2016年12月大学英语四级新闻听力练习(16)
自2016年6月英语四级考试起，四级听力新添加了短篇新闻。相对的，听力的难度也有所增加。但是再难的题目也禁不住多多的练习！文都教育提醒各位考生，要打起精神来迎战12月四六级考试，万不可轻敌松懈~唯有地基牢固才有摩天大楼，以下是小编为各位考生们准备的四级新闻听力练习，各位赶紧get起来吧!听力材料：
The US attorney general has signalled a major shift in prison policy by announcing a reductionin the use of mandatory sentencing for some drugs-related offences. Eric Holder said thatcertain low-level nonviolent drug offenders with no ties to organised crime will no longer becharged with offences that impose what he termed draconian and mandatory minimumsentences. Jane Little reports from Washington.
The US has 5% of the world’s population, but almost 25% of its prison population. Almosthalf of its inmates are serving time for drug-related offences, a legacy of the five decades’ longwar on drugs. The Attorney General Eric Holder said it was time to end that broken system, onehe said trapped too many communities in a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality andincarceration.
Gunmen in Nigeria have killed at least 44 people at a mosque in the north-east of the country.Will Ross in Lagos has the details.
An official from Borno state said the gunmen opened fire on a mosque in Konduga town duringdawn prayers. Sunday’s attack left at least 44 people dead and is likely to have been carried outby the Islamist militant group Boko Haram. Whilst attacks on churches have been common, themilitant group has also occasionally targeted mosques. In recent weeks, hundreds of civilianshave formed vigilante groups in the areas worst affected by the insurgency. It’s possible thatthe gunmen attacked the mosque in the belief that some of the vigilantes were praying there.
A court in the United States has convicted one of the country’s most notorious underworldbosses James "Whitey" Bulger of 11 murders and a string of other gang-led crimes. The juryin Boston dismissed eight other counts of murder. The crimes date from the 1970s and 1980swhen the now 83-year-old Bulger led the city’s Winter Hill Gang. From Washington, David Willishas more.
For almost three decades, James “Whitey” Bulger ran a sprawling criminal enterprise whichraked in millions of dollars from activities such as drug trafficking and extortion whilst paying offcorrupt FBI agents and killing those who crossed him. His trial rekindled memories of abygone era of Boston history in which mobsters shook down local business owners and killedtheir rivals in telephone booths before burying their bodies in shallow graves.
A federal judge in the United States has ruled that the controversial “stop and search” policyused by the New York police department violates the constitutional rights of minorities. JudgeShira Scheindlin said city officials knew of the infringements, but turned a blind eye. She’sordered reforms and appointed an independent monitor to oversee them. Police have madeabout five million stops over the past ten years, mostly of black and Hispanic men. MayorMichael Bloomberg has argued that the policy has seen a sharp fall in violent crime.
World News from the BBC
A suicide bomber has killed at least 13 people in the town of Balad in central Iraq. Many otherswere injured in the attack that targeted a café where people were gathering in the early evening.Balad is a largely Shia town. Iraq has seen a sharp increase in sectarian violence this year. OnSaturday, more than 70 people were killed in a series of attacks.
The Mexican President Enrique Pe?a Nieto has proposed changing the country’s constitution toallow foreign private oil and gas companies to form partnerships with the state in the energysector for the first time in decades. From Mexico City, here’s Will Grant.
In a sign of just how far-reaching and controversial these proposed changes to Mexico’sstate-run energy sector are, President Enrique Pe?a Nieto was flanked on stage by topdignitaries from government, the oil industry unions and the military. He’s calling for thechange to articles 27 and 28 of the constitution, which state that all of the country’s naturalresources are the property of the Mexican state. The reform won’t be simple to get throughcongress, however. The left-wing parties have made it clear they oppose any change to theconstitution and the government faces a complicated task in negotiating with all sidesincluding the powerful unions.
The Bangladeshi government has approved a draft law proposing tough penalties forrecruitment agencies found guilty of duping workers with promises of lucrative jobs (only)overseas, only to leave them in low-income jobs with improper work permits. The proposedlaw would mean a maximum of ten years in prison and around $6,000 fine for anyone convictedof cheating or forging documents of migrant workers.
