From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Nicole Lapin. Here's your Now in the News update.

Twelve people were killed, thirty-one more wounded in a (1)mass shooting at Fort Hood. The army says one of the gunmen involved in the shooting, (2)Major Nidal Malik Hasan, is among the twelve people who died.? Two other suspects are in custody. The army says there are also soldiers based at Fort Hood.

New York's former police commissioner (3)pleaded guilty today to lying to the Bush White House and lying about his taxes. Bernard Kerik was the commissioner of New York when it was attacked on Sep. 11. He eventually was nominated for the Homeland Security secretary position in 2004. It was during that (4)vetting process that he apparently lied to the White House. He's facing about 2.5 years (5)behind bars.

And the House will begin debating the Democrat's health care proposal on Saturday. The (6)AARP is (7)endorsing the plan which includes a government-run insurance program. President Obama will be on Capital Hill tomorrow to lobby for the bill. There will be two more Democrats in the House when health care comes up for a vote, the winners of Tuesday's special elections in New York and in California.

People who are obese may have a greater risk of getting certain types of cancer. The American Institute for Cancer Research says more than 100,000 new cases of cancer are linked to body weight including a breast cancer and colon cancer. Experts say that people can lower their risk by losing weight and increasing physical activity and just eating healthier.

Those are the headlines of this hour. For more on those stories and other news for the day, CNN is always your source, online or on TV.

【重點詞匯】

(1)mass shooting: 我們知道m(xù)ass這個詞通常代表數(shù)量上的多，這里的mass shooting其中既有死傷人數(shù)多的意思，也有這次槍擊事件性質(zhì)惡劣的意思。比如mass murderer，這個murderer是犯案累累、多起命案在身的殺人犯。那在mass這個詞的基礎(chǔ)上，我們還衍生出另一個詞massacre，mass表示人數(shù)多，acre可以想象成地域廣。

(2)Major這個詞作名詞可以解釋為英國和美國軍隊里的一個軍銜，即‘少?！?。

(3)plead guilty或是plead not guilty或是plead innocent，要注意的是這三個詞組的后面要接to+名詞/動名詞，比如plead guilty to burglary, 所以這里新聞里面是pleaded guilty to lying。其次，這個plead的過去式有兩種形式pleaded和pled都可以。

(4)vet作名詞時作‘獸醫(yī)’解，但是作為動詞時，它解釋為to check someone's past activities, relationships etc in order to make sure that person is suitable for a particular job, especially an important one (審查一個人的過往以及人際關(guān)系等等，以確定該人是否適合這份工作，尤其是一份很重要的工作)

(5)behind bars很形象哦，待在一根根欄桿后面，就好像是坐牢一樣，所以這個詞組就是in prison的意思。

(6)AARP的全稱是American Association of Retired Persons 美國退休者協(xié)會

(7)這里的endorse和lobby都是比較正式的詞匯，像endorse表示‘公開的正式的支持’，就是一個很正式的詞。而lobby的意思是游說，我們知道lobby本來的意思是‘前廳，大廳’，因為西方政府會議休息的時候，官員們會聚在外面的大廳里相互游說，慢慢地lobby這個詞就有了這層含義。

?