CNN 2011-09-05

 Hi, I`m Carl Azuz, and here`s a look at some of the stories making headlines today.

 

Wildfires are burning across parts of Texas. Firefighters are making progress against them, but the fires still threaten dozens of homes.

 

In New York, a 9/11 memorial is getting ready to open for the 10th anniversary of the attacks. The designer says the memorial is the architectural equivalent of a moment of silence.

 

And in Libya, rebels search for long-time leader Moammar Gadhafi. It was 42 years ago today that Gadhafi took control of his country by overthrowing¹ Libya`s king. More events that happened on this day in history are coming right up. This is CNN Student News.

 

First up, the aftermath of Irene. The storm may be gone, the floodwaters are not. Vermont, New Jersey², upstate New York, these are some of the spots that got the worst flooding after Irene barreled its way through the U.S. east coast.  

 

Some areas are still completely unreachable by road. So search and rescue teams are using boats and rafts like this one. Thousands of people have been evacuated³ from their homes. One mayor in New Jersey said all it takes is a phone call, and for someone to say they need help. Then the boats head out and get them to safety.

 

Another official said the rescues are happening pretty much 24 hours a day. Flood warnings still in effect for more than half a dozen states yesterday. Once the waters start to go back down, authorities say the next step will be going door-to-door.  

 

They need to check things, like furnaces and hot water heaters to help prevent explosions when these appliances are restarted. According to government estimates, more than a million people still don`t have electricity.

 

On this day in history, in 1897, after two years of construction, the first U.S. subway line opened in Boston, Massachusetts.  

 

In 1939, German forces launched an invasion of Poland. The land and air attack marked the beginning of what would become World War II.

 

And in 1985, a group of U.S. and French explorers discovered the wreck⁴ of the Titanic⁵ on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The famous cruise liner was located 73 years after it sank.

 

A group of scientists is hoping to make its own discoveries along the floor of the Gulf⁶ of Mexico. These researchers are examining the spot where last year`s devastating<sup>7</sup> oil spill happened. More than 200 million gallons of oil leaked out into the Gulf. What`s been the impact on life under the surface? Colleen McEdwards dives in with details.

 

In the sediments⁹ that I looked at under the microscope, which essentially¹⁰ every sample that we collected on that cruise, there was essentially nothing in it that was moving around.  

 

And, you know, there were no worms, there were no shrimp¹¹, there were no amphipods, there were no protozoa. It was just. It was just sediment⁸.

 

This video, the first of its kind from the area where the Deepwater Horizon rig stood shows what Dr. Samantha Joye calls a dead zone, deep in the seabed, near last year`s Gulf oil spill.

 

Look at all the oil.

 

Dr. Joye describes the oil remaining on the ocean floor within a few kilometers of the capped well as a strange brown pudding-like layer of part oil, part who-knows-what. And even more troubling, the area does not appear to be recovering yet.

 

So we sampled in September 2010, December 2010 and now, when we`ll be back out this fall. But to see the trajectory¹², how the temporal trajectory looks, and so far, from, you know, the September to December samples, there was absolutely no change in activity, no change in abundance, and.

 

So no improvement?

 

No improvement at all.

 

So while the surface of the Gulf of Mexico now looks picturesque¹³, the ocean floor tells a very different story. Further study is expected to yield more answers, but it may take years to fully¹⁴ gauge¹⁵ the impact of the oil spill on the most basic creatures of the deep.

 

The Gulf of Mexico provides so much to so many. We owe it to the system to truly understand all of the various scales of impact, and to do that, it`s going to take a lot of effort from a lot of people for a very long time.

1 overthrowing   

v.打倒，推翻( overthrow的现在分词 )；使终止

参考例句：

• They succeeded in overthrowing the fascist dictatorship. 他们成功推翻了法西斯独裁统治。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I always delight in overthrowing those kinds of schemes. 我一向喜欢戳穿人家的诡计。 来自辞典例句

2 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

3 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

4 wreck   

n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难

参考例句：

• Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
• No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。

5 titanic   

adj.巨人的，庞大的，强大的

参考例句：

• We have been making titanic effort to achieve our purpose.我们一直在作极大的努力，以达到我们的目的。
• The island was created by titanic powers and they are still at work today.台湾岛是由一个至今仍然在运作的巨大力量塑造出来的。

6 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

7 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

8 sediment   

n.沉淀，沉渣，沉积(物)

参考例句：

• The sediment settled and the water was clear.杂质沉淀后，水变清了。
• Sediment begins to choke the channel's opening.沉积物开始淤塞河道口。

9 sediments   

沉淀物( sediment的名词复数 )； 沉积物

参考例句：

• When deposited, 70-80% of the volume of muddy sediments may be water. 泥质沉积物沉积后，体积的70-80％是水。
• Oligocene erosion had truncated the sediments draped over the dome. 覆盖于穹丘上的沉积岩为渐新世侵蚀所截削。

10 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

11 shrimp   

n.虾，小虾；矮小的人

参考例句：

• When the shrimp farm is built it will block the stream.一旦养虾场建起来，将会截断这条河流。
• When it comes to seafood,I like shrimp the best.说到海鲜，我最喜欢虾。

12 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

13 picturesque   

adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的

参考例句：

• You can see the picturesque shores beside the river.在河边你可以看到景色如画的两岸。
• That was a picturesque phrase.那是一个形象化的说法。

14 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

15 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。