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Military Drills Around An Island; Unprecedented Second Blackout in Cuba; High Tech Upgrade to a Beloved Classic Car From the 1960s.

 

COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: What`s up, Sunshine? I`m Coy Wire. This is CNN 10. And you know what day it is. It is Your Word Wednesday, so listen up to see

 

if one of your vocabulary submissions helped us write today`s show.

 

Let`s get to it. We start with increasing turmoil for one of the United States` key partners, Taiwan. Taiwan`s President Lai Ching-te visited the

 

island`s coast guard in a show of support as tensions with China continue to rise. It was in response to large-scale military drills China held last

 

week in the Taiwan Strait, a narrow body of water that surrounds Taiwan and separates it from mainland China.

 

China`s military exercises lasted over a day, involving fighter jets, drones, warships, and coast guard vessels that simulated a blockade of the

 

self-governing island. Analysts say China`s general strategy is to both keep Taiwan under pressure and normalize regular war games.

 

And China`s military exercises around Taiwan, which have increased in recent years, could be a way of monitoring Taiwan`s responses while straining

 

strain [stren] v.（使）紧张，（使）承受压力

 

their military resources, like an aging fleet of fighter jets. The ruling Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan as part of its territory,

 

even though it`s never controlled it, and for a long time has vowed that the island must be unified with the Chinese mainland, including by force if necessary.

 

vow [vaʊ] v. 发誓

 

Authorities in Taiwan, a democracy of 24 million people, strongly reject China`s territorial claims over it, and condemned the drills as an

 

unreasonable provocation by Beijing, China`s capital.

 

provocation [͵prɑvəˋkeʃən] n. 挑衅；挑拨

 

The United States has a robust unofficial relationship with Taiwan, as it is a leading democracy and a technological powerhouse with whom the U.S.

 

shares deep commercial and economic links. CNN`s Will Ripley has more on what Taiwan`s president pledges to do in response to China`s latest maneuvers.

 

maneuver [məˋnuvɚ] n.【军】军事演习

 

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

 

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On Friday, the president of Taiwan, Lai Ching-te, paid a visit to the island`s Coast

 

Guard, where he thanked them for their service, and pledged to build 11 new Coast Guard vessels over the next seven years, significantly beefing up the

 

beef up 增强，加强

 

island`s Coast Guard defense at a time that Taipei is sounding the alarm about China`s Coast Guard, and the key role it played in the Joint Sword-

 

2024B drills that simulated a Taiwan blockade earlier this week.

 

This was the first full encirclement of Taiwan by China`s Coast Guard, Taipei says, including using a 12,000-ton vessel, one of 17 vessels that

 

encirclement [ɪnˋsɝk!mənt] n. 环绕；包围；绕行

 

Taipei says it detected around its territorial waters during the drills. They also say China`s Coast Guard intruded into restricted waters near

 

intrude [ɪnˋtrud] v. 侵入；闯入

 

Taiwan`s outlying Matsu Islands.

 

outlying [ˋaʊt͵laɪɪŋ] adj. 远离市中心的; 偏远的

 

Now, this is not the first time this year that China`s Coast Guard has been accused by Taipei of playing an increasingly large role in intimidating the

 

island. It was back in February when China`s Coast Guard actually boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat, checked everyone`s ID and detained them, giving

 

people quite a scare and sparking an online frenzy here about the role of China`s Coast Guard, something that Taipei has long referred to as a gray

 

zone tactic, non-military but nonetheless coercive and intimidating force sanctioned by Beijing.

 

coercive [koˋɝsɪv] adj. 强制的；高压的

 

In addition to the Coast Guard activities near Taiwan, they posted a propaganda image showing the track of the vessels that encircled this self-

 

governing democracy that appeared to be in the shape of a heart. In fact, Chinese propaganda even referred to Taiwan as sweetheart, seen as creepy by

 

creepy [ˋkripɪ] adj. 令人毛骨悚然的；不寒而栗的

 

some locals.

 

It`s not just happening in Taiwan. There have also been confrontations between China`s Coast Guard and other Coast Guards, particularly in the

 

Philippines, over disputed shoals there.

 

shoal [ʃol] n. 浅滩；沙洲

 

(END VIDEOTAPE)

 

WIRE: Did you know that the broadest tree in the world is about the size of four football fields? This is not a forest. This is the world`s broadest

 

tree, the Great Banyan, located in a botanical garden near Kolkata, India. It takes up about five acres of land and it`s believed to be more than 250

 

banyan [ˋbænjən] n.【植】榕树

 

years old. Great Banyan trees have a unique root system, aerial roots. They drop down from branches to the ground, becoming trunk-like, allowing the

 

aerial root【植】气生根（生长在空气中的根，如榕树的气生根）

 

tree to continuously walk, if you will, growing wider and wider.

 

We head now to Cuba, where people are still reeling after having to deal with nationwide blackouts, then the arrival of Category 1 hurricane Oscar

 

this week. Cuba`s aging power grid collapsed multiple times before Oscar made landfall, hindering preparations for the storm. Strong winds, heavy

 

rains, and dangerous flooding took the lives of six people.

 

CNN`s Patrick Oppmann is on the ground in Havana with an update on how people are coping after days without electricity.

 

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

 

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Near empty streets in Havana, devoid of light and life. On the third night of an

 

devoid [dɪˋvɔɪd] adj. 缺乏的；没有的[F][（+of）]

 

island-wide blackout in Cuba, residents of this neighborhood play dominoes to pass the time and distract them from the worsening situation.

 

dominoes [ˋdɑmə͵noz] n. 骨牌游戏

 

Children are sleeping in the street, she says, because there`s no food, no water, no electricity in this country.

