EZCNN 易英网

 
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hi I`m Carl Azuz. And I`m happy to welcome you to CNN 10. Our first story of the week centers on what could be called a

high stakes and dangerous game of chicken played out by warships in the Arabian Sea. It involves the United States and Russia but if you ask who`s
 

game of chicken 胆小鬼赛局

responsible you`ll get two very different answers. Last week the U.S. Navy said one of its destroyers was aggressively approached by a Russian ship.
 

destroyer [dɪˋstrɔɪɚ] n. 驱逐舰

American defense officials say this video show the Russian vessel coming as close as 180 feet from the American one before changing course. The U.S.

Navy says it sounded the International Maritime signal for collision danger and asked the Russian ship to change its course but that because it delayed

following the rules the Russian ship increased the chances of a collision before eventually turning away.

Russia disagrees with that summary. It says the American warship broke international rules by making a move that crossed the Russian ship`s course

and that it was the Russian ship that prevented the collision by maneuvering away. Something like this between the same two countries also

happened last June.

That incident was in the Pacific Ocean. The two warships involved came so close that the U.S. had to make an emergency move to avoid a collision but

then as now Russian media said it was their country`s ship that suddenly changed direction to avoid hitting the American one.

There have been a number of military incidents that American officials have called unsafe or provocative. A reporter from National Public Radio

described them as cat and mouse games between the U.S. and Russia that were common during the Cold War. The latest near miss in the Arabian Sea came
 

near miss 侥幸脱险

in a body of water where`s there`s a lot of maritime traffic and where a large amount of the world`s crude oil passes through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The United States military is the world`s dominant fighting force. It`s annual spending is the highest in the world $649

billion in 2018. That is the equivalent of the next eight countries combined and two and a half times that of China the next closest country.

The U.S. and Russia have the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons. They amount to 93 percent of all the nuclear warheads in the world and despite
 

arsenal [ˋɑrsnəl] n.（任何事物的）聚集，堆积[（+of）]

warhead [ˋwɔr͵hɛd] n.（飞弹等的）弹头

limiting and reducing those warheads following the Cold War, today each country has some 4,000 nuclear warheads.

In terms of military weaponry, the U.S. has more than 13,000 aircraft, more than 6000 tanks and almost 40,000 armored fighting vehicles. The United

States has dozens of submarines that can stay submerged for extended periods of time and fire ballistic or cruise missiles at targets on land

and sea across the globe.

The U.S. has 11 active aircraft carriers and nine amphibious assault ships which are essentially smaller aircraft carriers. With approximately 1.3
 

amphibious assault ship 两栖突击舰

million active duty troops in the Armed Forces and another 803,000 in reserve, the U.S. has military personnel on all seven continents in more

than 160 countries across 4,800 defense sights.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All over the world, the United States Army is on the alert.
 

on the alert 警戒着；随时准备着

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In terms of size, the U.S. is actually not the largest both China and India have larger numbers of active military personnel.

While North Korea is much smaller than the U.S. in geographic size, it comes in just behind the U.S., Russia in fifth place with about 800,000

active military personnel. What distinguishes the U.S. is it has forces deployed farther and wider across the globe than any other country in the

world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Leonids, Perseids, and Quadrantids are all the names of what? Constellations, Combinatorics, Animal orders or meteor
 

Leonid [ˋliənɪdɪz] n. 狮子座流星群

Perseids [ˈpɝsiɪdz ] n. 英仙座流星群

Quadrantids [kwɑˈdræntɪdz] n. 象限仪座流星群

Combinatorics [͵kɑmbənəˋtɔrɪks] n.（用作单数）组合数学

showers? These are meteor showers that occur in different parts of the year.

The Quadrantid meteor shower is typically visible in late January though the first one of 2020 hit its peak on January 4th. For observers on Earth

who happen to catch it at the right time it looked like this, a series of shooting stars. But for an observer in space it looked more like this.

There`s a lot going on in this picture.

