美国有线新闻 CNN 飓风玛丽亚来袭 直扑波多黎各

 

Tuesday night, the Leeward¹ Islands in the eastern Caribbean took another hit from an Atlantic Hurricane. This one is named Maria and it's powerful.

And the 24 hours before it started lashing² the islands of Martinique and Dominica, this hurricane had doubled in strength.

Forecasters expected Maria to be a category four storm with wind speeds of at least 135 miles per hour when it made its first landfall. But there was some uncertainty³ about that because Maria was expected to keep growing.

Several Caribbean islands were devastated⁴ by hurricane Irma, less than two weeks ago. Communication lines are still down in the British Virgin⁵ Islands and they could now get hit by Maria.

As of last night, the storm was spinning northwest toward the U.S. Commonwealth⁶ of Puerto Rico. The governor there declared a state of emergency to free up government funds to help with disaster recovery. If Maria makes landfall there, that's? likely to happen on Wednesday.

And if it does so as a category four hurricane, it would be the first one that strong to hit Puerto Rico in 85 years.

The National Hurricane Center predicted rainfall of six to 12 inches on the island, with some areas possibly getting more than two feet of rain. That could lead to flooding and mudslides.

1 leeward   

adj.背风的；下风的

参考例句：

• The trees all listed to leeward.树木统统向下风方向倾。
• We steered a course to leeward.我们向下风航驶。

2 lashing   

n.鞭打；痛斥；大量；许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• The speaker was lashing the crowd. 演讲人正在煽动人群。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rain was lashing the windows. 雨急打着窗子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

4 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

5 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

6 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。