新西兰英语 709 Royal Commission Report

 　　Yesterday the Royal Commission¹, which investigated the collapse² of the CTV building after the February 2011 earthquake, made their final report public.

　　First the report was given to the government at the end of November. Last weekend it was given to the families of the victims. It was translated into Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Korean for the families of many of the victims. Families had the weekend to read the report before it was made public yesterday. We already knew that many mistakes were made. Listen to September 8th 2011 to hear more about this.

　　The Inquiry³ began in April 2011 and finished in November 2012. The report consists of 7 volumes. Volumes 1 to 4 were made public earlier.

　　You can read the reports in English, Chinese, Thai or Korean at the Royal Commission website.

　　The final report made 83 recommendations⁴. Now it is the job of the Building and Construction Minister, Maurice Williamson, to recommend law changes so that mistakes like this will never happen again. Mr Williamson said that we can expect these recommendations by the middle of next year.

　　Vocabulary

　　?made public – copies of the report were given to the media and are on the website

　　?victims – people who died or were injured in the collapse of the building

　　?volumes – separate parts, separate books

　　?recommendations – strong suggestions; things that the government should do

1 commission   

n.委托，授权，委员会，拥金，回扣，委任状

参考例句：

• The salesman can get commission on everything he sells.这个售货员能得到所售每件货物的佣金。
• The commission is made up of five people,including two women.委员会由五人组成，其中包括两名妇女。

2 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

3 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

4 recommendations   

n.推荐( recommendation的名词复数 )；推荐信；正式建议；提议

参考例句：

• The board completely disregarded my recommendations. 董事会完全无视我的建议。
• Recommendations from two previous clients helped to establish her credibility. 两位以前的客户的推荐有助于确立她的诚信度。 来自《简明英汉词典》