VOA标准英语2014--埃博拉毁灭塞拉利昂整个村庄

 

Ebola Devastates¹ Whole Villages in Sierra Leone 埃博拉毁灭塞拉利昂整个村庄

DARRU, SIERRA LEONE— 

In Sierra Leone's Darru district, the remote village of Njallah Geima is one of the worst hit by Ebola. Since May, more than half of the 200 people who live there have been infected with Ebola, killing² 61 of them in just eight weeks.

The remote village sits on a single road. James Bayone is a social worker from Darru who now helps support what is left of this devastated³ community.

He said Ebola wiped out entire families.

“You have a lot of orphans⁴ here, a lot of orphans. They are now just left with foster parents. All these children they are left with their grandfather, their mothers died and other relatives, they all are left with their grandfather,” he explained.

Many orphaned⁵ children

Sixty-five year old Arabic teacher Foday Konneh has been left to care for 31 children, 18 are orphans. 

“The children many of them are here to learn Arabic, but some of the children are victims of this Ebola, their parents died. They were here with me when there parents died, now they have no other place to go," Konneh said. 

"So I had to embrace them, to take care of them and cater⁶ for them. But to earn a living, it is really difficult sometimes, it is hard,” Konneh said.

With a failing health system, many people like Foday are left with little support.

Bayone said when Ebola struck the village, they were cut off, nobody came to help. 

"Everybody abandoned them. As long as you said you were from Njallah Geima, everybody would abandon you," he said. "So it's a little bit easy for them."

Ebola survivor⁷, lost his twin, many others

Solomon Jauad lives with his family on the edge of the village.  He survived Ebola, but lost many family members.

“He says the whole house, if you are looking at the whole house, it was 14 people who died and three ... were brothers,” Bayone said.

This room has been locked since his twin brother's death. Solomon said he was afraid to go for treatment. 

The room is all but untouched. Pictures of family still hang on the walls. Cigarettes his brother sold sit on a shelf.

Solomon said he was the last person to die in the village. 

Bayone said Ebola has touched every part of this community.

“There is not a house in this town that was not affected⁸, whether direct or indirectly⁹ that was affected," he said.

When Ebola came to Njallah, many people ran away, frightened of those infected.  

Baby found abandoned, rejected by relatives

Baby Bandu was found locked in an empty house with her sister who later died of Ebola. 

Veronica Kamara said Bandu is just 18 months old. 

“They were in the village both of them, herself and her elder sister who was seven years old, they were abandoned in the village in a house where there were only two of them in that house, and they were brought here by contract tracers to this center," she stated.

Veronica said she has tracked down relatives of the child, but they rejected her.

Even now many communities are struggling to recover from the destruction of the Ebola epidemic¹⁰.

1 devastates   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的第三人称单数 )；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮

参考例句：

• Strip mining devastates whole regions, leaving bare and useless ground. 露天矿产毁坏全部区域，离开赤裸和无用的地面。 来自互联网
• Prostitution is a profession that devastates the lives of young women. 雏妓这个职业是对女孩子极度的摧残。 来自互联网

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

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 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。

5 orphaned   

[计][修]孤立

参考例句：

• Orphaned children were consigned to institutions. 孤儿都打发到了福利院。
• He was orphaned at an early age. 他幼年时便成了孤儿。

6 cater   

vi.(for/to)满足，迎合；(for)提供饮食及服务

参考例句：

• I expect he will be able to cater for your particular needs.我预计他能满足你的特殊需要。
• Most schools cater for children of different abilities.大多数学校能够满足具有不同天资的儿童的需要。

7 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

8 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。

9 indirectly   

adv.间接地，不直接了当地

参考例句：

• I heard the news indirectly.这消息我是间接听来的。
• They were approached indirectly through an intermediary.通过一位中间人，他们进行了间接接触。

10 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。