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CNN 10 - November 8, 2021

$1.2 Trillion Bill Sent To The President`s Desk; Latest Jobs Report Shows Addition Of 531,000 New Jobs; U.S. Falls Back From Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time.


CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Infrastructure and you. It sounds like an old-timey school informational video, but that is the topic that leads off today`s objective coverage on CNN 10 and we`re happy to have you watching.
 

old-timey ['old'taɪmɪ] adj. <口>旧时的; 过去的; old-fashioned or reminiscent of the past


I`m Carl Azuz.

On Friday night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a spending bill worth $1.2 trillion. It is called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs

Act. The bill had been passed by the Senate in August, so it`s now headed to President Joe Biden`s desk for his signature into law.

Getting this plan through congress has been a major priority for the President, so its passage is considered a legislative victory for him, but

it took months and several setbacks before the bill was passed even though it had bipartisan support in Congress.
 

setback [ˋsɛt͵bæk] n. 挫折;失败


The final House vote was 228 to 206, a majority of Democrats and a minority of Republicans voted for it though a handful of Democrats joined most

Republicans in voting against it.

There is a lot in this bill. Here is where some of the spending is going with the largest allocation of money in this graphic intended for upgrades
 

allocation [͵æləˋkeʃən] n. 配置;分配额(或量)


to roads and bridges. But if you add up all the funding for everything you see here, it amounts to $540 billion, less than half the total cost of the

$1.2 trillion law. So, there are a lot of smaller spending categories that factor in.

Some lawmakers were concerned this spending would add to the Federal deficit -- the amount the government spends that exceeds the revenue it

takes in. President Biden and the bill`s supporters have said it wouldn`t have a negative impact, but the Congressional Budget Office, which aims to

give non-partisan estimates on government spending and budgets says the bill will add $256 billion to the deficit over the next 10 years. Concern

about spending is one reason why the infrastructure bill got held up in Congress.

There is another separate spending plan that the Biden administration wants passed, it is called the Build Back Better Bill. It is focused on social

programs like government-funded preschool, lower-cost child care, money for low-cost housing, and more than half a trillion dollars in spending on

climate programs.

That bill`s planned cost is currently $1.75 trillion, but unlike the Infrastructure Bill, the social spending plan has no bipartisan support.

All Republicans oppose it and even though Democrats control both Chambers of Congress, they`ve had a number of disagreements over what should go into

the social spending plan and what it should cost.

Those disagreements held up passage of the infrastructure bill until last Friday.
 

hold up 延误


So what`s next?

Well, Congress continues to debate the social plan and wait for the Congressional Budget Office to give estimates on what it would finally

cost, but the Infrastructure Bill is a done deal and the President says he`ll sign it this week.
 

done deal 木已成舟;已决定好不能更改的;已经谈妥


Ten-second trivia: Which U.S. President signed a law creating the Department of Labor in 1913? Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft,
 

Roosevelt [ˋrozə͵vɛlt] 罗斯福(美国第32任总统)


Woodrow Wilson or Warren G. Harding?

In the closing hours of his presidency, William Howard Taft signed the Department of Labor Bill.

The Labor Department issues a monthly jobs report looking at the state of employment in America and it has been on a roller coaster ride recently.

The initial jobs report for July, for instance, indicated the U.S. economy had added 943,000 jobs, but in August, 235 000 jobs were added when

economists expected hundreds of thousands more.

And September was worse with initial estimates at 194,000 additions, but the latest report with the numbers for October indicated an addition of

531,000 new jobs that exceeded economists` expectations.

Analysts say America`s decreasing COVID cases likely factored in here, so might have Holiday hiring and a government stimulus program that gave

financial aid to people who weren`t working also expired recently. Critics of that program say that prompted some people to go back to work.

More possible reasons for the rebound:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUSTIN JONES, JOB SEEKER: There`s been a lot of different options.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At a job fair in Charlotte this week, Dustin Jones was looking for a position requiring a commercial
 

Charlotte [ˋʃɑrlət] n. 夏洛特(北卡罗来纳州)


driver`s license, or in an office.

Jones said he wanted a job that could hold if there is another shutdown due to COVID, and he was optimistic.

JONES: This is the best time to go job hunting. People are very desperate to hire, so as far as like qualifying, there is a lot of paid training on

the job.

TODD (voice over): The U.S. Labor Department wholeheartedly agrees with Dustin Jones. It says the U.S. economy added a whopping 531,000 new jobs
 

wholeheartedly [͵holˋhɑrtɪdlɪ] adv. 全心全意地

whopping [ˋhwɑpɪŋ] adj. 巨大的;异常的


last month, about 80,000 more than economists had predicted.

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: What this says to me is that the delta variant is ebbing, more people have been vaccinated and there is
 

ebb [ɛb] v. 退潮;衰退


a lot of pent-up demand in the system post-COVID. People want to spend and people are getting back to work.
 

pent-up (感情等)被壓抑的

pent-up demand 暂时未满足的需求


TODD (voice over): Twenty-two million jobs were lost when the pandemic hit in March of last year, but since then, 18 million have been gained, a

rebound of about 80 percent.

The leisure and hospitality sector of the U.S. economy which was hit hardest during the pandemic recession is still about a million and a half
 

recession [rɪˋsɛʃən] n.(经济的)衰退;衰退期


jobs short of its pre-pandemic level, but analysts say the latest job numbers indicate a healthy rebound for that sector.

