新西兰英语 583 Rena report

 　　The ship, the Rena, hit a reef near the port of Tauranga on October 5th last year. As a result, containers fell into the sea and oil polluted the beaches, killing¹ many sea birds.

　　This week, a 20 page report gave the facts of what happened. The ship had just come from the port of Napier. It was 13 hours late leaving Napier because it had to wait for another ship to be unloaded first. When the Rena got close to the port of Tauranga, the captain was told to hurry to get there by 3am before the tide changed. If he waited at sea until 7am, it would cost about $6,000. The captain decided² to take a short cut. At 2.05am, he heard an echo on the radar³ and looked through binoculars⁴ but saw nothing. At 2.14am, the ship hit a reef.

　　Although an officer has to make a mark on the chart every 20 minutes to show their position, the sailor keeping watch – not an officer – did this at 1am and 1.20am. That was the last mark on the chart.

　　Listen to October 9th 2011 to hear more about this or type “Rena” in the search box to hear what happened afterwards.

　　Vocabulary

　　reef – rocks

　　facts – things that are true

　　unloaded – goods taken off a ship

　　take a short cut – go in a straight line instead of going around something

　　echo – a sound is repeated

　　binoculars – use both eyes to look through this to see something far away

　　chart – detailed map

1 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

4 binoculars   

n.双筒望远镜

参考例句：

• He watched the play through his binoculars.他用双筒望远镜看戏。
• If I had binoculars,I could see that comet clearly.如果我有望远镜，我就可以清楚地看见那颗彗星。