Allied Forces Advance Halfway to Baghdad

　　【参考译文】联军正在向巴格达挺进途中

　　【注释】halfway,“半途的，中间的”，还可以表示“不彻底地，小部分地”：These government measures only go halfway towards solving the problem.政府的这些措施不能彻底解决这个问题。有关这个词一个有趣的用法是halfway house,意为“介乎两者之间的东西”：It's not really a history and it's not really a guidebook–it's a sort of halfway house.它不是一本真正的历史书，也不是一本真正的指导手册，而是介乎两者之间的东西。

　　HIGHWAY 80 IN SOUTHERN IRAQ - Allied forces crossed the Euphrates River and were halfway to Baghdad on Saturday, their swift advance unimpeded by lingering resistance in the cities of Basra and Umm Qasr. The biggest hurdle: moving the massive military machine across the desert.

　　【参考译文】伊拉克南部80号公路–联军于星期六渡过幼发拉底河，正向巴格达挺进途中，他们的快速推进并没有被来自巴士拉和乌姆盖斯尔的持续抵抗所阻挡。目前最大的障碍是：如何把笨重的军事装备运送过沙漠。

　　【注释】unimpede,是impede“阻挡”的否定形式，impede的近义词有hinder, block, bar, obstruct等。

　　Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said forces had moved 150 milessintosIraqi territory. "The forces have moved with impressive speed thus far," he said.

　　【参考译文】联军参谋长之一的陆军少校斯坦利-麦克克里斯托说，联军已深入伊拉克领土150英里纵深。“到目前为止，作战部队推进的速度是惊人的”，他表示。

　　【注释】Maj. Gen.是Major General“陆军少校”的缩写。chief of staff,“参谋长”。

　　In the southern city of Basra, they faced artillery and machine-gun fire. So rather than risk a bloody urban battlefield in a city of 2 million, the allies took what they needed—an airport and a bridge—and moved on, leaving British forces behind.

　　【参考译文】在南部城市巴士拉，他们遭遇了火炮和机枪火力。故尔，联军并未贸然在一座两百万人口的城市展开血战，而是在夺取必要的一个机场和一座桥梁后，继续前进，把英军甩在后面。

　　【注释】artillery,“大炮，火炮”，也可用gun，炮兵阵地是battery, artillery position,或gun emplacement。用炮火打击敌方可以称为诸如bombard, shell, strike, cannonade, barrage等等。

　　"This is about liberation, not occupation," Gen. Tommy Franks said.

　　【参考译文】“我们的目的是解放，而不是占领，”汤米-弗兰克斯将军说。

　　Skirmishes—sometimes with stiff resistance—took place at the front end of the advance. Iraqi state television reported fighting between Iraqi ruling Baath party militias and U.S.-British forces near the Shiite holy city of Najaf, 95 miles south of Baghdad. It said the top Baath party official in Najaf was killed.

　　【参考译文】在部队推进的前沿战线发生了小规模的交火，有时战斗十分激烈。据伊拉克国家电视台报道，伊拉克执政的复兴党的国民自卫队与美英军队在什叶派的圣城纳杰夫附近交战，该城位于巴格达以南95英里，并称纳杰夫城的一名复兴党高级官员阵亡。

　　【注释】skirmish,“小规模的冲突、战斗”，也可以用于比喻义：There was a short skirmish between the political party leaders when the government announced it was to raise taxes.在政府宣布将要增加税收时各当派领导人间发生了短暂的争吵。与之意思相近的还有encounter,“遭遇战”。