It`s a composite shot that was made from multiple images taken at the International Space Station. The green arc you see near the top are the
 

composite [kəmˋpɑzɪt] adj. 合成的，复合的，混成的

northern lights. Below and to the right of your screen center are likely those of large cities and if you look closely to the left of center you`ll

what looked like short light colored streaks. Those are the meteors not to be confused with meteoroids or meteorites.
 

meteor [ˋmitɪɚ] n.【天】流星；陨星

meteoroid [ˋmitɪər͵ɔɪd] n. 流星体

meteorite [ˋmitɪər͵aɪt] n. 隕石

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get questions here all the time about comets, asteroids, meteors, meteorites. What`s the difference? Well let`s start
 

comet [ˋkɑmɪt] n.【天】彗星

asteroid [ˋæstə͵rɔɪd] n.【天】小行星

in space and work our way all the way down to the surface. A comet is a snowball. It`s a piece of ice. Now the ice is mainly frozen gas, not

water but there could be dust and rocks and things inside the comet.

Haley`s Comet, now NASA knows of about 3,600 other comets than that one out there. Closer in, in the asteroid belt, these are rocks not gas. They

could be metal as well but they are hard surfaces and sometimes they come out of the asteroid belt, get closer to the surface of the Earth or at

least our atmosphere.

If one or a piece of a smaller one called a meteoroid hits the surface of the atmosphere it turns into a meteor. It gets bright because it hits our

atmosphere and begins to burn up. If it doesn`t make its way all the way down to the surface it turns into a shooting star. Now if it does make its

way all the way down to the surface of the Earth and hits the ground and you can pick it up. That is a meteorite.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: The term artificial human might sound like an insult, like that dude at the track meet who wouldn`t talk to you. But it means something very

different at CES, the world`s largest technology show. This year’s event just wrapped up last week in Nevada.

Fifth generation wireless technology, folding smartphones, self-driving cars were all part of it. So was artificial intelligence and while the

virtual humans on display still have a long way to go before they`re ready for prime time. It`s easy to see why they`re getting a lot of attention.
 

prime time（广播电视）黄金时间

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, I am Neon. I am an artificial human. I’m still learning about how human talk.. behave, and move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have smiles (ph) or perhaps surprised.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what is a Neon?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s a new kind of virtual being that looks hundred percent real. Behaves like a human but we just computer-generated. Is Neon an AI

system? No. Neon is more like an assistant that you talk to, is your friend that you build memory with. (ph)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what are the use cases for something like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Use cases? It can be your next financial advisor. A Neon can be a hotel receptionist. He or she can be simply a friend.
 

receptionist [rɪˋsɛpʃənɪst] n. 接待员；传达员

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what does that mean for jobs then?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Neon is not created to replace the human jobs. Neons are created to help where humans cannot reach, the language barriers.

A Neon can be a doctor. Many more places that a doctor cannot reach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I`ll ask her to say a few phrases in different languages. Maybe something like this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, welcome to CES.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now Neon doesn`t have any intelligence per se. They are behaving intelligent but they do not have a concept of the
 

per se【拉】就其本身而言（= in or by itself）

learning or memory. Spectra will bring the function of learning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can AI be dangerous?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s always goods and bads of many technologies how we use that. We do it today or someone else do it tomorrow. If we do

it today, we want to ensure that from the ground up, from the architecture level, from the design that they will not misuse. (ph)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: For 10 out of 10 today it seems two pandas was one two many at this nature reserve in China. So Xau Xing (ph) and Lu Lu decided to settle

their differences in an epic panda battle. OK. Fake news. These are pandas at a Chinese nature reserve but they`re just playing and wrestling

and generally having an awesome time in the first snowfall to hit their area.

Seems people aren`t the only beings to want to play in the snow. When two bears test their panda might, no critic would do "panda fight". They hit

like Rocky, strike like Rambo. Battles raging over "bamboo" in the trees or in the snow they wrestle in the "pandering" show. So who is wrong and

who is right with panda bears it`s black and white.

Thank you for watching. Today`s shout out is for Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School. It`s in New York City, New York. It`s great to have

you commenting on our official You Tube site. That`s YouTube.com/CNN10. Our staff will be searching comments under today`s You Tube show for

tomorrow`s shout out. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN.

END