美国有线新闻 CNN 印尼发生6.5级地震 救援工作仍在紧张进行

 

First story takes us to the fifth most populated country in the world, the Pacific island nation of Indonesia, home to more than 258 million people, and some of them are struggling with the devastation¹ of another earthquake. A 6.5 magnitude quake shook the far northwestern part of Indonesia Wednesday morning. The tremor² was shallow, meaning its focus was relatively³ close to the earth surface and NOAA officials said last night that at least 97 people have been killed. They expected that number to go up as they search through the rubble⁴.

An Indonesian government official says the priority now is search and rescue, and that authorities have to move fast. Hundreds of buildings have been destroyed, and though there was no tsunami⁵ warning, some Indonesian still fled to higher ground with the memory of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 80,000 people and left millions homeless.

Earthquakes are common in Indonesia, because of the country's location on the Pacific Ring of Fire.

SUBTITLE⁶: What is the "Ring of Fire"?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: There's one thing you need to know about the Ring of Fire, it produces 90 percent of the world's earthquakes.

The Ring of Fire includes about 250 volcanoes. Many of them are submarine volcanoes, meaning they're underwater, as are 75 percent of the world's volcanoes in total.

Now, the Ring of Fire is also called the Circum Pacific Belt. It's a result of plate tectonics. The movement of the plates has created a nearly continuous series of oceanic trenches⁷ and chains of volcanoes, stretching for 25,000 miles in a horseshoe shape pattern from New Zealand, past Japan, across the Bering Strait and down toward the tip of South America.

The plate movement also causes earthquakes, because many of these earthquakes occur in the ocean, the Ring of Fire is also known for tsunamis⁸ produced when the ocean floor is either forced to rise or fall. When the mega thrust event happens in this region, the water is displaced, and the water pushes ashore⁹.

Most tsunamis are only a few inches high, but there are times that that wave and that swell¹⁰ can be as tall as buildings.

1 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 tremor   

n.震动，颤动，战栗，兴奋，地震

参考例句：

• There was a slight tremor in his voice.他的声音有点颤抖。
• A slight earth tremor was felt in California.加利福尼亚发生了轻微的地震。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

5 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

6 subtitle   

n.副题（书本中的），说明对白的字幕

参考例句：

• His new book has a subtitle.他的新书有一个副标题。
• Ah!I don't know why they don't subtitle these movies.唉！我不知道这些电影为什么不打字幕。

7 trenches   

深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕

参考例句：

• life in the trenches 第一次世界大战期间的战壕生活
• The troops stormed the enemy's trenches and fanned out across the fields. 部队猛攻敌人的战壕，并在田野上呈扇形散开。

8 tsunamis   

n.海啸( tsunami的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our oceans are alive with earthquakes, volcanoes, and more recently, tsunamis. 海中充满着地震、火山，包括最近发生的海啸。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年2月号
• Please tell me something more about tsunamis! 请您给我讲讲海啸吧！ 来自辞典例句

9 ashore   

adv.在(向)岸上，上岸

参考例句：

• The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前，孩子们就上岸了。
• He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。

10 swell   

vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强

参考例句：

• The waves had taken on a deep swell.海浪汹涌。
• His injured wrist began to swell.他那受伤的手腕开始肿了。