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From the CNN Newsroom here in Atlanta, Georgia, straight to your classrooms, I`m Carl Azuz and this is CNN Student News. Today we`re starting with something called a payroll tax.

Here`s the deal on the payroll tax, from A to Z. Americans have been getting a break on their federal payroll tax.

What this means is that they`re taking home a bit more of what they earn. For example, someone making around $50,000 this year took home an extra $1,500, thanks to the payroll tax break. But the government has to take action to extend the payroll tax cuts into next year, otherwise the payroll tax goes back up and Americans see less money in their paychecks.

What Democrats and Republicans don`t agree on is how to pay for this. Extending the payroll tax break would cost the government about $200 billion.

Democrats, including the president, want to pay for this by raising taxes on millionaires, whom, they believe, can afford to pay more. Republicans don`t want taxes to go up for anyone during a lousy economy. They want to pay for the extension by cutting government spending. Will the two sides find common ground?

Maybe, maybe not. But no matter how much you or your parents make, you`ll probably notice.

There are only a few weeks left for Congress to vote on whether or not to extend the payroll tax cut. During a speech yesterday, President Obama urged Congress to act immediately. Democrats and Republicans have both been offering plans on this, but the proposals have been criticized, sometimes from members of the same parties who offer them.

Well, yesterday, we brought you headlines from near and far, far away. Today, we`re going a little bit farther, like 600 light years. A light year is the distance that light travels in a year, and 600 light years away is where NASA scientists say they`ve discovered the first confirmed planet in what they call the habitable zone. That means, in theory, this planet could have liquid water on its surface.

It was found during the Kepler mission, which cost around $600 million. Back in 2009, NASA launched this giant telescope out into space. It`s exploring the Milky Way galaxy for stars and their nearby planets.

Scientists are looking for planets that could be like Earth. This one, which is called Kepler-22b, is the first one that NASA says it`s found that could be similar to ours. Chad Myers looks at the comparisons.

Here`s what we know. We have our sun and we have this blue line -- that`s our Earth`s rotation, our orbit around our sun. The sun that they found up here, Kepler -- between the Kepler-22 system, slightly smaller than our sun, slightly cooler than our sun, but the same type of class, the same type of sun.

And then they found this planet, rotating around it, almost the exact same distance away. In fact, we take 365 days to go around, or at least approximately. This planet takes 290 days to go around. So it`s almost in the exact perfect spot.

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从位于乔治亚州的亚特兰大市的CNN新闻部,直接到你们的教室,我是卡尔·阿祖兹,这里是CNN学生新闻。今天我们首先从被称为工资税的东西开始。

这是工资税的相关文件,从A到z 。美国人已经准备逐渐打破联邦的工资税。

什么意思呢？他们要把更多辛苦赚来的钱带回家。例如,一个人今年大约赚50000美金,而他将交额外的1500美元,这都要归功于工资税消减。但是政府已经将在下一年采取行动延长工资税削减,否则工资税上涨,美国人的薪水会更少。

民主党和共和党不同意的是如何为此买单。延长的工资税会花费政府2000亿美元左右。

民主党人,包括总统,想要通过增加百万富翁的税收,他们相信,不管增加多少都能承担缴纳更多的费用。而共和党人在糟糕的经济情况下不想对每个人增税。他们想要削减政府开支来支付这笔钱。双方能否找到共同点吗?

也许会,也许不会。但不管你或你的父母赚多赚少,你都会注意到。

只有几周时间给国会表决是否同意延长削减工资税。昨天在一次演讲中,总统奥巴马敦促国会立即采取行动。民主党和共和党都提出了计划,但是建议都受到质疑,而这些建议有时来自同一党派的成员。

嗯,昨天,我们带给你的头条新闻由近及远,以致于非常远。今天我们更远一点,比如600光年。光年是光在一年中的移动单位,600光年的距离外,NASA科学家们表示已经发现了他们称为“可居住带”的首个证实行星。这意味着,在理论上,这颗行星表明可能有液态水。

它在开普勒的任务中被发现,价值约6亿美元。早在2009年,NASA将这个巨型望远镜送入太空。它的目的是探索银河系及其附近的行星。

科学家正在寻找像地球一样的行星。这一个,被称为开普勒-22b,是NASA称和我们的星球类似的第一颗星球。查德·梅尔斯会比较二者的不同。

这是我们都知道的。我们有我们的太阳和这条蓝色线——那就是我们的地球绕太阳旋转的轨迹。他们发现在开普勒-22这里的太阳要略小于我们的,而且更凉爽,但它们都是同一类型,都是同一类型的太阳。

然后他们发现这颗行星绕着它,而且几乎是完全相同的距离。事实上,我们绕一圈需要花365天,或者至少大约是这个数。而这个星球上则要花费290天。所以它是几乎完美的地方。

[page]词语解释[/page]
1. payroll n. 薪水帐册;发薪名单

Phantom employees on the payroll.
薪水册上不存在的雇员。

 2. paycheck n.  薪水支票,  工资

She deposits her paycheck every month.
她每月都把她的工资存起来。

3. urge v. 驱策,鼓励

He urged the horses on with a whip.
他用鞭子策马前行。

4. telescope n. 望远镜

He saw a hungry wolf on the prowl with his telescope.
他通过望远镜看到了一头四处觅食的饿狼。

5. rotate v. 旋转

The post of chairman rotates among members of the committee.
主席一职由委员会的成员轮流担任。