英伦广角 2014-04-05 英国开始疏浚泰晤士河

 The locals have waited decades for this. Diggers slowly clawing a way yields of silt¹ that many blame for the winter's floods. For the environment agency, it's a chance to rebuild trust.-It's good that extra funding that is really making this possible, as come forward from government and 5 million pounds will be spending on the dredging that is gonna be money well-spent, I think, both in terms of reduce flood risk and in terms of a short in the arms in local community during the recovery stage.

It won't be easy, after scens like this. For weeks, the Winslade family could only sail up to their front door.

-You could see day light through like this and hope the ... could stop ..

-So it's not just the dampest, what it's done to the structure as well.

-Absolutely, yeah.

Their home in cattle farm was submerged under a feet of water. They'd already asked for the rivers to be cleared.

-There is an element of distrust, because Lord Smith said to me a year and a bit ago that something on the top of paramount² that something will be done within six months. Well, no, no, they didn't.

A wider 20-year plan includs better pumping capacity to move any flood water and a barrage³ near bridge water to control the tidal rivers, or to try to prevent this happening again.

 

 

Bryony Sadler's home wasn't even flooded when they started campaigning. Now, it has to be gutted⁴.

-They digged there and you konw, excavated⁵ something there on site, but what they are doing is adding a tea spoon rather than the great big d*.

For watching the progress on day one, this is clearly going to be a slow and laborious⁶ job, but they are going to have about 8 of these different sites set up along that 8-kilometer stretch of the River Parrett and the River tone⁷, hoping to clean in total between 300 and 400,000 tons of silt and mud.

 

 

Still costing the country billions of pounds are the floods that visit the low levels after heavy rains.

For years, this area has been fighting flooding from 1943 to 2014. The same problems with similar imperfect solutions. Now, this is a small victory for those who demanded this river should be dredged. There with more funding needed, they will continue to fight to make sure their precious piece of Somerset is better protected for the future.

 

1 silt   

n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞

参考例句：

• The lake was almost solid with silt and vegetation.湖里几乎快被淤泥和植物填满了。
• During the annual floods the river deposits its silt on the fields.每年河水泛滥时都会在田野上沉积一层淤泥。

2 paramount   

a.最重要的，最高权力的

参考例句：

• My paramount object is to save the Union and destroy slavery.我的最高目标是拯救美国，摧毁奴隶制度。
• Nitrogen is of paramount importance to life on earth.氮对地球上的生命至关重要。

3 barrage   

n.火力网，弹幕

参考例句：

• The attack jumped off under cover of a barrage.进攻在炮火的掩护下开始了。
• The fierce artillery barrage destroyed the most part of the city in a few minutes.猛烈的炮火几分钟内便毁灭了这座城市的大部分地区。

4 gutted   

adj.容易消化的v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 )；取出…的内脏

参考例句：

• Disappointed? I was gutted! 失望？我是伤心透了！
• The invaders gutted the historic building. 侵略者们将那幢历史上有名的建筑洗劫一空。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 excavated   

v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 )；开凿；挖出；发掘

参考例句：

• The site has been excavated by archaeologists. 这个遗址已被考古学家发掘出来。
• The archaeologists excavated an ancient fortress. 考古学家们发掘出一个古堡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 laborious   

adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅

参考例句：

• They had the laborious task of cutting down the huge tree.他们接受了伐大树的艰苦工作。
• Ants and bees are laborious insects.蚂蚁与蜜蜂是勤劳的昆虫。

7 tone   

n.语气，音调，气度，色调；vt.（up）增强

参考例句：

• There was a tone of mockery in his voice.他说话的语气含有嘲笑的意味。
• Holmes used an informal,chatty tone in his essays.霍姆斯在文章中语气轻松随便。