新西兰英语 482 Six months since Christchurch big earthquake

 　　It is six months today since the February earthquake which killed 181 people. The city of Christchurch has changed completely in that time. The central city is still closed while buildings are demolished¹. 370 buildings have been demolished so far. Another 530 badly damaged buildings will be repaired or demolished shortly. Sometimes the insurance company decides it is too expensive to repair a building; instead it is demolished. Most of the big hotels in the city will be demolished. Many churches, shops, restaurants and bars will be demolished.

　　6040 houses in the residential³ red zone will be demolished. Many of these houses are beside a river and the land cannot be used for houses. The first 3000 offers from the government to buy their property were posted in the weekend.

　　20 roads outside the central city are still closed. Some of those roads are on the hills where there is still a worry about falling rocks. It could be another four months before owners of houses on the hills know if their house will be demolished.

　　After-shocks are continuing. Today there were two moderate after-shocks: 4.2 and 4.3.

　　To find out more about the damage caused by Christchurch earthquakes, type “earthquake” in the search box.

　　Vocabulary

　　Note the noun from “demolish” is “demolition”

　　Residential – where people live. A house is a residence. Verb: reside² in /at

　　Grammar

　　Note the structure: too expensive to repair; too does not mean “very” – it is a negative word.

　　This is a very useful structure: too + adjective + infinitive⁴ e.g. too late to phone, too tired to work, too hot to sleep. Think of some examples for yourself.

1 demolished   

v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光

参考例句：

• The factory is due to be demolished next year. 这个工厂定于明年拆除。
• They have been fighting a rearguard action for two years to stop their house being demolished. 两年来，为了不让拆除他们的房子，他们一直在进行最后的努力。

2 reside   

vi.居住，定居（in），（性质等）存在，在于

参考例句：

• They reside abroad.他们居住在国外。
• The true face of Lushan is lost to my sight,for it is right in this mountain that I reside.不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中。

3 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

4 infinitive   

n.不定词；adj.不定词的

参考例句：

• The use of the split infinitive is now generally acceptable.分裂不定式的用法现在已被广泛接受。
• Modal verbs generally take the bare infinitive.情态动词通常用不带to的不定式。