VOA标准英语2009年-Indonesian Earthquake Rescue Efforts Incre

By Brian Padden
Jakarta
05 October 2009

After six days searching for survivors¹ from the earthquake that hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra, rescue workers are shifting their focus from the city of Padang to bring aid to the rural areas where landslides³ buried entire villages.

 
A woman amid the rubble⁴ of her house which was badly damaged by an earthquake in isolated⁵ Limo Koto Timur village, Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia, 04 Oct 2009
Initial rescue efforts concentrated on the city of Padang where more than 500 people died. Most were trapped in tall buildings that collapsed⁶ after the earthquake.

Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency spokesman Gagah Prakoso says they are now focusing on relief and reconstruction⁷ efforts in the rural areas where landslides may have killed thousands more.

He says they are concentrating on Pariaman, dropping aid from the air to remote areas.

Prakoso says that it is unlikely they will find anyone alive in the landslide² areas, where some villages were totally buried. He says they are bringing in heavy construction equipment, but there is still some debate about whether or not to recover the bodies or to leave them in the ground.

He says some leaders say there is no need to dig up the bodies, but there are a lot of people who want their relatives to have a proper burial.

Little aid has reached the rural areas until now because many roads and bridges have been destroyed. Officials are concerned that heavy rains like a storm that occurred Sunday could trigger more landslides and hamper⁸ relief efforts. 

1 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

2 landslide   

n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利

参考例句：

• Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
• An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。

3 landslides   

山崩( landslide的名词复数 )； （山坡、悬崖等的）崩塌； 滑坡； （竞选中）一方选票占压倒性多数

参考例句：

• Landslides have cut off many villages in remote areas. 滑坡使边远地区的许多村庄与外界隔绝。
• The storm caused landslides and flooding in Savona. 风暴致使萨沃纳发生塌方和洪灾。

4 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

5 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

6 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

7 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。

8 hamper   

vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子

参考例句：

• There are some apples in a picnic hamper.在野餐用的大篮子里有许多苹果。
• The emergence of such problems seriously hamper the development of enterprises.这些问题的出现严重阻碍了企业的发展。