美语听力讲解:日本举行提前大选 台风兰恩见证

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There's a lot going on right now in the Asian island country of Japan. The nation held snap or early elections yesterday. They were originally scheduled for next year.
But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for them to be held now because he was doing well again in opinion polls. His numbers had dropped as the government grappled with a fair of corruption scandals linked to the prime minister, though he's repeatedly denied being involved.
But they ticked back up again recently and analysts say Prime Minister Abe wanted to take advantage of that and to get more support for his stance against North Korea. That nation has fired two ballistic missiles over Japan recently.

And it's not the only challenge Japan is facing. Typhoon Lan was bearing down on the country last night. It was expected to make landfall along Japan's southern coast. Its wind speeds were 134 miles per hour on Sunday, making the typhoon the equivalent of a powerful category 4 hurricane.
And though Typhoon Lan was weakening as it approached Japan, it was so large that the clouds around it extended farther than the borders of the whole country. Dangerous winds, flooding, mudslides and damage in the Japanese capital of Tokyo were all possible.