美国有线新闻 CNN 2015-08-24

 We're starting in Syria. The situation in this Middle Eastern country is the world's largest humanitarian¹ crisis. That's according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Syria's on-going civil wars, started in 2011. More than 11 million have fled their homes. And the ISIS terrorist group, which wants to create its own country, has taken over large parts of Syria. Amid everything that's going on, ISIS is destroying historic artifacts. The Muslim militants² have taken aim at many relics³ that aren't associated with Muslim culture. They recently murdered a Syrian professor who refused to pledge to ISIS and to tell them where certain archeological treasures are in the Syrian city of Palmyra. He wasn't the only Syrian peacefully defending his county's artifacts.

This is the centerpiece in the heart of the Syrian Antiquities⁴ Ministry's efforts to save this country's cultural heritage, of course, in this time of the civil war. What you can see here is these volunteers here are cataloguing small pieces we can look at them, of artifacts that have been found in various places here in the country. Of course, some of them in places that are now controlled by ISIS.

Now, all of them are going to get a number, and then afterwards, what's going to happen is they're going to go to the station over here where you can see that all these pieces are photographed. And the folks here have already done an amazing amount of work. They've catalogued more than 150,000 pieces already, 35,000 of those from the Palmyra area alone. So, they've been working a lot and under very difficult conditions, because this building here has taken mortar⁵ rounds in the past. There have been scientists from this building that have been killed and yet the folks come here almost everyday to continue this work.

1 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

2 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

3 relics   

[pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸

参考例句：

• The area is a treasure house of archaeological relics. 这个地区是古文物遗迹的宝库。
• Xi'an is an ancient city full of treasures and saintly relics. 西安是一个有很多宝藏和神圣的遗物的古老城市。

4 antiquities   

n.古老( antiquity的名词复数 )；古迹；古人们；古代的风俗习惯

参考例句：

• There is rest and healing in the contemplation of antiquities. 欣赏古物有休息和疗养之功。 来自辞典例句
• Bertha developed a fine enthusiasm for the antiquities of London. 伯沙对伦敦的古迹产生了很大的热情。 来自辞典例句

5 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。