美国有线新闻 CNN 伊朗油轮与香港货船相撞 发生石油泄漏

伊朗油轮与香港货船相撞 发生石油泄漏

Paris, France, is just over 40 square miles in area. That's also about the size of an oil spill that's spreading in the East China Sea.

It started when an Iranian oil tanker¹ collided with a freighter from Hong Kong. That happened on January 7. The oil ship caught fire, and stayed afloat, burning, until it exploded and sank a week later on January 14th.

Officials believe all of its 34 crew members died in the accident. The tanker was carrying 136,000 tons of condensate oil. It's a type used to jet fuel and it's lighter² in color than the thick black crude oil that's been seen in other oil spills.

But though environmentalists say some of the oil on board the ship probably burn in the fire, their concern that what remained could still hurt marine³ life in the area, like whales and porpoises⁴. They're also worried that the fuel that power the ship will leak as well, and that could make things worse. It's very toxic⁵.

The oil slick, China says there are four of them, almost doubled in size this week. Other boats are in this area of the East China Sea, working to clean up the oil and environmental group Greenpeace expects any contamination to stay relatively⁶ close to the sunken ship, though winds have pushed the spill east toward Japan.

1 tanker   

n.油轮

参考例句：

• The tanker took on 200,000 barrels of crude oil.油轮装载了二十万桶原油。
• Heavy seas had pounded the tanker into three parts.汹涌的巨浪把油轮撞成三载。

2 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

3 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

4 porpoises   

n.鼠海豚( porpoise的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A shoal of porpoises are well on the feed. 一群海豚正在吞食。 来自辞典例句
• In 1928 some porpoises were photographed working like beavers to push ashore a waterlogged mattress. 1928年有人把这些海豚象海狸那样把一床浸泡了水的褥垫推上岸时的情景拍摄了下来。 来自辞典例句

5 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

6 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。