2006年VOA标准英语-Indonesia's Tsunami-Ravaged Aceh Province Strug

By Nancy-Amelia Collins
Banda Aceh
23 December 2006

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An Acehnese man works on building a new house in a village destroyed by the 2004 tsunami, in Banda Aceh, 10 Dec. 2006

Indonesia's devastated² Aceh province is still struggling to rebuild two years after the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami swept across two continents killing³ some 230,000 people. VOA's Nancy-Amelia Collins recently visited the provincial⁴ capital Banda Aceh, in the area worst hit by the disaster, and has this report.

It has been two years since a 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami that battered⁵ Indonesia's Aceh province. The giant wave killed nearly 170,000 people here and destroyed over 800 kilometers of coastline and most of the region's infrastructure⁶.

Since then, the Achenese have been struggling to rebuild their homes and their lives with the help of an unprecedented⁷ outpouring of aid from the international community, totaling nearly $6 billion.

But two years after the disaster, not even half of the estimated 128,000 homes needed to house the survivors⁸ have been built.

And many of those fortunate enough to live in the 50,000 to 60,000 homes constructed since late 2005 say the housing is of poor quality and built with substandard materials.

Eric Morris, the United Nations recovery coordinator⁹ for Aceh, acknowledges big mistakes have been made in the province's reconstruction¹⁰ effort.

"My own sense at this time is that in the push to get the numbers and to get a significant volume going perhaps we've been less attentive¹¹ than we should have been to issues of quality,… and perhaps we need to be more attentive to issues of equity," he said.

And because the rebuilding of homes has been so slow, many people here still live in temporary barracks or tents that lack even basic sanitation¹².

Iskandar, a 41-year-old fisherman, lost his wife and two of his three children when the tsunami hit Lampuuk, located on Aceh's now devastated west coast.

He is homeless, and that fact has forced him to place his only remaining child with relatives. Iskandar sleeps on his boat at the seashore by night, and fishes for his livelihood¹³ by day.

He says he does not expect much from the international aid organizations, which he thinks are only after power and money and not truly concerned with the welfare of the Acehnese people.

The U.N.'s Morris says better efforts must be made to ensure the housing meets acceptable standards.

"I think the focus must shift to quality assurance, quality control," he said.

And for people like the homeless Iskandar, a properly built home cannot come soon enough.

1 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

2 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

5 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

6 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

7 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

8 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

9 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

10 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

11 attentive   

adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的

参考例句：

• She was very attentive to her guests.她对客人招待得十分周到。
• The speaker likes to have an attentive audience.演讲者喜欢注意力集中的听众。

12 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

13 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。