2007年VOA标准英语-Alabama, Mississippi Coastal Residents Dread St

By Greg Flakus
Bayou La Batre, Alabama
31 May 2007
 

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Gulf of Mexico coast

Hurricane season officially begins on June first and runs until November and residents of the U.S. Gulf coast areas are anticipating the coming months with a certain degree of dread².  Hurricane Katrina devastated³ the area less than two years ago. As VOA's Greg Flakus reports from Bayou La Batre, Alabama, many communities along the coast are still struggling to recover from Katrina.

Bayou La Batre is a pleasant little town on Alabama's Gulf of Mexico coast, where shrimping and shipbuilding are the major industries. But much of the town remains⁵ shut down, nearly two years after Katrina rolled through.

One exception is the Vien Dong food market, where immigrants from Vietnam and other Asian nations gather to shop and visit.

Many of them work on shrimp⁴ boats here and temporarily lost their employment when Katrina devastated the port and destroyed many boats. But they are back now, hoping nature's wrath⁶ will spare the town this hurricane season.

The same sentiment can be heard all along the coast, especially in places like Long Beach, Mississippi. It took the full brunt of Katrina. The storm knocked many beachfront homes off their foundation slabs⁸ and most owners have yet to come back to rebuild.

One of the few hardy⁹ ones who has returned is 80-year-old Anna Berry. "This is my house or where my house was before Katrina and it was just down to the slab⁷ after Katrina," she points out. 

She and her family lost their home once before, to Hurricane Camille in 1969.  But they love living here, so they rebuilt.  "We made the mistake of thinking there would never be another storm like Camille, but nature proved us wrong."

Even though she lost her home here twice to hurricanes, Berry says she had to come back. "My children grew up here and this is home to them, so we decided¹⁰ we would do it one more time."

Slabs still exist where homes used to sit

Although the beach remains, Katrina swept away much of the area's charm and Berry says it may take some time to feel fully¹¹ at home again.

"Even now, when you drive along this very familiar stretch of highway 90, sometimes you think, 'Well, where exactly am I?' because some of the street signs have not been replaced and the landmarks¹² are gone," she explains.

Wrangles¹³ over insurance payments and fear of future hurricanes have slowed recovery along the Gulf coast, but those who have come back say life here is worth the risk.

Rodney McGavran works in the shipyards at Bayou LaBatre. He says the worst is now over and the area is starting to recover. "The cleanup took a little while -- I mean it was months before people actually got back going again. Probably there are some of them who will never get back."

He plans to stay, but he remains nervous about what might come.

"I just hope we don't have a bad hurricane season,” he says. “That is what I hope, because we don't need that."

1 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。

2 dread   

vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧

参考例句：

• We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
• Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。

3 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。

4 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。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 wrath   

n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒

参考例句：

• His silence marked his wrath. 他的沉默表明了他的愤怒。
• The wrath of the people is now aroused. 人们被激怒了。

7 slab   

n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上

参考例句：

• This heavy slab of oak now stood between the bomb and Hitler.这时笨重的橡木厚板就横在炸弹和希特勒之间了。
• The monument consists of two vertical pillars supporting a horizontal slab.这座纪念碑由两根垂直的柱体构成，它们共同支撑着一块平板。

8 slabs   

n.厚板，平板，厚片( slab的名词复数 )；厚胶片

参考例句：

• The patio was made of stone slabs. 这天井是用石板铺砌而成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The slabs of standing stone point roughly toward the invisible notch. 这些矗立的石块，大致指向那个看不见的缺口。 来自辞典例句

9 hardy   

adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的

参考例句：

• The kind of plant is a hardy annual.这种植物是耐寒的一年生植物。
• He is a hardy person.他是一个能吃苦耐劳的人。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 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。

12 landmarks   

n.陆标( landmark的名词复数 )；目标；（标志重要阶段的）里程碑 ~ (in sth)；有历史意义的建筑物（或遗址）

参考例句：

• The book stands out as one of the notable landmarks in the progress of modern science. 这部著作是现代科学发展史上著名的里程碑之一。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The baby was one of the big landmarks in our relationship. 孩子的出世是我们俩关系中的一个重要转折点。 来自辞典例句

13 wrangles   

n.（尤指长时间的）激烈争吵，口角，吵嘴( wrangle的名词复数 )v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• We avoided wrangles and got down to business. 他们避免了争吵开始做正事。 来自辞典例句
• They hope to see politicians in exciting wrangles and to get some fun out of politics. 他们期望政治人物进行有趣的战斗，期望从政治中获得娱乐。 来自互联网