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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
New Delhi
03 August 2007
Relief workers are struggling to help at least 20 million people affected1 by floods in South Asia. More than 200 people have died so far in this year's annual monsoon2 rains. Anjana Pasricha in VOA's New Delhi bureau has more on the situation.
wades3 through a flooded street to collect food in Sirajgonj, about 104 kilometers (65 miles) north of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, 03 Aug 2007" hspace="2" src="/upimg/allimg/070810/0859000.jpg" width="210" vspace="2" border="0" /> |
A woman wades through a flooded street to collect food in Sirajgonj, about 104 kilometers (65 miles) north of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, 03 Aug 2007 |
Devendra Tak, with the regional Federation4 of Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, paints a grim picture.
"There have been lives lost across the region due to drowning, due to snake bite, due to house collapses5, casualties are rising and…there is always a danger of diseases that always follow floods," said Tak.
In India, the states of Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have been the worst hit by weeks of constant rainfall. Rivers have burst banks. Flood waters have inundated6 vast tracts7 of valuable crops and washed out roads, bridges and railways. The Army has been deployed8 to evacuate9 hundreds of cut-off villages.
Neighboring Bangladesh is criss-crossed by rivers and half the country is under water. And in mountainous Nepal, landslides10 and floods triggered by the rains have displaced tens of thousands of people.
Government and aid agencies have established hundreds of relief camps but say the top priority is to provide clean drinking water and food to the victims wherever they are.
Tak says the massive relief operation is making progress but not enough.
"Relief has been slow in coming I would say overall…. and they would need to do a lot of quick work to provide relief to victims who really require it urgently," Tak added.
The floods will leave a long-term impact on the region as they wash away standing11 crops, and prevent farmers from planting seeds for the next season. And many poor laborers12 will be left without work - deepening poverty among already impoverished13 flood victims.
Floods are an annual occurrence in South Asia during the July to September monsoon season. But authorities say the flooding this year has been more severe than usual.
1 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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2 monsoon | |
n.季雨,季风,大雨 | |
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3 wades | |
(从水、泥等)蹚,走过,跋( wade的第三人称单数 ) | |
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4 federation | |
n.同盟,联邦,联合,联盟,联合会 | |
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5 collapses | |
折叠( collapse的第三人称单数 ); 倒塌; 崩溃; (尤指工作劳累后)坐下 | |
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6 inundated | |
v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 );(洪水般地)涌来;充满;给予或交予(太多事物)使难以应付 | |
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7 tracts | |
大片土地( tract的名词复数 ); 地带; (体内的)道; (尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的)短文 | |
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8 deployed | |
(尤指军事行动)使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 ); 施展; 部署; 有效地利用 | |
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9 evacuate | |
v.遣送;搬空;抽出;排泄;大(小)便 | |
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10 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 | |
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11 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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12 laborers | |
n.体力劳动者,工人( laborer的名词复数 );(熟练工人的)辅助工 | |
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13 impoverished | |
adj.穷困的,无力的,用尽了的v.使(某人)贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 );使(某物)贫瘠或恶化 | |
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