VOA常速英语2013--菲律宾台风援助开始过渡到长期复苏

 

Philippines Typhoon Aid Begins Transition to Long-Term Recovery 菲律宾台风援助开始过渡到长期复苏

MANILA — Thirteen million people affected¹. Four million of them displaced, with one million homes destroyed. Two-and-a-half million individuals in need of food aid. And about 7,000 people confirmed dead or missing. That is the toll² from the typhoon that hit the central Philippines November 8. The government and international agencies are activating³ the recovery and reconstruction⁴ process.

This time-lapse sequence of Tacloban's airport shows aid arriving and departing from the destroyed city, which is a major hub for delivering food, water and other supplies to more isolated⁵ communities.

塔克洛班市机场的这次航班延时显示到达及从被毁城市离开的援助,这是给更加孤立的社区提供食物,水源和其他补给品的一个主要中心。

It took days to get aid moving at this pace.

以这种速度援助需要数日才能到达。

Philippine and international agencies predict the emergency tempo⁶ will need to continue for 18 months.

菲律宾和国际机构预测这种紧张救援状态需要持续18个月。

Many people may have had the impression “the government was not doing anything” for the first few days, acknowledged presidential spokesman Edward Lacierda.

总统发言人爱德华·拉希尔达承认很多人前几天可能对于政府的印象是“什么都没做”。

“We are an archipelago.

“我们是一个群岛。

We had to make sure that everything was done in the proper way, not to mention the fact that really this storm surge the effect on Tacloban was quite huge and devastating⁷.”

我们必须确保一切都在有条不紊的进行,更不用说实际上这次影响塔克洛班市的风暴潮相当巨大而且具有毁灭性。”

There are concerns that the Philippines' notorious corruption⁸ could skim off resources and hamper⁹ the long-term recovery.

有人担心菲律宾臭名昭著的腐败会攫取资源的丰厚油水从而阻碍长期复苏。

But President Beningo Aquino has made fighting graft¹⁰ a focus of his administration and hopes to reassure¹¹ donors¹² with top-level oversight¹³.

但总统贝宁各·阿基诺一直将打击腐败作为自己政府的重中之重,并且他希望凭借高效的监督安抚捐助者们。

Just three government agencies will handle all of the donated funds, and high-ranking officials will track spending and publish accounting¹⁴ reports online.

就在三个政府机构将处理所有捐赠基金时,高级官员将跟踪支出并且在网上发布财务报表。

The government's recovery plan, supported by the World Bank, is to be submitted Wednesday to Aquino.

阿基诺将于周三提交的政府经济复苏计划得到了来自世界银行的支持。

The bank already has announced it has raised nearly $1 billion to support relief and reconstruction.

银行宣布已经筹集到了近10亿美元来援助救灾和重建工作。

The 67-member-nation Asian Development Bank, headquartered in Manila, is kicking in an additional $500-million emergency loan for reconstruction, according to bank vice¹⁵ president Stephen Groff.

据银行副总统斯蒂芬·格罗夫称，总部位于马尼拉,拥有67个成员国的亚洲开发银行已经筹集了额外的5亿美元紧急贷款用于重建工作。

As the Philippines prepares to rebuild, Groff and other specialists are raising concerns about rebuilding along some shorelines that are vulnerable to destructive storms and the effects of climate change-a quandary¹⁶ other countries in the region faced after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami¹⁷.

随着菲律宾准备重建, 格罗夫和其他专家一起对于重建感到担忧，这里的一些海岸线容易受到破坏性的风暴和气候变化的影响—其他国家在该地区2004年的印度洋海啸后面临的一个窘境。

“We'll have to do the assessments," said Groff.

“我们将不得不做评估,” 格罗夫说道。

"But the answer to that question may very well be,no,' that some communities may need to be moved.

“但这个问题的答案很可能是不,因为一些社区可能需要搬走。

And if you look at what happened in Aceh and some areas around the East Asian tsunami, indeed, some of those communities were relocated.

如果你看看在亚齐和东亚海啸周边一些地区发生了什么事,事实上,其中的一些社区被重新安置。

And that is part of a longer term solution at risk mitigation.”

这是降低风险的一个长期解决方案。”

It is not a question of if, but when, the Philippines will get hit with another devastating natural disaster.

这不是是否的问题,而是何时菲律宾将再次遭受另一次毁灭性自然灾害的问题。

And the consensus¹⁸ here is that the only good that can come out of this latest national calamity¹⁹ is learning lessons that will help mitigate²⁰ the destruction from the next one.

而这里的共识是,这一场最近国家灾难的唯一好处是从中汲取教训有助于减轻下一次的伤亡。

1 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。

2 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

3 activating   

活动的，活性的

参考例句：

• "I didn't say we'd got to stop activating the masses! “我并没说就此不发动！ 来自子夜部分
• Presumably both the very small size and activating influence of fluorine atoms contribute to this exception. 这大概是由于氟原子半径小和活性高这两个原因的影响，氟原子对这种例外做出了贡献。

4 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。

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 tempo   

n.(音乐的)速度；节奏，行进速度

参考例句：

• The boss is unsatisfied with the tardy tempo.老板不满于这种缓慢的进度。
• They waltz to the tempo of the music.他们跟着音乐的节奏跳华尔兹舞。

7 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

8 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

9 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。

10 graft   

n.移植，嫁接，艰苦工作，贪污；v.移植，嫁接

参考例句：

• I am having a skin graft on my arm soon.我马上就要接受手臂的皮肤移植手术。
• The minister became rich through graft.这位部长透过贪污受贿致富。

11 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

12 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

14 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

15 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

16 quandary   

n.困惑，进迟两难之境

参考例句：

• I was in a quandary about whether to go.我当时正犹豫到底去不去。
• I was put in a great quandary.我陷于进退两难的窘境。

17 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。

18 consensus   

n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识

参考例句：

• Can we reach a consensus on this issue?我们能在这个问题上取得一致意见吗？
• What is the consensus of opinion at the afternoon meeting?下午会议上一致的意见是什么？

19 calamity   

n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件

参考例句：

• Even a greater natural calamity cannot daunt us. 再大的自然灾害也压不垮我们。
• The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crushing calamity.偷袭珍珠港(对美军来说)是一场毁灭性的灾难。

20 mitigate   

vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和

参考例句：

• The government is trying to mitigate the effects of inflation.政府正试图缓和通货膨胀的影响。
• Governments should endeavour to mitigate distress.政府应努力缓解贫困问题。