| | Words in the News |
INTRO | | President Bush has written to the wife of the Chinese pilot who, it is believed, died in collision with an American spy plane over a week ago. The White House has described the move as a humanitarian gesture. It came as senior officials in administration warned of harm to US-China relations if the stand off over the spy plane continues. From Washington, Jon Leyne reports. |
IN FULL | |  | Listen to the report in full |
 |  | 9th April 2001 American spy plane: Bush writes |
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NEWS 1 | | | Listen to the part one of the report |
| | | President Bush wrote in response to a bitterly critical letter from the wife of the Chinese pilot. The pilot's wife accused the President of cowardice for his refusal to apologise for the incident. The White House has not released details of the President's reply beyond saying it is a humanitarian gesture. So it's not clear whether it has any significance in the intense diplomacy that is continuing behind the scenes. |
| | | Listen to the words |
WORDS | | bitterly critical: the letter expressed intensely severe judgements against President Bush
cowardice: cowardly behaviour- someone who is cowardly is easily frightened and avoids doing dangerous things
White House: the official residence of the President of the United States humanitarian: if a person has humanitarian attitudes, they try to avoid making people suffer
significance: the significance of something is its importance or special meaning
intense diplomacy: diplomacy is the management of relations between countries: here, a lot of discussions are happening between China and the United States |
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| NEWS 2 | | | Listen to the second part of the report |
| | | Mr. Schroeder said diplomatically that they would work on other issues around global warming, such as encouraging renewable resources. But he did not hide their disagreement over Kyoto. President Bush has ordered a review of alternatives. In the meantime, though, there is a policy vacuum. This does not seem to worry him. Kyoto joins a growing list of policies in which the administration defines its interests and then accepts arguments, but no real change. |
| | | Listen to the words |
| WORDS | | conciliation: conciliation is the process of ending a disagreement
drag on: if something drags on, it takes longer than seems necessary service personnel: members of the armed services
advanced: 'advanced' implies a high level of technology weaponry: weaponry is all the weapons that a country has available to it bitterly opposed: China would strongly disagree with this |
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| Read about the background in BBC News Online |
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