Human rights activists are asking the government of Ecuador to revoke a presidential decreewhich they say threatens civil liberties. The bill signed in June by President Rafael Correa createsnew procedures for granting approval to non-governmental organisations and allows thegovernment to dissolve groups under certain circumstances.
BBC News
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【参考译文】
美国总检察长宣布减少对毒品相关犯罪的强制性判决，这标志着监狱政策的重大改变。埃里克·霍尔德称一些与有组织犯罪无关的低水平非暴力毒品犯罪者不再被施以以严苛和强制性的最低刑期。Jane Little在华盛顿报道。
美国人口占全世界的5%，但其囚犯人数占全世界的近25%。几乎一半的囚犯因毒品相关犯罪而服刑，这是五十年毒品战的结果。总检察长埃里克·霍尔德称是结束破败系统的时候了，他说该系统使得太多社区陷入贫困、犯罪和监禁的恶性循环。
在尼日利亚东北部一座清真寺，武装分子杀死至少44人。威尔·罗斯报道。
博尔诺州一名官员称在Konduga镇，武装分子晨祷时向一座清真寺开枪。周日的袭击导致至少44人丧生，其实施者可能是伊斯兰武装组织博科圣地。对教堂的袭击司空见惯，武装组织有时也会不时袭击清真寺。最近几周来，在最受叛乱影响的地区，数百名平民组建治安维护队。武装分子之所以袭击这座清真寺，很可能是因为认为一些治安维护人员在里面做祈祷。
美国法院判定该国最臭名昭著的黑社会头目之一詹姆斯·巴尔杰犯下11宗谋杀罪和多起帮派犯罪。波士顿陪审团驳回了其他8宗谋杀罪责，这些犯罪行为可追溯到20世纪70到80年代，当时这位现年83岁的人物是该市冬天小山帮的头目。戴维德·威利斯报道。
近三十年以来，詹姆斯·巴尔杰运作着一家庞大的犯罪企业，敛聚了数百万美元，其从事的活动包括，毒品走私、敲诈、收买腐败的FBI探员、杀死惹恼自己的人。对他的审判使人们想起波士顿的一段过往的历史，当时暴徒打击当地企业主，在电话亭杀死对手，然后将之埋葬到浅坟墓里。
美国联邦法官判定，纽约警察部门使用的有争议的“截停搜身”政策违反了宪法规定的少数民族权利。法官希德林说，该市官员知道这是侵权行为，但却睁一只眼闭一只眼。她已下令进行改革，并任命一名独立监督人进行监视。警方过去10年来已经拦截了500万次，大多数被拦截者是黑人和拉美裔男子。市长迈克尔·布隆伯格辩解称该政策使得暴力犯罪骤减。
这里是BBC新闻报道。
伊拉克中部城镇巴拉德发生自杀式爆炸案，至少13人丧生。另有多人受伤，袭击发生在傍晚一处咖啡馆，当时人们正聚集在那里。巴拉德主要是什叶派社区。今年伊拉克的宗派暴力骤增，周六，70多人在系列袭击中丧生。
墨西哥总统培尼亚·涅托提议修改本国宪法，允许外国私人石油和燃气公司与国有能源部门建立伙伴关系，这是该国几十年的第一次。威尔·格兰特在墨西哥市报道。
台上，总统培尼亚·涅托左右两侧站立着来自政府、石油行业工会和军队的高级要人，这表明了提议对墨西哥国有能源部门进行改革的深远意义和争议度。总统呼吁修改宪法第27和28条，这两条规定该国全部自然资源都是墨西哥政府的财产。然而这项改革不会在议会得到通过，左翼政党明确表示反对对宪法进行任何修改，政府面临着与包括强大的工会在内的各方协商的复杂任务。
孟加拉国政府批准一项草拟法律，内容是对那些以海外高薪工作为承诺欺骗工人的招聘机构除以严厉惩罚，这些受骗者往往只获得低薪工作，其工作许可证也不正当。这项法律意味着，任何因欺骗移民工或伪造虚假文件的人员将被判处至少10年徒刑，并除以6000美元的罚款。
人权活动人士请求厄瓜多尔政府撤销一条总统法令，他们称该法令威胁到公民自由。该法案于六个月由总统拉斐尔·科雷亚签署通过，创造了批准非政府组织的新程序，并允许政府在一定条件下解散组织。
BBC新闻报道。
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