CNN 2011-02-26

It is Wednesday, February 23rd, and we have a lot of international stories to tell you about today on CNN Student News. My name is Carl Azuz. We're starting off in New Zealand.The earthquake that jolted¹ the South Pacific country yesterday left one of its biggest cities in ruins. Christchurch, located on New Zealand's east coast, was badly shaken during lunch hour. It was a 6.3-magnitude quake, followed by strong aftershocks, and it was heartbreaking, according to New Zealand's prime minister. Dozens are dead. Parts of the city, as we said, are in ruins. Rescuers are streaming in from all over the country and all over the region, rescue being the nation's top priority at this point. 80 percent of Christchurch is without power and phone lines are down, making communication challenging for many survivors². This quake was actually an aftershock itself, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. New Zealand's been rattled³ by a series of earthquakes since last September. This one was the worst, causing what could be New Zealand's darkest day, according to its leader.

What started off as an around-the-world boating trip ended in tragedy on Tuesday. Four Americans were shot and killed by pirates who hijacked⁵ their ship in the Indian Ocean last week. The U.S. military says 19 pirates were involved in the hijacking⁶. Four of them were killed. The other 15, captured. In these photos, you can see the ship, a 58-foot yacht called the Quest, along with its owners, Jean and Scott Adams. The couple, with two friends, changed course during their boating rally. They ended up in a part of the Indian Ocean where a lot of pirate attacks happen. Zain Verjee talked with a security expert to get an idea of how these pirates work. Here's part of that conversation.

Just walk someone through how pirates hijack⁴ ships and, geographically⁷, what do they do and then where do they end up?

OK, well, pirates are predominantly based in the area called Puntland, which is this area here. It's in the the northeast area of Somalia. And realistically, what they'll do is they'll base themselves out of the pirate towns using mother ships, but disperse⁸ themselves. But they'll move further out into the Indian Ocean using these mother ships until they can find suitable targets. And some groups will obviously go further north, as we can see. And some will go further down south and stick to the coast of Tanzania or deep into the Indian Ocean. What they'll do is they'll move further out, they'll identify the targets and use these small attack skiffs to try and get on board. Once they've got on board and they've seized control of the vessel⁹ and the crew, they'll take the ships back to the anchorages off the coast of Somalia, and they'll sit there and negotiate with the shipping¹⁰ companies to pay a multi-million dollar ransom¹¹.

1 jolted   

（使）摇动， （使）震惊( jolt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• She was jolted out of her reverie as the door opened. 门一开就把她从幻想中惊醒。

2 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

3 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

4 hijack   

v.劫持，劫机，拦路抢劫

参考例句：

• Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。
• The hijack take place just after the plane take off.劫持是飞机刚起飞后发生的。

5 hijacked   

劫持( hijack的过去式和过去分词 )； 绑架； 拦路抢劫； 操纵（会议等，以推销自己的意图）

参考例句：

• The plane was hijacked by two armed men on a flight from London to Rome. 飞机在从伦敦飞往罗马途中遭到两名持械男子劫持。
• The plane was hijacked soon after it took off. 那架飞机起飞后不久被劫持了。

6 hijacking   

n. 劫持, 抢劫 动词hijack的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• I have been told about the hijacking . 我已听说了那次劫机事件。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 口语
• They are taking measures to guarantee against the occurrence of hijacking. 他们正采取措施防止劫机事件的发生。

7 geographically   

adv.地理学上，在地理上，地理方面

参考例句：

• Geographically, the UK is on the periphery of Europe. 从地理位置上讲，英国处于欧洲边缘。 来自辞典例句
• All these events, however geographically remote, urgently affected Western financial centers. 所有这些事件，无论发生在地理上如何遥远的地方，都对西方金融中心产生紧迫的影响。 来自名作英译部分

8 disperse   

vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散

参考例句：

• The cattle were swinging their tails to disperse the flies.那些牛甩动着尾巴驱赶苍蝇。
• The children disperse for the holidays.孩子们放假了。

9 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

10 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

11 ransom   

n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救

参考例句：

• We'd better arrange the ransom right away.我们最好马上把索取赎金的事安排好。
• The kidnappers exacted a ransom of 10000 from the family.绑架者向这家人家勒索10000英镑的赎金。