VOA标准英语2013--Many Get Lost at World's Largest Religious Gathering

 

Many Get Lost at World's Largest Religious Gathering¹

 

Raja Ram² Tiwari started a group that began helping³ lost people at the Kumbh Mela in 1947. He says that in that first year year, he used a megaphone for announcements. Now, thousands of loudspeakers announce the names and descriptions of the missing all day long.

Pushkar Upadhay works for Tiwari’s group. “People come and tell their problems. We write down their names and where they are from. That paper is then given to me and I make the announcement,” he explained.

That task is difficult in a country with thousands of languages and dialects. When communication problems occur, they turn the microphone over to the lost people.

It took just a short time for these women from West Bengal to reconnect with their families.

Nearly 18,000 police are patrolling this year’s festival. Police Inspector⁴ General Alok Sharma says, although new technologies such as smart phones and security cameras are making policing easier, many still rely on the old, but reliable loudspeaker system.

“The crowds are such that they are still not that much into computers and things like that," he added. "They would just go back on the basic. That is the announcement system.”

Many of the lost are the elderly and children, whom Sharma says are particularly at risk of being kidnapped. The U.N. says India continues to have a serious problem with child trafficking.

Sharma says officers remain alert for at-risk kids. “Trafficking of kids in this area is very difficult, but we always look at the kids to see if they have been trafficked from somewhere else,” he said.

Organizers say all of the people who have been reported lost at the Kumbh Mela this year have been reunited with their families.

That is an impressive record in a country where rights workers estimate more than one quarter of the 40,000 children abducted⁵ each year go unaccounted for.

But with 20 times more police than most Indian cities and extensive coordination⁶ with local partners, Sharma says that the Kumbh Mela model of policing is not likely to be replicated⁷ in other parts of the subcontinent.

1 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

2 ram   

(random access memory)随机存取存储器

参考例句：

• 512k RAM is recommended and 640k RAM is preferred.推荐配置为512K内存，640K内存则更佳。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

5 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

6 coordination   

n.协调，协作

参考例句：

• Gymnastics is a sport that requires a considerable level of coordination.体操是一项需要高协调性的运动。
• The perfect coordination of the dancers and singers added a rhythmic charm to the performance.舞蹈演员和歌手们配合得很好，使演出更具魅力。

7 replicated   

复制( replicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 重复； 再造； 再生

参考例句：

• Later outplant the seedlings in a replicated permanent test plantation. 以后苗木出圃栽植成重复的永久性试验林。
• The phage has replicated and the donor cells have lysed. 噬菌体已复制和给体细胞已发生裂解。