VOA标准英语2010年-Seaport and More Airports Open for Aid

The U.S. military has reopened the severely¹ damaged seaport² in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince to help improve delivery of aid to victims of last week's massive earthquake. The military has also opened three more airports to assist the flow of humanitarian³ relief. 

The Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, Air Force General Douglas Fraser, says the military is gradually increasing its capacity to deliver assistance to the millions of people affected⁴ by the earthquake.

"We will have a small capability⁵ to move roughly 150 containers a day through the port today [Thursday], growing with the arrival of a commercial vessel⁶ tomorrow [Friday] of 250 containers per day and that capacity will remain relatively⁷ constant," said General Fraser.

Fraser says that by the middle of next month, more improvements will allow the military to move up to 800 containers per day through the port.

Damaged infrastructure⁸ around the seaport, wrecked⁹ roads and congestion¹⁰ at the main airport in Port-au-Prince have hampered¹¹ the delivery of aid.

Fraser says officials have opened three more airports, one in the Haitian city of Jacmel and two in the neighboring Dominican Republic.  But road travel from the sites remains¹² difficult.

The general says there are more than 1,400 flights on a waiting list to land in Port-au-Prince.  He says the U.S. military is making every effort to meet the priorities set by the Haitian government and the United Nations to determine which flights are allowed to land.

U.S. Marines load a U.N. truck with water to be distributed among Haitian earthquake survivors¹³ in Leogane, 20 Jan 2010

 

"In some cases, we have had to divert aircraft just because there was not space available on the airfield¹⁴," he said. "We have tried to make that airfield operate as absolutely as efficiently¹⁵ as possible."

Makeshift hospitals continue to struggle to treat the huge number of people injured in the earthquake.

The aid group Doctors Without Borders says at some of its surgical¹⁶ centers there is a 10 to 12 day backlog¹⁷ of patients, some of whom are dying from infection of untreated wounds.

The U.S. Navy hospital ship, USNS Comfort, is sending medical teams ashore¹⁸ to help with casualty evaluation¹⁹ and triage.

On the Comfort, pediatric orthopedic surgeon Commander William Todd expects that many of the incoming patients will be orphans²⁰ or children separated from their families.

"I think we're going to see a lot of those issues right now," said Commander Todd. "We're going to see parents not knowing where their kids are and kids not knowing where their parents are."

Haitian officials say they will soon begin moving hundreds of thousands of people left homeless in Port-au-Prince, which was largely destroyed by the January 12 quake.  The homeless will be moved to tent villages outside the ravaged²¹ capital.

Many people are desperate to leave behind the rubble-strewn streets and precarious²² structures that have been weakened by dozens of aftershocks.

VOA's Bart Childs is in Port-au-Prince:

"There is a thought that if people return to a simpler life, a farming life, a village life, life will be better for them," he said. "They clearly cannot live here.  The infrastructure is dead.  The city is overcrowded, so people are leaving."

The earthquake killed an estimated 200,000 people and affected about three million others - about a third of Haiti's population.

 

1 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

2 seaport   

n.海港，港口，港市

参考例句：

• Ostend is the most important seaport in Belgium.奥斯坦德是比利时最重要的海港。
• A seaport where ships can take on supplies of coal.轮船能够补充煤炭的海港。

3 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

4 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

5 capability   

n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等

参考例句：

• She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
• Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。

6 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

7 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

8 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。

9 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

10 congestion   

n.阻塞，消化不良

参考例句：

• The congestion in the city gets even worse during the summer.夏天城市交通阻塞尤为严重。
• Parking near the school causes severe traffic congestion.在学校附近泊车会引起严重的交通堵塞。

11 hampered   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。

12 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。

13 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

14 airfield   

n.飞机场

参考例句：

• The foreign guests were motored from the airfield to the hotel.用车把外宾从机场送到旅馆。
• The airfield was seized by enemy troops.机场被敌军占领。

15 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

16 surgical   

adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的

参考例句：

• He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
• All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。

17 backlog   

n.积压未办之事

参考例句：

• It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.要花一个月的时间才能清理完积压的工作。
• Investment is needed to reduce the backlog of repairs.需要投资来減轻积压的维修工作。

18 ashore   

adv.在(向)岸上，上岸

参考例句：

• The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前，孩子们就上岸了。
• He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。

19 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

20 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。

21 ravaged   

毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫

参考例句：

• a country ravaged by civil war 遭受内战重创的国家
• The whole area was ravaged by forest fires. 森林火灾使整个地区荒废了。

22 precarious   

adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的

参考例句：

• Our financial situation had become precarious.我们的财务状况已变得不稳定了。
• He earned a precarious living as an artist.作为一个艺术家，他过得是朝不保夕的生活。