News story | Words | Meanings |
Officers received training biased against the United States at a prestigious Pakistan army institution, according to Wikileaks, underscoring concern that anti-Americanism in the country's powerful military is growing amid strains with Washington. A U.S. diplomatic cable said the former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, found officers at the National Defence University (NDU) were "naive and biased" against the United States . . . Fears the military could be harbouring militant sympathisers have grown since U.S. forces found and killed Osama bin Laden this month in a Pakistani garrison town, where the al Qaeda leader had probably lived for several years. Anti-Americanism runs high among many of Pakistan's mainly Muslim people but it has deepened after bin Laden's killing in a secret U.S. raid which many Pakistanis see as breach of sovereignty. Many Pakistanis believe the United States and India would like to confiscate their nuclear weapons. | biased | prejudiced |
prestigious | esteemed; admired and respected | |
underscoring | emphasizing; drawing attention to; underlining | |
strains | tensions | |
a diplomatic cable | a message sent by telegraph; a telegram sent abroad | |
naive | deficient in worldly wisdom; naive people lack experience of life and tend to trust other people and believe things too easily | |
harbouring | protecting; giving shelter to | |
garrison | troops (stationed in a town) | |
runs | if a feeling runs through you, you experience it or feel it strongly | |
deepened | become stronger; become worse | |
breach | violation; infringement | |
sovereignty | authority; complete power to govern a country; the power of a country to control its own government | |
confiscate | take or seize; take possession of |
Model sentences and idiomatic expressions with “prestigious”:
• Forget their prestigious past.
• a prestigious award
• a prestigious university
• the city's most prestigious and exclusive hotel
• a prestigious literary award
• a highly prestigious university
Exercise
Fill in the blanks with the following words:
1. harbouring 2. sovereignty 3. biased 4. confiscate 5. deepened
1. The newspapers gave a very . . . . . report of the meeting.
2. Talks are being held about who should have . . . . . over the island.
3. The teacher threatened to . . . . . their phones if they kept using them in class.
4. Their friendship soon . . . . . into love.
5. Police believe someone must be . . . . . the killer.
Answer key: 1. biased 2. sovereignty 3. confiscate 4. deepened 5. harbouring
Assalam u Alaikum Sir,
ReplyDeleteit is very interesting activity, i like it much. This activity must be continued in future. But i request you as beginner to learn English that it should be started with easiest way. I think the news vocabulary is very difficult for us. So the beginning, there should be enjoyable short story or historical event or adviser phrase. Thanks a lot.