美国第一夫人就水灾情况答记者问

(I/we) wanna urge people who want to volunteer, and who have the ability to be able to come to Louisiana or any of the Gulf¹ Coast states that were affected² and volunteer to try to do that. And if you can't do it this week, there will be next week and the next week, and it's gonna go on for a long time. So we want to make sure that volunteers continue all through the months that it's gonna take to let people be able to get back into their own homes, and back into their own city. They are registering children for school all here. They are actually in this center. You can register for school and the children from New Orleans who will go to the Lafayette schools will start on Wednesday, so I think that' s very important. It's very important to get your children in school, give children a sense of normalcy, and so I want to urge people, ah, who wherever you are around, ah, the country if you've left New Orleans or left any of the affected areas on the Gulf Coast to go ahead and enroll³ your children in schools. It's very important for them. Ah, I heard a great story about a little boy from New Orleans, who, ah, went to school today at the Texas school district and youthin high school but he's sort of thin and small and two great big football players, sort of adopted him and walking him around the campus and welcoming him to their school. So I know school districts everywhere will be welcoming. And I want to thank the people of Texas, and Houston, and Dallas, and San Antonio that have opened their, big arenas⁴ like this, to take in, ah, take people in, the people who have been displaced because of the storm, and, and those school districts are also opening up. So it's really important for parents to keep their, let their kids keep going to school, getting them in school, don't let them get behind and also give them a sense of normalcy for their day. I think this is a really wonderful example of what happens when a community comes together. Of the logistics, even, ah, of which, a community has to put together to try to, ah, have this little city within a city over 6,000 people here in one place to meet their needs, their needs for hygiene⁵, their needs for food obviously, and water and in a safe place for people to be, it's really, really amazing those logistics are and now I wanna congratulate the people of Lafayette for being able to do this in such a very quick and such a humane⁶ way. I'm really helping⁷ people not just giving them the basic needs but also trying to give them the emotional support they need right now at such a very difficult time in their lives.

I think what happened is what always happens in this kind of disaster. This is probably the largest disaster our country has ever had, natural disaster we've ever had. And when you have that many people displaced out of their homes, when you have that big urban area flooded where people can't go back into it. You know, it's not like a hurricane whether water washes in and washes out, you know, it's still standing⁸ there, then that's what you see. It had, it just, you know, that's just how what happens in a, this terrible of a disaster, and the fact is, many times as we know from watching tornado⁹ coverage¹⁰, or any other natural disaster coverage, the poor people usually are in the neighborhoods that are the lowest, are the most exposed, are the most vulnerable, and their housing is the most vulnerable to a natural disaster. And that's just always what it happens.

Well, I know that the federal government is doing every single thing they possibly can, but the president said today, I think that he had (was not with me this morning, that was, he came over from Texas) said that, you know, it's not adequate. This response is not an adequate response. This is not the kind of response the federal government wants. We know that we can do it better and that we can get it, ah, better, and that's what every single person, not just the federal government but the local governments everywhere are working on. And not just the local governments in the affect, in the affected areas, but governments local governments a long way away, Pittsburg, I think, called the mayor today, and Youngstown Ohio was sending trucks, ah, of, of things, and you know, people wanna help in whatever way they can.

1 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 enroll   

v.招收；登记；入学；参军；成为会员（英)enrol

参考例句：

• I should like to enroll all my children in the swimming class.我愿意让我的孩子们都参加游泳班。
• They enroll him as a member of the club.他们吸收他为俱乐部会员。

4 arenas   

表演场地( arena的名词复数 )； 竞技场； 活动或斗争的场所或场面； 圆形运动场

参考例句：

• Demolition derbies are large-scale automobile rodeos that take place in big arenas. 撞车比赛指的是在很大的竞技场上举行的大型汽车驾驶技术表演。
• Are there areas of privacy in the most public of arenas? 在绝大部分公开的场合中存在需要保护隐私的领域吗？

5 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

6 humane   

adj.人道的，富有同情心的

参考例句：

• Is it humane to kill animals for food?宰杀牲畜来吃合乎人道吗？
• Their aim is for a more just and humane society.他们的目标是建立一个更加公正、博爱的社会。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

10 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。