MARK ZANDI, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MOODY`S ANALYTICS: Leisure and hospitality, that`s where obviously we saw some really big gains, but you know,

construction, manufacturing, professional services, healthcare all added very significantly, so all very encouraging.

Really the only part of the economy that didn`t add to jobs was government.

TODD (voice over): And analysts say certain demographics of people who re- entered the workforce recently are fueling this surge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Women were hurt especially badly early on in the in the pandemic as you can imagine because of the child care crunch, and I
 

crunch [krʌntʃ] n. 艰难局面;短缺


think we`re finally seeing women catch up.

TODD (voice over): But overall, the American economy is not free and clear of the pandemic.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have supply chain problems that are leading to inflation and shortages. You have consumers worried about the price of gas

or the about the price of groceries.

TODD (on camera): And at least one analyst is warning of what he calls a potential hard landing in the housing market. Mark Zandi of Moody`s Analytics

points out, there`s a shortage of affordable houses in America. House prices have skyrocketed in recent months.

If interest rates go up to combat inflation, higher mortgage rates could really hurt demand for houses. It may not derail the economy, Zandi says,

but homeowners could see some real declines in their house prices.

Brian Todd, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: It`s that time of year when you hear a whole lot about getting that extra hour of sleep as the U.S. falls back from Daylight Saving Time to

Standard Time. That happened on Sunday, it means it`ll be dark outside an hour earlier, but it also means there will be more light outside when we

get up in the morning.

Calls to stop observing Daylight Saving Time seem to be louder in the spring when Americans have to move their clocks forward one hour and lose

that hour of sleep. But one thing that`s kept us springing ahead and falling back every year is the fact that there`s been no agreement yet

which time to choose year round -- Standard Time or Daylight Saving Time?

How did all this start anyway?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: So why do we change the clocks ahead one hour in the spring and back one hour in the fall? Well, it`s actually to

reduce the electricity consumption by extending the daylight hours.

TEXT: Why do we change our clocks?

GRAY: In the U.S. we change our clocks at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March. That begins Daylight Saving Time. That`s when we spring ahead.
 

spring ahead 意思是春天进入夏时制,把表调快


On the first Sunday in November, we change our clocks at 2:00 a.m. again, that`s actually just going back to standard time.

Believe it or not, this started with an idea from Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin did write an essay suggesting that people could use less candles if they got up early and made better use of daylight. In 1918, the Standard Time Act

 

established time zones and Daylight Saving Time, but not all states participate.

To this day, most of Arizona and all of Hawaii do not change their clocks.

Over 70 countries across the world observe Daylight Saving Time with notable exceptions of China and Japan. In 2007, we actually changed the
 

observe [əbˋzɝv] v. 遵守,奉行


date of when we set our clocks back an hour to the first week in November. This helped protect trick-or-treaters by giving them an extra hour of

daylight. One of the other lines of thinking was that we would have a better voter turnout on election years.`

Experts say each time you change your clocks, it`s always a good idea to change those batteries in your smoke detector and always look forward to

fall when you get that extra hour of sleep.

AZUZ: For 10 out of 10, an art exhibition that just wrapped up in Egypt is really one of a kind. It is unique because of its background. I mean you
 

one of a kind 独一无二的


won`t find this anywhere else.

The exhibition was called "Forever is Now," and it featured large-scale sculptures and installations by 10 contemporary artists. Some of their
 

installation [͵ɪnstəˋleʃən] n. 装置,设备


works appear to incorporate their ancient background more than others. The whole goal was to blend the past and the present.

Well, some might not think it`s worth the Monet to then go to a show like that, they might not Da Vinci the purpose or revere the modern methods if

they believe in O`Keefe-ing or leaving the pyramids Cathelin. But for those who go Chagall into thinking the past and present rock well together, well,

they`ll see that just like with the pyramids themselves, there is a point.

Before we leave we would like to point to our viewers in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Shout out to the students of Bucharest Christian
 

Bucharest [ˋbukə͵rɛst] n. 布加勒斯特(罗马尼亚首都)


Academy.

I`m Carl Azuz for CNN.

END

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

old-timey ['old'taɪmɪ] adj. <口>旧时的; 过去的; old-fashioned or reminiscent of the past

setback [ˋsɛt͵bæk] n. 挫折;失败

allocation [͵æləˋkeʃən] n. 配置;分配额(或量)

hold up 延误

done deal 木已成舟;已决定好不能更改的;已经谈妥

Roosevelt [ˋrozə͵vɛlt] n. 罗斯福(美国第32任总统)

Charlotte [ˋʃɑrlət] n. 夏洛特(北卡罗来纳州)

wholeheartedly [͵holˋhɑrtɪdlɪ] adv. 全心全意地

whopping [ˋhwɑpɪŋ] adj. 巨大的;异常的

ebb [ɛb] v. 退潮;衰退

pent-up (感情等)被壓抑的

pent-up demand 暂时未满足的需求

recession [rɪˋsɛʃən] n.(经济的)衰退;衰退期

crunch [krʌntʃ] n. 艰难局面;短缺

spring ahead 意思是春天进入夏时制,把表调快

observe [əbˋzɝv] v. 遵守,奉行

one of a kind 独一无二的

installation [͵ɪnstəˋleʃən] n. 装置,设备

Bucharest [ˋbukə͵rɛst] n. 布加勒斯特(罗马尼亚首都)


 

 

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