新西兰英语 730 Remembering the earthquake

 　　Today, we remembered the terrible earthquake in Christchurch two years ago. It killed 185 people and injured many more.

　　Last year’s memorial service was held in Hagley Park, the place where so many people gathered, waiting for news after the earthquake. Listen to February 22nd 2012 to hear about this service.

　　This year’s memorial service was held in Latimer Square which is a big area of grass. This is very close to the CTV building where 115 people lost their lives. Latimer Square was also the place where USAR teams set up their headquarters. Doctors and nurses also worked in Latimer Square, treating injured people.

　　Today a large crowd of people gathered together in Latimer Square from midday, for a service to remember the earthquake. The Prime Minister spoke¹ about the grief that families still feel today. At 12.51pm, the time of the earthquake, there was silence for one minute while people remembered those who died that day. It was a very emotional time.

　　For the first time, there was no fence around the site of the CTV building. People brought flowers to that empty site today. There were flowers in the top of road cones² and some people threw flowers in the Avon River to remember this sad day.

　　Vocabulary

　　memorial service – like a church service to remember the dead

　　gathered – met together

　　CTV – Canterbury Television

　　USAR – Urban Search and Rescue (urban = city)

　　headquarters – the centre of their work

　　treat – doing something to help

　　grief – great sadness

　　emotional time – some people cried, others felt very sad

　　site – the land

　　road cones – red and white cones (like large upside-down ice-cream cones) where there are road works

　　Grammar

　　kill – transitive verb – needs an object e.g. X killed Y; often used in the passive e.g. Y was killed (by X)

　　die – intransitive verb – no object e.g. Y died.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 cones   

n.（人眼）圆锥细胞；圆锥体( cone的名词复数 )；球果；圆锥形东西；（盛冰淇淋的）锥形蛋卷筒

参考例句：

• In the pines squirrels commonly chew off and drop entire cones. 松树上的松鼠通常咬掉和弄落整个球果。 来自辞典例句
• Many children would rather eat ice cream from cones than from dishes. 许多小孩喜欢吃蛋卷冰淇淋胜过盘装冰淇淋。 来自辞典例句