1 | China, Let's Make a Deal

On July 15, a week after detaining four Rio Tinto employees for "stealing state secrets," Beijing expanded its corruption investigation of the Australian mining giant by accusing the company of bribing nearly all of China's major steelmakers to gain access to industry data. The broadening scandal comes amid stalled negotiations over setting iron-ore prices, which Rio Tinto, the world's second largest iron exporter, had been scheduled to lead.

detain 拘押

Rio Tinto 力拓公司，世界铁矿石巨头 △

stealing state secrets 盗取国家机密

corruption investigation 反腐败调查

mining giant 采矿巨头

bribe 行贿，贿赂

broadening scandal 愈演愈烈的丑闻

stalled 停滞的

iron-ore 铁矿石

2 | Washington, Narrowing the Achievement Gap

A new Department of Education report contains heartening news for Southern states, which have made progress in closing the long-standing performance gulf between white and black students. Federal testing data show that though they still lag behind white students' results, scores among black pupils have risen more quickly since the early 1990s in states such as Florida and Arkansas than they have in many Northern areas. The largest achievement gaps in the nation are now in places like Illinois and Connecticut rather than in Southern states still struggling to erase the stain of segregation. The report does not address why widespread racial disparities persist.

achievement gap 这里表示学习成绩上的差距

heartening 振奋人心的

long-standing 长期存在的

performance gulf 这里表示学习成绩上的鸿沟，巨大差距

lag behind 落后

erase 消除

stain of segregation 种族隔离的污点

racial disparities 种族差异

persist 持续存在

3 | Washington, An Election of Firsts

Yes, we all know why the 2008 U.S. presidential election was a historic racial milestone. But according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the contest also virtually eliminated the long-standing gap in participation rates between black and white voters. For the first time, younger blacks voted in greater proportion than their white peers, and black women voted at a higher rate than any other demographic. Overall, though, the number of ballots cast rose only modestly from 2004, as gains in minority voting were offset by stagnant or declining turnout among other groups.

milestone 里程碑

U.S. Census Bureau 美国人口普查局

eliminate 消除

in greater proportion than 比…比例更高

demographic 人口统计

ballots cast 投票

stagnant 停滞的

turnout 这里表示参与投票的人数

4 | Jakarta, Terrorism Returns

Indonesian authorities suspect that the July 17 suicide bombings of two Jakarta luxury hotels were the work of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, which was responsible for the 2002 Bali attacks that killed 202 people. The blasts were condemned by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who had kept the group at bay for four years after taking office and was re-elected just nine days earlier.

suicide bombings 自杀爆炸

luxury hotels 豪华酒店

2002 Bali attacks 指2002年巴厘岛恐怖主义袭击

blasts 爆炸

condemn 谴责

keep the group at bay 指控制、牵制该组织

5 | Rome, Abortion Drug Okayed

The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency has voted to approve the use of the abortion-inducing drug Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, prompting condemnation in the predominantly Roman Catholic country and a threat of excommunication by the Vatican for prescribing doctors and their patients. In its ruling, the agency noted that the "well-being of citizens" supersedes "personal convictions" about the pill, which is already available in the U.K., the U.S. and China. Senior church bioethicist Monsignor Elio Sgreccia blasted the drug as a "poison."

MIFEPRISTONE A steroid, it blocks the action of progesterone, a naturally produced hormone that prepares the inner lining of the uterus for implantation of a fertilized egg

Pharmaceuticals Agency 药监局

abortion-inducing drug 堕胎药物

prompt 引发

condemnation 谴责

predominantly 占主导地位，主要地

Roman Catholic 罗马天主教

excommunication 逐出教会

Vatican 梵蒂冈

prescribe 开处方，规定

well-being of citizens 公民的健康幸福

supersede 取代，淘汰

bioethicist 生物伦理学家

blast 攻击，抨击

steroid 类固醇

progesterone 孕酮，黄体酮

hormone 荷尔蒙，激素

uterus 子宫

implantation 植入

fertilized egg 受精卵

6 | California, Tech Titans Untangled

In a sign of the deepening rivalry between two of Silicon Valley's giants, Google CEO Eric Schmidt stepped down from Apple's board of directors after a three-year stint. With the companies increasingly squaring off over lucrative markets like the mobile-computing field, many analysts suggested the move was overdue. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Schmidt's position on his competitor's board may have violated antitrust provisions.

