U.S. President Barack Obama says the situation in Haiti remains dire, with people in desperate need of shelter, food and medicine after the devastating January 12 earthquake. President Obama said the challenge is to prevent a second disaster in the country. 美國總統奧巴馬說，海地的形勢依然嚴峻，在1月12日的災難性地震之後，人們迫切需要避難場所、食品和醫療服務。奧巴馬說，現在的挑戰是防止海地發生第二次災難。

A United Nations official says Iraq's electoral commission plans to announce preliminary results from parliamentary elections on Thursday.

聯合國的一名官員說，伊拉克選舉委員會計畫星期四宣佈議會選舉的初步結果。

(摘自VOA)

一般考試書會列出同音字 (check,cheque,Czech / knight, night / threw, through... etc.) 或相似音 (breach, branch / sleigh, slight... etc.) 的組合讓考生練習分辨，因為聽力題中常會利用來出題。不過那些都是小 case，開口唸唸口這兩組相似音字組試試看，真的拗口，而且在同一篇文章中就會念到：

desperate[]

devastate[]
disaster[]

preliminary[]
parliamentary[]