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Italian cuisine receives an unprecedented accolade  December 12, 2025

 

Hello and rise up, I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10. Happy Friday.

 

I've got your 10 minutes of news breaking down complicated stories with easy to understand explanations, representing all sides equally. No opinion, no slant. Simply giving you the what, letting you decide what to think.

 

We start with an atmospheric river that's drenching parts of Washington and Oregon in the northwestern United States.

 

atmospheric river 大氣河流

drench [drɛntʃ] v. 使湿透，浸湿

 

What's an atmospheric river? So glad you asked. It is a plume, or elongated, feathered-out band of moisture, which transports heavily saturated air from the tropics, either north or south, away from the equator.

 

plume [plum] n. 羽状物（如烟云，雪尘等）

elongated [ɪˋlɔŋgetɪd] adj. 伸長的；延長的

feather-out 逐渐变稀疏; 羽毛般散开; 逐渐消失

 

And while they're a key source of rainfall in the western United States, the relentless rainfall can on occasion fuel catastrophic conditions like those we're seeing this week.

 

Parts of Washington have been pounded by more than 10 inches of rain in the span of just days, leading the governor to officially declare a state of emergency. Flooding and debris have closed dozens of roads across the state.

 

Mudslides backed up traffic and trapped drivers on a major interstate. One woman who lives about 30 minutes east of Seattle shared this video of water up to her calves inside her home. And while more than 100,000 people have been asked to evacuate, those who couldn't get out in time had to be rescued by helicopter or boat.

 

back up 堵（车）

 

You've never seen this to this extent before. Swift Water Rescue here helping people get out because there was a couple over there in the far corner that was elderly. They couldn't even get out. They were stuck there. Nobody could get to them.

 

Emergency officials say at least 26 rivers in the state are still at risk of flooding in the coming days, and some have already risen more than six feet above previous records.

 

Pop quiz, hot shot.

 

What causes quicksand to form in an area?

 

quicksand [ˋkwɪk͵sænd] n. 流沙；（隐伏的）危险状态（或事物）

 

Earthquakes, sand mixed with clay and water, lava cooling, or heavy winds?

 

clay [kle] n. 黏土；泥土

lava n.【地】熔岩

 

Answer is when sand mixes with clay and water. It becomes what is called a non-Newtonian fluid, where the fluid's viscosity or thickness or resistance to flow changes depending on the force applied to it.

 

viscosity [vɪsˋkɑsətɪ] n. 黏质；黏性

 

I have a sinking feeling about this next story. Officials at Utah's Arches National Park conducted an unusual search-rescue operation earlier this week after a hiker became stuck in quicksand. Turns out it's not just something from old cartoons and Indiana Jones movies.

 

sinking feeling 不祥的预感

 

Austin Dirks is an experienced hiker, but he found himself suddenly sinking and then stuck while traversing one of the park's picturesque canyons.

 

traverse [trəˈɝs] v. 穿过; 横渡，横越

 

It was my left leg that went through first. I was able to pull it out and then I shifted all my weight to my right foot and I sunk up to the knee.

 

But it felt like I had stepped into concrete and then it hardened around my leg. I couldn't even move it a millimeter.

 

Luckily, Mr. Dirks was able to activate his emergency satellite beacon.

 

beacon [ˋbikn] n. 信号浮标

 

Rescue crews spotted him by drone and pulled him out a few hours later. And while quicksand rescues are extremely rare, they're not unheard of. Back in 2014, emergency responders rescued a woman who was stranded in quicksand for 13 hours on the same trail.

 

No thank you.Pizza, pasta, Parmesan, and everything in between Italian cuisine has just been designated as a prestigious global phenomenon. It's the first ever gastronomic style to be recognized by UNESCO, the United Nations Cultural Division.

 

Parmesan [͵pɑrməˋzæn] n. 帕马森起司；巴马干酪

prestigious [prɛsˋtɪdʒɪəs] adj. 有声望的; 有名望的

gastronomic [͵gæstrəˋnɑmɪk] adj. 美食法的；烹饪学的

 

Our Isa Suarez went into an Italian restaurant kitchen where some of the magic happens to find out what the honor means to the chef.

 

As an Italian, what does this recognition mean?

 

This recognition means a lot. In Italy, our culture is 90% is about food.

 

So to be recognized worldwide about the passion and the love and the effort that we put in the kitchen, it means a lot. So that, what's that? Parmesan. Parmigiano.

 

A lot of basil. Oh, it smells so good. So good. I love basil.

 

basil [ˋbæzɪl] n.【植】罗勒（香料，药用的高度香味的植物）；九层塔

 

You can never have too much cheese. That's just my opinion, right? What do you think?

