BBC news 2009-09-22 加文本

1.Mr. Zelaya said he wanted dialogue rather than confrontation with the government that replaced him and with the army.

rather than而不，不

例句：Dozens of MPs had sloped home, rather than vote.
       下院的几十名议员不投票回家了。

2.A White House spokesman has said President Obama has not yet received a request for more troops in Afghanistan and doesn’t expect to for a while because the situation there is still being assessed.

for a while=for the time being不久,短时间,暂时

例句：They decided to play along with the roBBers for a while.
      他们决定暂时与强盗合作。

3.But he’s also made clear in stark terms that he feels he needs more troops and quickly.

make clear清楚表明,阐明,说明

例句：The UN Security Council has yet to make its position clear.
      联合国安理会还没有清楚地阐述自己的立场。

4. The head of the Election Complaints Commission said that would speed up the process and still give an accurate representation of the vote.

speed up加速,加快

例句：I know a lot of tricks to speed up your house cleaning.
      我知道很多快速清洁房屋的好办法。

5.On the eve of talks between President Obama and the Israeli and the Palestinian leaders, all sides are playing down the chances of a Middle East peace breakthrough.

play down贬低,缩小…的重要性,对…轻描淡写

例句：She tried to play down his part in the affair and play up her own.
      她想贬低他在这件事里起的作用，夸大自己的作用。