CNN Student News 美新增海軍陸戰(zhàn)隊士兵將抵阿富汗

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CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: First Friday of 2011, and you know it is awesome! Thank you for closing out your week with CNN Student News. My name is Carl Azuz; I'm taking you through today's commercial-free headlines.

First Up: House Reading

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, (R) OHIO, HOUSE SPEAKER: We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

AZUZ: Starting things off a little differently today. You might have recognized what U.S. House Speaker John Boehner was reading there. What famous document is it a part of? Is it the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, the U.S. Constitution or the Articles of Confederation? And time's up! That was part of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Yesterday, members of the House of Representatives read the Constitution on the floor of the House. Took around an hour and a half. Some people called it a political stunt. Others said the reading was a symbol that the House should be dedicated to the Constitution and its principles.

Marine Deployment

AZUZ: According to a military official, the U.S. is planning to send more than a thousand additional Marines to Afghanistan sometime soon. They're going to be part of security efforts in the southern part of that country. The official says these Marines will be there for a few months. They're heading to regions where U.S. forces are taking on the Taliban, the militant group that used to control Afghanistan. That U.S. official says the goal here is to keep pressure on the Taliban through the winter. Right now, around 97,000 U.S. troops are serving in Afghanistan. More than 21,000 of those are Marines.

Jobs Report

AZUZ: A lot of Americans are paying attention to a report that comes out today. It is the government's monthly employment situation, and it includes the national unemployment rate. This report looks at the past month, so the number you see will be the numbers for December. But the question here is why is this thing important? Why do people care about it so much?

The unemployment rate is what's called an economic indicator. It's one of the things that experts and analysts use to figure out how the country's economy is doing. Considering some of the struggles that the U.S. economy has been going through, reports like this one can help offer clues about whether or not things are getting better. To get the latest unemployment numbers, head to CNN.com.

I.D. Me

JOHN LISK, CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can I.D. Me! I'm a country located between the Indian and South Pacific oceans. I'm one of the biggest nations in the world, and my capital city is Canberra. One of my greatest natural features is the Great Barrier Reef. I'm Australia, home to more than 21 million people.

Australia Flooding Impact

AZUZ: Around 200,000 of those Australians are dealing with the impact of severe floods. And we talked about how large Australia is. Right now, a huge chunk of the country is underwater. Phil Black is in one of the flooded regions. He explains why it could take a long time to recover from this natural disaster and how the situation, believe it or not, could have been worse.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton. It is bloated, swollen; it has broken its banks and it is carrying an enormous amount of water downstream. And it has been doing this for some days now. You can see the high water marker there. A couple of days ago, it creeped up to 9.2 meters, or a bit over 30 feet. It was expected to keep crawling even higher, but it hasn't, which is good news. Because while in this city thousands of homes have been affected by the flood water, the fact that it didn't creep up just that little bit more to 9.4, which was the prediction for the peak, it means that thousands more will not be affected.

Now, Rockhampton has known floods before. You can see that from the marker, back in the '50s, the '90s, the 1950s. As far ago as 1918, you can see it went above 10 meters there. But it's important to remember that this is just one flood-hit zone in an enormous region across the whole state of Queensland. The word that's used by politicians a lot at the moment is "unprecedented." They have not known such a wide area to be hit by floods at once. Three major river systems in this state all experiencing floods. It means that some 23 communities, cities and towns have either been cut off or inundated by flood water. It means that hundreds of thousands of people have been affected.

So, it means that the cleanup is going to be of an immense scale. The estimated financial cost of this, and no one is putting a precise figure on it yet, but everyone is talking more than billions of dollars. And so, as this flood crisis, as unprecedented for this day, so the recovery effort will be as well, and that is expected to take many years. Phil Black, CNN, in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia.

(END VIDEO)

Shoutout

TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Today's Shoutout goes out to Mrs. Oakes' humanities classes at Roosevelt Middle School in San Diego, California! LED, CRT and LCD are all types of what? You know what to do here! Are they: A) Mobile Phones, B) Tires, C) Televisions or D) Shoes? You've got three seconds -- GO! They're all televisions. That's your answer and that's your Shoutout!

Consumer Electronics

AZUZ: CRTs, or cathode ray tubes, are a little out of date, but you will see plenty of other TV types at the annual CES, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. It's going on right now. More than 100,000 people have flocked to Las Vegas to check out what's on display. And Dan Simon takes us on a tour of some of this year's biggest technological trends.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tablets, tablets and more tablets. It is the theme of this year's Consumer Electronics Show. Fifty new tablets being unveiled, all of them chasing the iPad.

PAUL REYNOLDS, CONSUMER REPORTS: This year, it looks like there are a lot of major manufacturers that have tablets really targeted at that iPad market, that are adding some features even that the iPad doesn't have. So, it's looking like by the end of 2011, we'll have a lot more tablets, viable ones, for consumers to choose from.

SIMON: Next, 3-D television. Consumers have not gotten excited yet, but that might change with these newer, more comfortable glasses. And no glasses? That technology has arrived as well.

I think that sign says it all. No more goofy-looking glasses to watch 3-D. That may just be enough to get people excited about this new technology.

We got to see glasses-free TV firsthand courtesy of eLogic. CES always has its share of quirky stuff. This is the Coz-E, a snuggie with a heating pad. But perhaps the most unique thing we've seen may help you live a little longer. It's a device from a company called Withings that uses your iPhone to take your blood pressure.

Snap the device into the iPhone. Obviously, you load the app. Just click the start button and there you go. Your blood pressure right on your iPhone, and then it will e-mail the result right to your doctor.

(END VIDEO)

Blog Report

AZUZ: Yesterday, we discussed a publisher's plans to change certain words in Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, the novels by Mark Twain. 92 percent of you say these changes would not make you more likely to read the books. A few people supported the publisher's decision. Santo, for example, says that "Twain wrote in 19th century style, which can be both confusing and offensive to some people. Taking out the 'n' word is a good idea, as many people are offended by it." But Christina says "the words an author has written are their own. I feel it is a destructive example to kids in our society, one that says you can change anything." Angie writes, "editing the books would be like taking the Mona Lisa and painting a huge clown smile across her face because it would be more 'pleasant.'" And from Grace: "People used racial slurs in the time of Huck Finn, and Twain uses them to establish the era and use the character's true voice. How will we see the progress we've made if we erase the starting point?"

CNN Teachers' Lounge

AZUZ: Teachers, we want your take on this, too. You can sound off in the CNN Teachers' Lounge. There's a link to that on our home page. You'll also find a link in our Spotlight section to send us an iReport. Now, this callout is to teachers and students. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is just around the corner. As we get ready to remember Dr. King's dream, we want you to tell us what your dream is. Again, the site to do all of that: CNNStudentNews.com.

Before We Go

AZUZ: Finally today, we're talking about a math lesson that helps some students take a company to school. Here's a tip for any businesses who want to put a problem on their packaging: make sure you get the answer right! This hot chocolate company didn't; if you could add, subtract, divide and multiply really fast, you could've seen that. The company got busted by a group of Massachusetts middle school students. The students wrote in, the company fessed up, no one seems to be upset. But the question, how did they discover the mathematical mistake?

Goodbye

AZUZ: It was simple: the information just didn't add up. Oh, there might have been some division in the company about whether to confess. But we're glad they did. Otherwise, they might have multiplied their problems. And it doesn't subtract from the quality of their product. I don't think we're ever gonna equal that quality, or maybe just sheer number, of puns. But you know on Monday, we're gonna keep trying. Have a great weekend; we'll see you then.