1、如果你喜欢本听力文本，请到 http:/ 打包下载该文本听力1VOA 新闻听力 100 篇 News Item 1 This week, the chairman of Americas 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 pl
2、ace to deal with earthquake threats. No new nuclear power centers have been built in the United States since nineteen seventy-nine. That was when Americas worst nuclear accident happened at the Three Mile Island center in Pennsylvania. The accident began to turn public opinion against nuclear energy
3、. 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 wate
4、r to children around the world. Its 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 weeks earthquake and tsunami that is still spewing radiation. Yukio Edano, the chief Cabinet secretary,
5、 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 are
6、a. 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 Americas brightest students came to Washington for the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search, the nations oldest and most prestigious scie
7、nce 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 n
8、early 2,000 contestants nationwide, representing excellence across many disciplines. News Item 5 如果你喜欢本听力文本，请到 http:/ 打包下载该文本听力2The billionaires club is growing. Forbes magazines annual list shows there are now 1,210 billionaires around the worldthat is 199 more than last year. Although the worlds t
9、op three earners are unchanged from last year, the newcomers in the list of the worlds 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 billionaires this year, the majority are from the BRIC countrie
10、sBrazil, 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. Taylors war crimes trial is drawing to a close after more than thre
11、e 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 prosecuti
12、on 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 potentia
13、lly catastrophic disaster in Japan. Mr. Obama called Japan one of Americas 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
14、damaged by the quake or tsunami. News Item 8 Women are joining together all over the world to mark the 100th anniversary of International Womens Day on March 8. Women poured through Londons streets on Tuesday singing loudly for womens rights. The banners they carried trained a spotlight on the range
15、 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 如果你喜欢本听力文本，请到 http:/ 打包下载该文本听力3to boost agricultural pro
16、ductivity 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, b
17、ut there are good reasons for that, says Agnes Quisumbing, an economist with the International Food Policy Research Institute. News Item 10 Ronald Reagans Hometown Celebrates His 100th Birthday. Though he gained prominence as an actor in Hollywood and later as President of the United States, the peo
18、ple 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 Reagans 100th birthday this year, with a year-long celebration. The 40th Presidents hometown was never very far from his heart. News Item 11 The Natio
19、nal Football League wrapped up the 2010 season with the biggest football game of the year: Super Bowl XLVplayed in a huge stadium in Arlington, Texas. But without the small, midwestern town of Ada, Ohiopopulation 5,400the game would not have been the same. Ada is where the Wilson Sporting Goods comp
20、any 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 theremany working for 25 to 45 years. News Item 12 Scientists say a common headache medicine dramatically re
21、duces the risk of developing Parkinsons 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 i
22、buprofen（布洛芬镇痛药）regularly for headache or other pain reduced their risk of developing Parkinsons 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 n
23、ot 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 如果你喜欢本听力文本
24、，请到 http:/ 打包下载该文本听力4against 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 as
25、sault by forces loyal to the countrys 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 peo
26、ple 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
27、 couldnt 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.
28、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 worlds arable land but 80% of it is not in use. News Item 16 In July 2012, the worlds largest AIDS conf
29、erence comes to Washington, D.C. Its 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 bein
30、g 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. Bushs second administration. It was finally repealed in January 2010 under P
31、resident Obama. News Item 17 As Discovery begins its 39th and final mission into Earths orbit Thursday, Americas 30-year space shuttle program comes one step closer to its scheduled end this April. Discovery has been a regular visitor to Earths orbit since its maiden flight in 1984. It is the oldest
32、 and longest-serving vehicle in the U.S. space agencys shuttle 如果你喜欢本听力文本，请到 http:/ 打包下载该文本听力5fleet. Discoverys final flight follows several delays due to technical problems and repairs to its external fuel tank, but NASAs mission launch director Mike Leinbach says the shuttle is still space-ready.
33、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 musicia
34、ns, 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 Egypts most famous tourism sites, including the great pyramids and the antiquities m
35、useum in Cairo, have reopened after being closed during the popular uprising and political tumult. Egypts key industry tourismreturns 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
36、 Giza pyramids complex is the sound of money to the men who make their livings from tourisma 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 we
37、ll 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 th
38、em in Benghazi. Graphic videos posted on the Internet have shown shootings described as being inflicted by armed forces against protesters. 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 t
39、he land now known as Best Farm. But approximately 200 years ago, it was a 300-hectare plantation called LHermitage, 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 oth
40、er homes on the property where slaves were kept. The Vincendieres owned 90 slaves. 如果你喜欢本听力文本，请到 http:/ 打包下载该文本听力6News Item 22 Cameroons 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 faci
41、lity, 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 minesand eco
42、nomic 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 g
43、etting the treatment they need, to avoid such serious diseases as heart attacks and strokes. And the authors of the studythe largest ever undertakensay the problem is especially serious in the developing world. The study was done on 147 million people, and found an increasing incidence of high level
44、s 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
45、headed on foot for Cairos 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
46、 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 provi
47、des a representative look at the hardships, and aspirations, of some of the young people behind Tunisias so-called Jasmine Revolution. News Item 26 A new study has tracked how low self-control can predict poor health, money 如果你喜欢本听力文本，请到 http:/ 打包下载该文本听力7troubles and even a criminal record in their
48、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 r
49、eaching 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. Preside