 

Tensions are running high as Cubans increasingly are taking to the streets to beat pots and pans and protest the government`s failure to keep the

 

lights on for more than a few hours.

 

(On camera): Already four times the Cuban government has been in the process of restoring power and had it all come crashing down and a complete

 

loss of power on this island. So that is what worries people, is that the longer this goes on, we already know that school is going to be canceled

 

here for several days. Life really can`t return to normal until the power gets on.

 

(Voice-over): The Cuban government blames U.S. economic sanctions for the crisis, but has made little investment in the aging jerry-rigged power grid

 

jerry-rigged [ˈdʒɛrɪrɪɡd] adj. made, put together, or repaired quickly or not well, using what you have available

rig [rɪg] v.【口】草草作成，临时赶造

 

that has been fading for years. Officials say more than 52,000 workers are on the job 24-7 trying to restore power and that they understand the

 

fade [fed] v. 凋谢，枯萎

 

growing anger.

 

Without electricity, there`s no water, he says, no medicine production, no food distribution. Electricity affects everything and it frustrates everyone.

 

In 2021, power outages sparked the largest ever protests against Cuba`s communist-run government. Hundreds of people were arrested and given

 

lengthy prison sentences following mass trials.

 

trial [ˋtraɪəl] n. 审问，审判

 

Cuba`s president on Sunday warned people not to take to the streets. We are not going to allow acts of vandalism and much less alter the tranquility of

 

vandalism [ˋvændlɪzəm] n. 故意破坏公物（或文化、艺术）的行为

much less 更不用说

tranquility [træŋˋkwɪlətɪ] n. 平静；安静；稳定

 

our people, he says. That`s a conviction, a principle of our revolution. A stern warning, but one that likely falls on deaf ears for the millions of

 

conviction [kənˋvɪkʃən] n. 信念

stern [stɝn] adj. 严格的，严厉的；严峻的；苛刻的；坚定的，不动摇的

fall on deaf ears（建议或警告）未被理睬，被置若罔闻

 

Cubans still in the dark.

 

(END VIDEOTAPE)

 

WIRE: Pop quiz hot shot, what was the first car maker to put seatbelts in its cars?

 

Volkswagen, Ford, Volvo or Toyota?

 

Your answer here is Volvo, which first used the familiar three-point seatbelt in 1959. The first law requiring seatbelts in U.S. cars wasn`t

 

passed until 1968.

 

Today`s story getting a 10 out of 10, talk about a throwback to the future, a Volkswagen that became an ebullient symbol for peace and love and flower child

 

throwback [ˋθro͵bæk] n. 返回；复古；回归

ebullient [ɪˋbʊljənt] adj.（感情等的）奔放的；兴高采烈的；沸腾的

flower child（六、七十年代西方出現的主張和平、愛情的）佩花嬉皮士

 

counterculture in the 1960s and 70s got a major glow up. In kilowatts, that is, it`s now all electric. For decades, it`s been called

 

counterculture [ˋkaʊntɚˋkʌltʃɚ] n. 反文化

 

everything from a bus to a microbus, a van, a tin can. But now it`s making his debut as the ID. Buzz.

 

microbus [ˋmaɪkrə͵bʌs] n. 小型巴士

 

CNN`s Peter Valdes-Dapena takes us for a ride.

 

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

 

PETER VALDES-DAPENA, CNN SENIOR WRITER: This is the Volkswagen ID. Buzz, a new all electric take on a classic. The Volkswagen microbus. With 60 years

 

of progress, this is a big improvement over the old bus.

 

And I should know, I spent time riding around in one when I was a little kid.

 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that`s you.

 

VALDES-DAPENA: I had a big family. We needed a lot of space, so we had a bus.

 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you would break, all the water would run forward and go right down the back of your neck when you were driving.

 

VALDES-DAPENA: I thought it`d be cool to take this new van to visit some of my brothers that had more time in the driver`s seat in the classic.

 

Why do I have to sit in the back seat?

 

VALDES-DAPENA: Volkswagen`s been trying forever to break through in the U.S. market again, the way it did back in the day with the Beetle. Nobody

 

else has the microbus in its history. So Volkswagen`s hoping that emotional attachment is going to bring them a lot of new buyers.

 

attachment [əˋtætʃmənt] n. 情感，爱慕；忠诚

 

Cruising about 70 miles an hour, going down the interstate, complete silence. All I can hear is the wind. Big difference from the old version

 

with an air-cooled four-cylinder engine out back.

 

air-cooled [ˋɛr͵kuld] adj. 用空气冷却（引擎等）的，气冷的

out back: outside at the back of a given house or building (or car)

 

My only real pet peeve with it is too much reliance on screens for some of the controls. But honestly, that`s true of a lot of new electric vehicles

 

pet peeve 最讨厌的事；痛处

peeve [piv] n. 气恼；使人气恼的事

 

these days.

 

I have to warn you, the ID. Buzz might be cute, but it`s not going to come cheap. One equipped like this is going to be more like $65,000.

 

(END VIDEOTAPE)

 

WIRE: As always, you all had some truly exemplary submissions for Your Word Wednesday. Today`s winner is Ms. Johnson`s class at Kodiak High School in

 

exemplary [ɪgˋzɛmplərɪ] adj. 可作楷模的

 

Kodiak, Alaska, for ebullient, an adjective meaning having liveliness and enthusiasm. Well done. And thank you for making us smarter today.

 

liveliness [ˋlaɪvlɪnɪs] n. 充满活力；活泼；轻快

 

Our shout out today goes to Eureka, Missouri and all the Wildcats at Eureka High School. Rise up.

 

Have an awesome day, everyone. I`ll see you right back here tomorrow on CNN 10.

 

END