News Item 6 Three US Soldiers Die in Iraq Attack
Sonja Pace Baghdad
Vocabulary：
1.coalition n. union of political parties or groups for a special purpose 聯盟
2.convention n. conference of members of a society, political parties etc.大會
3.convoy n. ships or cars under escort 護航
4.minimize vt. reduce to the smallest possible number 減少到最小
5.demolition n. tear down buildings or destroy something 破壞
6.viability n. ability to exist or capability of developing or surviving without help 可行性
Step One Try to answer the following questions in your own words as clearly as possible.
1.Where and when did the bomb explode? How many people were killed in the incident?.
2.Where is Khaldiya located?
3.Is the overall number of incidents larger than before?
4.When did the number of casualties tend to change?
5.What were found near one of the gates of the heavily guarded coalition headquarters?
6.Under what circumstances were the driver and the producer of CNN shot dead?
7.What measures did the United Nations take following last August’s bombing of the U. N. headquarters in Baghdad?
Step Two Complete the following blanks with the exact words of the news.
1.In Baghdad, U. S. soldiers discovered a car ____ with ____ near one of the entrances to the U. S. ____ headquarters. The roadside bomb in Khaldiya ____next to passing U. S. ____ vehicles. The incident took place early Tuesday afternoon local time.
2.It was once the____of Saddam Hussein’s____base and is now at the center of attacks against coalition forces and Iraqis who____with them. Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told reporters in Baghdad that despite such attacks, the overall number of incidents continues to____.
3.Several hours after the Khaldiya attack, bomb____experts were sent in to____a car bomb in central Baghdad. The explosives were found near one of the gates of the heavily ____coalition headquarters. The gate is close to the offices of the Iraqi Governing____and not far from a____center where the U. S. -led____holds routine ____ briefings.
4. At a news conference in Baghdad, Coalition____, Dan Senor, welcomed the decision by U. N. Secretary-General Koffi Annan to possibly send a team to Iraq to ____ the ____ of early direct elections. “The important point is for us to do everything we can to give the General Secretary the ____ that he needs that we are ____ risk and maximizing the ____ of the electoral team that he will possibly ____ here，” he said. “And，we have made it clear to him that we will make every effort.”
Notes ：
1.It was once the heartland of Saddam Hussein’s power base and is now at the center of attacks against coalition forces and Iraqis who cooperate with them.
譯文：它曾經是薩達姆?候賽因的軍事基地的心髒，現在仍然是襲擊聯軍和與聯軍合 作的伊拉克人的中心地帶。該句是由and連接起來的複合句，其中定語從句who cooperate with them 修飾的先行詞是 coalition forces and Iraqis。
2.“The important point is for us to do everything we can to give the General Secretary the confidence that he needs and that we are minimizing risk and maximizing the security of the electoral team that he will possibly deploy here，” he said.
譯文：他說：“我們應該盡我們的一切能力讓秘書長完全相信，我們已經在最大程度 地化解風險，保證他可能排除的選舉團的安全，這一點是非常重要的。”該句的主語是 The important point； to give the General Secretary the confidence 是該句的目的狀語；定語從句 that he needs 和定語從句 that we are minimizing risk and maximizing the security of the electoral team 所修飾的先行詞是 the confidence；而定語從句 team that he will possibly deploy here 修飾的先行詞是 the electoral team。