Turkish officials ask how shoddy construction might have led to collapsed buildings

Turkish officials ask how shoddy construction might have led to collapsed¹ buildings

Transcript²

Millions of people are living in temporary shelters a week after an earthquake hit parts of Turkey and Syria. The death toll³ from the powerful 7.8 magnitude quake stands at more than 34,000 people.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

The Turkish government says over a million people are living in temporary shelters a week after a earthquake hit parts of the country and neighboring Syria.

ASMA KHALID, HOST:

The death toll from the powerful 7.8 magnitude quake now stands at more than 33,000. And funerals are continuing all across the region.

MART?NEZ: NPR's Jason Beaubien joins us now from one of those funeral sites in Turkey.

Jason, what are you seeing?

JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE⁴: You know, the number of dead here is so overwhelming that officials have set up a mass grave on a hillside just east of the city of Marash. There are these long lines of fresh mounds⁵ on the hill. In any other time, you know, this would be a really spectacular spot where I am right now. There's these snow-capped mountains across the valley, but now it has become this assembly line for burying the dead. Corpses⁶ - they're coming in pickup⁷ trucks. They're coming in in ambulances, in vans from the morgues. The police identify the ones that they can.

Then there are these 19 white tents at the top of the hill, where the bodies are ceremonially washed. Then further down the hill, there are these backhoes that are digging trenches⁹. And as soon as the trenches are open, men, mourners come. They lower the body bags in. Then there's this sort of rotating chorus of sorrow here - family members crying and moms praying over the graves. And then they move on, and the backhoe cuts another trench⁸.

MART?NEZ: Is there a best guess on how many people have been buried where you are?

BEAUBIEN: Yeah, A, we've actually been asking that question here, and no one can give us an exact number at the moment because it keeps changing. But based on the numbers that are written on the graves, it's at least 4,000 just in this site alone.

MART?NEZ: Wow. That's awful. And this is just one place among many in this area that covers hundreds of miles. What are you seeing where you are that's happening somewhere else?

BEAUBIEN: Yeah. You know, Marash, where I am here - it's in the northern part of this massive quake zone. Some of the worst-hit places in Turkey are in Hatay in the south. We are seeing funerals and burials happening all over the place, everywhere. And one of the things about this disaster is that it hit when most people were home asleep. So you're getting entire families being killed together. And we go to some of these funerals. And for surviving relatives, it's particularly hard because in an instant, that extended family, which is so important in Turkey, may have been cut in half or even worse.

MART?NEZ: And while people are burying their dead, I mean, the reality of this is that the window for finding survivors¹⁰ is closing - what? - in about a week, and yet some people are still being pulled out alive.

BEAUBIEN: Yeah. There have been some remarkable¹¹ recoveries. Even today, rescuers pulled a 40-year-old woman alive out of the debris¹² of a collapsed building in an earthquake-damage region in Turkey. But rescuers are saying that it's getting to the point where it's unlikely that very many more people should be expected to be found alive. You know, it's been a week. It's been freezing at night. The rescuers in Syria announced several days ago that they were focusing on recovering bodies now instead of rescue operations. And the chance of finding many more people alive, rescuers here say, is slim.

MART?NEZ: And just one more thing really quick - people are angry there - right? - because of the recovery efforts.

BEAUBIEN: Some people are angry about the recovery efforts. There's also growing frustration¹³ about potentially that some of these buildings collapsed because of shoddy construction work. There's some arrests that happened over the weekend. Mainly, people are dealing¹⁴ with grief. But, yes, there is frustration that's also building in the midst of this disaster.

MART?NEZ: That's NPR's Jason Beaubien in Turkey.

Jason, thanks.

BEAUBIEN: You're welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF SILENT ISLAND'S "ODE TO AORAI")

1 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。

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 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。

5 mounds   

土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆

参考例句：

• We had mounds of tasteless rice. 我们有成堆成堆的淡而无味的米饭。
• Ah! and there's the cemetery' - cemetery, he must have meant. 'You see the mounds? 啊，这就是同墓，”——我想他要说的一定是公墓，“看到那些土墩了吗？

6 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

7 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

8 trench   

n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕

参考例句：

• The soldiers recaptured their trench.兵士夺回了战壕。
• The troops received orders to trench the outpost.部队接到命令在前哨周围筑壕加强防卫。

9 trenches   

深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕

参考例句：

• life in the trenches 第一次世界大战期间的战壕生活
• The troops stormed the enemy's trenches and fanned out across the fields. 部队猛攻敌人的战壕，并在田野上呈扇形散开。

10 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

11 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

12 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

13 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

14 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。