BBC news 2011-05-20 加文本

短语讲解：

1. President Obama has outlined US policy towards the Middle East in the wake of the momentous events in the region in the past few months.

in the wake of尾随,紧跟,仿效
例句：Traders came in the wake of the explorers.
商人紧跟着探险者而至。

2. He spoke of peoples who'd risen up and brought about change through non-violence.

rise up起义；反抗；叛变
例句：At last the people rose up in arms and defeated the cruel rulers.
人民终于武装起义推翻了残暴的统治者。
bring about造成, 引起〔导致〕(某事)
例句：A trivial thing may sometimes bring about undesirable consequences.
一个微不足道的事物有时也会引起人们不愿意见到的后果。

3. There must be no doubt that the United States of America welcomes change that advances self-determination and opportunity.

There is no doubt that毫无疑问
例句：There is no doubt that he was in a highly excitable condition just now.
毫无疑问, 他刚才处于极度兴奋状态之中。

4. There were pledges of significant international economic support for countries undergoing democratic change, notably Egypt and Tunisia, and a stern warning to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, similar in language and tone to the one delivered to Egypt's Hosni Mubarak just before the White House cut him adrift.

cut adrift使分开,独立谋生
例句：We had to cut the boat adrift. 
我们只好让小船自行漂流。 

5. President Obama devoted a significant portion of his speech to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

devote to将…奉献给, 致力于
例句：The newspaper devotes two pages to comics.
报纸用两页版面来刊登漫画。

6. Ultimately, as the president said, it is up to both sides themselves to restart peace talks, perhaps beginning with drawing up the size and shape of a future Palestinian state, with more difficult issues, like the future of Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees, to be tackled later.

be up to取决于
例句：This is up to you.
这件事取决于你。
draw up草拟, 拟订
例句：A new will has been drawn up.
新的遗嘱已拟好了。

7. The Federal Bureau of Investigation says it's investigating whether the convicted murderer Theodore Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, was involved in a series of poisonings involving Tylenol painkillers in Chicago 30 years ago.

be involved in卷入，陷入
例句：He is involved in the scandal.
他卷进了那个丑闻。
a series of一系列
例句：The reporter asked a series of questions.
那个记者提了一系列的问题。

8. The Tylenol poisonings killed seven people in 1982 when packets of the medicine had potassium cyanide added to them.

add to增加
例句：The office looked exactly the same as before, only some charts were added to the wall.
办公室里还是那个老样子, 只是墙上多了一些图表。

9. He told the BBC he'd forgotten he was addressing a worldwide audience rather than joking among friends who knew his sense of humour and was sorry.

rather than而不是
例句：They aim at quality rather than quantity.
他们的目的在于提高质量而不是增加数量。
sense of humour幽默感

10. Being better at fighting might have provided an evolutionary advantage, meaning that tall men would have children with the best chance of surviving and passing on genes.

pass on传递; 传授
例句：The story is passed on from generation to generation in the village.
这故事在村民中世代相传。