美国国家公共电台 NPR--Turkey and Syria face multiple challenges as they try to rescue quake survivors

Turkey and Syria face multiple challenges as they try to rescue quake survivors¹

Transcript²

The death toll³ continues to climb in Turkey and Syria after Monday's catastrophic earthquake. Rescue teams have worked around the clock, against freezing temperatures, trying to find survivors.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Overnight, the death toll from Monday's earthquake and the aftershocks climbed to more than 11,000 lives in Turkey and Syria.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We can say that many people also have been pulled from the rubble⁴ of thousands of collapsed⁵ buildings - thousands of people injured but alive. Search and rescue teams work in freezing temperatures, but how much time is left?

FADEL: NPR's Rob Schmitz is in Istanbul to talk about this. Hi, Rob.

ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE⁶: Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: So can you give us a big picture of the recovery efforts? What are rescue workers facing right now?

SCHMITZ: Yeah, I think the biggest challenge right now is time.

FADEL: Yeah.

SCHMITZ: It's been around 60 hours since the initial earthquake. Weather conditions have worsened with both temperatures dipping below freezing and now snow. And rescuers are working more than two days straight, many without sleep, doing whatever they can to reach survivors who are trapped under tons of rubble. You know, aid groups say the first 72 hours after a natural disaster like this are the most crucial to rescue survivors. So it's a really harrowing and desperate situation. Yesterday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency for 10 Turkish provinces. He addressed the nation, and here's what he said.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN: (Speaking Turkish).

SCHMITZ: He's saying here that he prays to God for mercy for the citizens who've lost their lives, that he's declaring a national mourning period for the next week. And he promised his citizens that his government is making all the measures it can to rescue those who've survived.

FADEL: I mean, the scale of this is hard to wrap your head around. Turkey says more than 13.5 million people affected⁷ by the quake, and that doesn't include the millions more in Syria. That's a huge number of people. Where are the displaced going?

SCHMITZ: Yeah, and you mentioned that there are millions more in northern Syria, and that's a region that's already been devastated⁸ by a civil war, refugee crisis and where most rescue teams can't even access. Turkey's emergency management agency says nearly 400,000 people have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels. Others are living in stadiums, mosques⁹. At least 6,000 buildings in Turkey collapsed. And even for those whose homes are still standing¹⁰, they don't want to go back because there have been hundreds of aftershocks, some of them big enough to topple more buildings. There are many people sleeping in cars, even trains. But across the border in Syria, the situation is in some ways even worse.

FADEL: Yeah, I mean, this is a place where millions of people are already displaced and receiving humanitarian¹¹ aid because of the ongoing¹² civil war in Syria, a place where infrastructure¹³ was already damaged by bombings - and now this. I mean, do they have any of what they need to deal with this natural disaster?

SCHMITZ: Yeah, for how dire¹⁴ it is here in Turkey, it's worse in Syria. And that's because northern Syria, near the cities of Aleppo and Idlib, you know, that were hit hard by this quake, were already under the stress of war and refugees. And because of that, there simply isn't the infrastructure there to provide emergency care, electricity, food, water. You know, they're left with nothing. You know, people are sleeping in mosques, and they don't have fuel. They don't have water. They're lacking essentials to simply survive. And the only road that U.N. - that the U.N. authorizes¹⁵ to carry supplies from Turkey to Syria has been damaged by this quake. Syria's government has blamed western sanctions for hampering¹⁶ relief efforts. The U.S. has pushed back, saying that sanctions do not include humanitarian assistance. Other countries are trying to help. But, you know, these are opposition-held areas. And so the government is sort of hampered¹⁷ in how it can help, too. So it's really a difficult situation for everyone right now.

FADEL: NPR's Rob Schmitz in Istanbul. Thank you so much.

SCHMITZ: Thank you.

1 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 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。

4 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

5 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 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。

8 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。

9 mosques   

清真寺； 伊斯兰教寺院，清真寺； 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Why make us believe that this tunnel runs underneath the mosques? 为什么要让我们相信这条隧洞是在清真寺下？
• The city's three biggest mosques, long fallen into disrepair, have been renovated. 城里最大的三座清真寺，过去年久失修，现在已经修复。

10 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

11 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

12 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

13 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

14 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

15 authorizes   

授权，批准，委托( authorize的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The dictionary authorizes the two spellings 'traveler' and 'traveller'. 字典裁定traveler和traveller两种拼法都对。
• The dictionary authorizes the two spellings "honor" and "honour.". 字典裁定 honor 及 honour 两种拼法均可。

16 hampering   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• So fraud on cows and development aid is seriously hampering growth. 因此在牛问题上和发展补助上的诈骗严重阻碍了发展。
• Short-termism, carbon-trading, disputing the science-are hampering the implementation of direct economically-led objectives. 短效主义，出售二氧化碳，进行科学辩论，这些都不利于实现以经济为主导的直接目标。

17 hampered   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。