新西兰英语 524 Most oil removed from Rena

 　　Most of the oil has now been pumped out of the ship, the Rena, which hit a reef¹ on October 5th. The ship carried 1700 tonnes of heavy oil. 350 tonnes leaked into the sea. This oil killed more than 1300 sea birds and polluted the sand and rocks around the coast of Tauranga. The job of pumping the remaining oil from the ship’s tanks into an oil tanker² has been very dangerous work. Men worked deep inside the Rena. The ship has many cracks in it and could break up any time.

　　Tomorrow the job of removing the containers will begin. A crane ship will anchor beside the Rena to lift off each container. This is difficult work, especially if the sea is rough. This job will take many months as the crane can only remove five or six containers a day. There are 1280 containers still on the Rena; 466 of them are on the deck and the rest are inside.

　　Another ship is searching for the 70 or more containers which fell off the Rena. Most of those are at the bottom of the sea.

　　To find about more about what happened, type Rena in the search box at the top right.

　　Vocabulary

　　remove – take out

　　reef – group of rocks

　　pumped – pushed out through a pipe

　　leaked – came out by accident

　　polluted – made the environment dirty

　　the coast – the place where the sea meets the land

　　remaining – the oil that is left after 350 tonnes leaked into the sea

　　oil tanker – ship which carries oil

　　1280 containers still on the Rena – these are left on the Rena

　　crane – a large machine which lifts things into the air

　　anchor – a heavy object on the end of a chain that keeps a boat in one place

1 reef   

n.礁，礁石，暗礁

参考例句：

• The ship and its crew were lost on the reef.那条船及船员都触礁遇难了。
• The ship was wrecked on a coral reef.这条船在珊瑚暗礁上撞毁了。

2 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。