Google vs. Apple

Browser, Chrome vs. Safari

Operating system, Chrome vs. OS X

Voice, Google Voice vs. AT&T (iPhone partner)

Mobile OS, Android vs. iPhone

Tech Titans 技术巨人

untangle 理清，解开

deepening rivalry 日益激烈的竞争

board of directors 董事会

stint 这里表示一段时间

square off 拉开架势，做好准备

lucrative 利润丰厚的

mobile-computing field 移动计算领域

overdue 迟到的，早该到来的

antitrust provisions 反不正当竞争条款

7 | Washington, Unsparing with the Rod

According to a new report by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, more than 200,000 U.S. schoolchildren were subjected to corporal punishment during the 2006-07 academic year, with disabled students receiving a disproportionate share. In Tennessee, one of 20 states where physical discipline is legal, children with disabilities were twice as likely to be paddled.

unsparing with the rod 棍棒底下不留情

ACLU American Civil Liberties Union 美国公民联合会

subjected to corporal punishment 遭到体罚

academic year 学年

paddle 原指用于体罚的棍棒，这里表示体罚，揍

8| Florida, Tensions Rise over Health Care

In the ongoing debate over health-care reform, critics have fixated on the bogus suggestion that "death panels" could deny end-of-life care to ailing seniors. The contention, voiced by Republicans like Sarah Palin, sparked a series of skirmishes at town halls around the country. Defending his proposals in New Hampshire, President Obama denounced the claim as a "scare tactic."

ongoing 进行中的

fixate on 专注于，集中于

bogus 伪造的，假的

death panels对可能决定部分民众是否享有医疗权的专家小组的攻击，字面意思“死亡审判委员会”

end-of-life care 临终关怀

ailing seniors 生病的老年人

contention 争辩

skirmish 冲突，这里表示争论

town halls 市政厅

denounce 谴责

scare tactic 恐吓战术

9 | Washington, The Supreme Court Steps In On the Death Penalty

Troy Davis, a Georgia man sentenced to death in 1991 for the murder of an off-duty cop, has long maintained his innocence. In the first decision of its kind in nearly 50 years, the U.S. Supreme Court is giving him a chance to prove it. The court ordered a federal judge in Georgia to hear new evidence in the case, including the fact that seven of nine key witnesses have recanted their original testimony. The ruling highlighted the Justices' divergent views on death-row appeals: "The substantial risk of putting an innocent man to death clearly provides an adequate justification" for a new hearing, wrote John Paul Stevens. "This Court has never held," dissented Antonin Scalia, "that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent."

off-duty 下班

maintain 这里表示声称，坚持认为

hear 这里表示举行听证

recant 撤回，推翻

testimony 证词

highlight突出，凸显

divergent 不同的，存在分歧的

death-row appeals 对死刑的上诉

justification 辩护，证明得当

dissent 持异议

habeas court 人身保护法院 △

10| New Jersey Hacker Caught

Albert Gonzalez, a 28-year-old hacker, was indicted on Aug. 17, along with two Russian co-conspirators, in what is believed to be the largest retail-store theft in U.S. history. Gonzalez, who had been arrested on similar charges before, allegedly cracked the databases of 7-Eleven, two other retail chains and a New Jersey--based credit-card-processing company to steal some 130 million credit-card numbers.

indict 起诉，控告

co-conspirator 同谋，同伙

allegedly 据称

crack 侵入

retail chains 零售连锁店

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