 

I think, again, balance is important because you don't want to overpower one ingredient to the other. So there's a limit.

 

Okay, how about a bit of cheddar? You'd be like, no way. And you see his eyes.

 

cheddar [ˋtʃɛdɚ] n. 巧达起司；切达起司；切达干酪

 

Your eyes actually rolled. No cheddar. None of that.

 

On a Neapolitan base, I'm a purist. Oh my goodness. Very protective.

 

Neapolitan [͵niəˋpɑlətn] adj.（意大利）那不勒斯的；那不勒斯人的

purist [ˋpjʊrɪst] n. 纯粹主义者；纯粹派艺术家

protective [prəˋtɛktɪv] adj. 防护性的

 

No cheddar, no pineapple, no chicken.

 

But not on this one or any pizza? No pineapple?

 

No, on the Neapolitan. But all the others you're okay to experience.

 

Okay, all right.

 

I remember my mum asking me every day, oh, what do you want to have for lunch? What do you want to have for dinner? Constantly, sometimes even obsession.

 

Yeah, I feel that that's what I ask my kids every day, running out of ideas.

 

Was there a food when you were growing up, Italian food, that you felt, this is Italian, this speaks to me in terms of identity? And you can't say pizza?

 

Pasta. What kind of pasta? Say, Pasta e Patate is a must in Napoli. It's one of our most traditional dish and your chef is.

 

pasta [ˋpɑstə] n. 意大利面（包括通心粉，细面条等）

Napoli: Italian name for Naples

 

And I'm guessing not from a jar? Not from a jar.

 

All right, I'll let you do that. How long does that normally take?

 

90 seconds to two minutes. That's the way we like it.

 

Let's do this. The question then I'm sure people will want to know is why do you think, Andrea, that Italy deserves it? Why not Spain? Why not even my home country of Portugal? We've got good food too. Respectfully.

 

I didn't say that. I'm very respectful of other kitchen.

 

I'm just saying that Italy really deserves it because of the intensity and the effort that across the whole country we put into food.

 

Look at that. That's amazing.

 

Now to a storied annual tradition at one of the world's most famous magazines. Time magazine has officially unveiled their person of the year for 2025. And this year's winners, the architects of artificial intelligence.

 

The cover features tech titans like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg alongside some of the biggest names in AI like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

 

The photoshopped image pays homage to a very famous photograph you may recognize, Lunch atop a Skyscraper taken during the Great Depression.

 

The photo depicts 11 iron workers sitting on a steel beam 850 feet above the ground during the construction of Rockefeller Center in New York City.

 

A very different time period for the U.S., but a formative chapter of U.S. history no less.

 

formative [ˋfɔrmətɪv] adj. 性格形成时期的

no less（用于表示某人或某事很重要）正是，竟然，千真万确

 

Despite the honor's singular name, this is far from the first time a group has shared the title. Time's editor-in-chief says the tradition, which will turn 100 next year, still ranks as one of the magazine's top annual moments.

 

singular [ˋsɪŋgjəlɚ] adj. 非凡的，卓越的; 单一的；独个的

 

We argue about it internally for months and then the world stops and they have a feeling. Either it makes sense to them, it doesn't, but I think it's a really useful way to think about the year.

 

Today's story, getting 10 out of 10, has me feline fine.

 

In Hettinger, North Dakota, 13-year-old Chloe Campbell is helping cats find their forever home. In a town of about 1,000 people, there were nearly 90 stray cats wandering the streets, that is, until Chloe's Cat Project came to the rescue.

 

In just seven weeks, she's rescued 87 cats, taking them in, nursing them back to health, and working to find them loving new homes.

 

I seen a lot of cats on the streets and I felt really bad for them, so I wanted to take them in so they all had a nice warm home.

 

She's like, mom, don't be mad, but she said there was three little kittens across the street. The mama was telling me I needed to rescue them.

 

This project is the first step towards her dream of becoming a veterinarian and helping more animals in the future. Talk about a positive impact on the community. That is cat-tastic, and so are you.

 

Time for some shout-outs, meow. This one goes to Winston Campus Middle School in Palatine, Illinois. We see you.

 

Keep shining, and thank you for subscribing and commenting on our CNN 10 YouTube channel. This shout-out goes to Mr. Harding at Belleville High School in Belleville, Michigan. Thank you for making us a part of your classroom.

 

Play that Friday music, Nadir. Go out, be a difference maker this weekend. Hold a door, flash a smile, give a compliment.

 

You never know who, you never know how, but you just may be the spark of joy someone needs. Shine bright, y'all, and I'll see you next time. I'm Coy Wire, and we are CNN 10.