fuel tank, but NASA’s mission launch director Mike Leinbach says the shuttle is still space- ready. News Item 18 Not long ago, most professional musicians lived in a world far removed from the nitty-gritty of business management, distribution and promotion. But today, social media, laptop production techniques and fragmented musical tastes have largely replaced the old relationship between musicians, their audiences and the marketplace, making entrepreneurial savvy more important than ever. A leading U.S. conservatory now teaches students how to create successful careers in this brave new world. News Item 19 Egypt’s most famous tourism sites, including the great pyramids and the antiquities museum in Cairo, have reopened after being closed during the popular uprising and political tumult. Egypt’s key industry— tourism—returns after weeks of protests and celebrations, while other countries in the region deal with unrest. The sound of hooves as horses pull jostling carts of people within the Giza pyramids’ complex is the sound of money to the men who make their livings from tourism—a dominant industry in Egypt. News Item 20 Demonstrations against long-serving governments continue to roil the Middle East and North Africa Friday from Libya eastward to Bahrain. In Libya, more protests as well as funerals for those killed in recent unrest were held after midday prayers, and witnesses said demonstrators gathered in the port city Benghazi, a bastion of resentment against the government. Human Rights Watch said Friday that 24 people have been killed in recent violence in Libya, many of them in Benghazi. Graphic videos posted on the Internet have shown shootings described as being inflicted by armed forces against protesters. 5 News Item 21 The National Park Service says the largest slave village in the Washington region is buried on the grounds. Archeologist Joy Beasley walks across the land now known as Best Farm. But approximately 200 years ago, it was a 300-hectare plantation called L’Hermitage, owned by the Vincendieres, French farmers from Haiti. Their stone home and outbuildings still stand. The National Park Service archeologist says her team discovered evidence of six other homes on the property where slaves were kept. The Vincendieres owned 90 slaves. News Item 22 Cameroon’s new mineral research center will begin operations this year. South Korean mining researchers are making trips to Cameroon to determine the overall cost of the facility, to be located in the capital, Yaounde. They say the center will cost several millions of dollars and will ultimately be offered to the Cameroon government as a gift. The Korean investors say the facility will also have geological engineers to help in the design and construction of mines—and economic geologists to determine the commercial feasibility of projects. They will decide whether there are enough minerals to justify the cost of a mining venture. News Item 23 A major study by the World Health Organization shows that most people with high cholesterol levels around the world are not getting the treatment they need, to avoid such serious diseases as heart attacks and strokes. And the authors of the study—the largest ever undertaken—say the problem is especially serious in the developing world. The study was done on 147 million people, and found an increasing incidence of high levels of cholesterol the world over. Even more worrying, the researchers say, is that many of those patients are going untreated. News Item 24 A huge crowd has gathered in central Cairo calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down. The opposition has called for one million people to protest. Crowds headed on foot for Cairo’s Tahrir Square throughout the day Tuesday. They included women with babies in strollers. Their confidence is boosted after the army, in an official statement, described the demonstrations as legitimate and promised it would not fire on demonstrators. Army helicopters dropped leaflets calling on demonstrators to keep the protests peaceful. News Item 25 The popular revolts roiling Egypt and other Arab countries are being driven by young people clamoring to oust autocratic governments they have known all their lives. The hardscrabble Tunis neighborhood of Ettadhamen provides a representative look at the hardships, and aspirations, of some of the young people behind Tunisia’s so-called Jasmine Revolution. 6 News Item 26 A new study has tracked how low self-control can predict poor health, money troubles and even a criminal record in their adult years. The study began with 1,000 children in New Zealand. Researchers followed them for decades. They observed the level of self-control the youngsters displayed. Parents, teachers, even the kids themselves, scored the youngsters on measures like “acting before thinking” and “persistence in reaching goals.” The children of the study are now adults in their thirties. Terrie Moffitt of Duke University found that kids with self-control issues tended to grow up to become adults with a far more troubling set of issues to deal with. News Item 27 President Barack Obama delivers his second State of the Union Address to the nation on Tuesday, before a joint session of the U.S. Congress. President Barack Obama will face a dramatically altered balance of power in the House of Representatives when he addresses Congress and the nation Tuesday in his State of the Union address. Republicans are now in the majority in the House, and they have already approved a repeal of Mr. Obama’s landmark reform of the U.S. health care system. The move was symbolic, since the bill will die in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats and Independents still hold a majority. News Item 28 New research suggests a relatively simple blood test might make it possible to predict who is at a higher risk for developing dementia. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s Disease, and currently, it can only be definitively diagnosed in an autopsy, by examining the brain. Beta-amyloid is a protein that shows up the brains of Alzheimer’s victims. It’s also present in spinal fluid and, in very small quantities, in the blood. News Item 29 Health Services in eastern and central Kenya are getting a big boost through a new $100 million dollar program. The U.S. development agency, USAID, has awarded the funds to an international non-profit organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. For the past four years, Jhpiego has led a nearly $34 million program in eastern Kenya called APHIA II. APHIA stands for AIDS, Population and Health Integrated Assistance. The goal is to “empower front-line health workers” with effective, low cost solutions to delivering quality health care. News Item 30 Over the past 20 years, the United Nations says the Asia-Pacific population has been growing, but at a slower rate compared to the rest of the world. Asian fertility fell by 39 percent in a 20-year period from the late 1960s while remaining above the population-replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. By 1990, nearly two-thirds of Asian countries had experienced declines of at least 25 percent. 7 News Item 31 President Barack Obama will go to Tucson, Arizona, Wednesday to speak at a memorial service for those killed in Saturday’s shootings. The president will try to help the nation deal with the rampage, which left six people dead and a U.S. congresswoman critically wounded. President Obama and his wife Michelle will cross the country to attend Wednesday night’s memorial service at the University of Arizona.The president will speak there, in an effort to help Americans cope with the tragedy. News Item 32 New medical research into a possible cure for Parkinson’s disease is focusing on finding biomarkers in patients so that doctors can start treatment early before tremors and other symptoms start. Actor Michael J. Fox’s recent commitment of $40 million toward finding a cure for Parkinson’s is helping to fund the new research. The current clinical diagnosis of Parkinson’s is based on visible tremors and stiffness of limbs. But researchers say a more comprehensive diagnosis is needed. News Item 33 U.S. President Barack Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to outline the benefits of a tax cut package he signed into law in December. He says the tax cut compromise reached with Republicans will help grow the U.S. economy. Mr. Obama encouraged business owners to take advantage of a new incentive included in the legislation that allows any business to write off the full cost of most of their capital investments for one year. News Item 34 A U.S. congress woman is in critical condition and six people are dead after a gunman opened fire in an Arizona parking lot where Representative Gabrielle Giffords was meeting with constituents. The dead include a federal judge. More than a dozen people were wounded, including Giffords. A federal probe has been launched amid a national outpouring of sorrow and outrage. News Item 35 Three-dimensional cell phones and batteries that last much longer are just two of the technologies that could become commonplace in the next few years. For the fifth year, IBM has looked at the horizons of research, picked five technologies and announced them as tomorrow’s innovations. “Individual technologies take different times to matriculate,” says John Cohn, IBM’s Chief Scientist. “But the thing that’s common about them is that we think in 2015, all these predictions will actually be something that we take for granted.” News Item 36 The killing of the governor of Pakistan’s most populous province has highlighted the ongoing clash in Pakistani society between secularism and religious radicalism. Some of that radicalism is fueled by resentment against privileged and often secular-minded elite who govern the country. 8 News Item 37 In India’s main tea-growing region, scientists say tea production is being impacted by climate change. India produces nearly one third of the world’s tea. The rolling Himalayan hills in India’s northeastern state, Assam, are carpeted with lush tea bushes whose leaves produce some of the world’s finest teas. But there are concerns that rising temperatures may be affecting the tea plantations, resulting in declining productivity of the brew to