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The President of Venezuela warns that if the United States attacks his country or Iran, the price of a barrel of oil could double. Hugo Chávez says if there was an attack, oil could reach 200 dollars a barrel. The remarks came during the opening address of OPEC. That's the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.The 12 member nations are meeting in Saudi Arabia for just a third summit in OPEC's nearly 50-year existence. Afterwards, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia said OPEC has always acted moderately and wisely. Before the meeting got underway, the king greeted leaders including the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. With oil prices at historic high, there is speculation that OPEC will decide to increase production. Cartel officials have said they would likely wait to make a decision until they meet again next month.

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WORDS IN THE NEWS

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online

Merriam-Webster Online

1. OPEC: abbr. 石油输出国组织(欧佩克)

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries。

International organization of eleven developing countries dependent on oil exports as a source of revenues. Members are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. OPEC members supply about 40% of the world's oil output and claim to possess over three quarters of known oil reserves. Twice a year, or more often if required, the Oil and Energy Ministers of the OPEC Members meet to determine production quotas aimed at optimizing world oil prices given supply and demand conditions.

2. cartel: noun. 卡特尔

a group of people or companies who agree to sell something at a particular price in order to prevent competition and increase profits. The best known example of a cartel is probably the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

REPORT

Now, the VOA special English Program Words and Their Stories.

Expressions about water are almost as common as water itself. Bt many of the expressions using water have unpleasant meanings. The expression to be in hot water is one of them. It is a very old expression. Hot water is used five hundred years ago to mean being in trouble. One story says it get that meaning from the custom of flowing boiling water down on enemies attacking a council. That is no longer a custom but we still get in hot water. When we are in hot water we are in trouble. It can be any kind of trouble, serious, and not so serious. A person who breaks a law can be in hot water with the police. A boy can be in hot water with his mother if he comes into house with dirty wet shoes.

Being in deep water is almost the same as being in hot water. When you are in deep water, you are in difficulty. Imagine a swimmer in water over his head who can not reach the shore. You are in deep water when you are facing a problem that you do not have ability to solve. The problem is too deep for you. You can be in deep water, for example, if you invest in stocks without knowing anything about the stock market. To keep you head above water is a colorful expression that means standing out of debt. A company that can keep its head out of water can survive economic hard times.

Water over a dam is an expression about a past event. It is something that is over and done with. It cannot be changed. The expression comes from the idea that water that has fallen over a dam cannot be brought back again. When a friend is trouble by a mistake he is made, you may tell him to forget about it. You say it’s the water over the dam.

Another common expression to hold water is about strength or weakness of idea, opinion, or argument. It probably comes from the way of testing the condition of a container. If it can hold water, it is strong. The expression is used same way to describe an idea or argument. I f the argument can hold water, it is solid and strong without any holes. If it does not hold water, then it is weak and cannot be proved.

Throwing cold water also is an expression that deals with ideas or proposals. It means not to like the idea, for example, you want to buy a new computer so you can do some of your work at home. But your wife throws the cold water on the idea because computer costs too much.

ALL IN 1 MIN

【整理】

And we begin as we always do with the headlines here. And the death toll from a deadly cyclone in Bangladesh has now risen to as many as a thousand. Hundreds of thousands fled their homes. Relief workers are struggling to get help to the victims, but many roads remain blocked. The cyclone, packing winds of 150 miles per hour, caused a 15-foot storm surge that swamped the coastline.

A senior US envoy arrived in Pakistan today ratcheting up the pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to end the nearly two-week of state of emergency there. Hours before he arrived, opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was released from house arrest. She reiterated her call for President Musharraf to step down and she vowed not to reopen talks with him.

Back in this country, the Senate today blocked Democratic proposal to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that included the requirement for troops to start coming home by next December. They also blocked Republican proposal before that. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates says if Congress does not soon approve money for the wars, he will be forced to lay off thousands of defense department employees. Democrats say the Pentagon should have enough funding to last to February.

Civil rights leaders led a march on the Justice Department today, calling for the government to do more to deal with the hate crimes which they say have been on a rise this year. The reverend Al Sharpton said it was time for the government to \"protect us from hangman nooses and swastikas\". The march was inspired by the controversy over the Jena Six, the black teenagers charged in the beating of a white student.

For much more on the headlines today, I certainly hope you join Charlie Gibson later on World News.

ratchet up: to increase something by a small amount, especially after a series of increase