PBS高端访谈:尼泊尔地震的余震和山体滑坡依然在持续

 　　GWEN IFILL: And earlier this afternoon, I spoke¹ via Skype to one of the many international aid workers trying to help in Nepal.

　　Andy Bastable is head of water and sanitation² at Oxfam. He is in Kathmandu.

　　Andy, tell us, what are the immediate³ challenges you face on the ground?

　　ANDY BASTABLE, Oxfam: It's mainly around logistics.

　　So, you have got — it's a big — Kathmandu is a big city. And then it's got big, big suburbs. And then you have got bits of areas where buildings have fallen down and then you have got little groups of displaced people. So, at the moment, there's 16 designated official areas of displaced people, and then you have got a lot more unofficial sort of areas where people are.

　　So, to get round these kind of quite blocked roads, blocked with rubble⁴ or blocked with kind of traffic, to get around to each site, our job, as Oxfam, is supplying kind of water and we're doing sanitation of these sites. We have started doing water trucking. So it's mainly around the logistics of getting to each place quickly.

　　GWEN IFILL: It seems like the biggest challenge might be the scope. How do you even gauge⁵ what the scope of the need is?

　　ANDY BASTABLE: That's true, that we're trying to actually do two things at once, one, actually start work.

　　So, we're starting water trucking. We're starting building kind of Oxfam tanks at these displaced centers. And at the same time, we have got other teams out assessing kind of further areas, because, at the moment, it does seem that a lot of the efforts are in the immediate Kathmandu area, because it's easier to get to.

　　GWEN IFILL: Are the aftershocks presenting a challenge, a logistical challenge?

　　ANDY BASTABLE: Yes, but mostly in the fear of the people, the people who have been in their house and know family and friends who have been killed or their own house is going to collapse⁶.

　　These aftershocks represent a huge traumatic event, and just it reminds them of all the trauma⁷ that they went through kind of on Saturday morning. So, it's more traumatic, I think. Most of the old buildings that have fallen down will have fallen down and now we have just maybe got small falls as the aftershocks occur.

　　GWEN IFILL: Is there any way to compare what we're seeing unfold here with other disasters of this type around the world?

　　ANDY BASTABLE: Yes.

　　From what I have seen so far, that this isn't on the scale of Haiti. There's not — the mass devastation⁸ of Katmandu is not the same as the mass devastation in Port-au-Prince in 2010. So it's not quite as big as that, but it's, we could say, covering a wider area. And, yes, I think some of the poverty levels when you get out of Kathmandu are more extreme.

　　GWEN IFILL: Thank you, Andy Bastable of Oxfam.

　　ANDY BASTABLE: Thank you very much.

　　GWEN IFILL: The 7.8-magnitude earthquake was the strongest to hit the Himalayan nation in more than 80 years. The country is at the junction⁹ of a major fault line between two tectonic plates, the Indian and Eurasian ones.

　　As you can see on this color-coded map, strong shaking was felt far away from the epicenter northeast of Kathmandu. Orange and yellow areas indicate strong to severe shaking. In the days since, there have been dozens of aftershocks.

　　To help us understand more, I'm joined by David Applegate, associate director for natural hazards with the U.S. Geological Survey.

　　So, give us the geological explanation, the layman's explanation for what actually happened here.

　　DAVID APPLEGATE, Associate Director for Natural Hazards, U.S. Geological Survey: So what we're looking at with this area is, it's a collision zone.

　　And most of the areas around the world where we have tectonic plates colliding, one against the other, we have oceanic plates going underneath¹⁰ continental¹¹ ones. Well, this is one where you have a head-on collision, India slamming into Asia. It's been going on for the last 50 million years.

　　But while it's an inexorable process, the actual on-the-ground effect is, the faults are locked up. They gain stress. It builds up, builds up, and finally they break. And that's an earthquake.

　　GWEN IFILL: This is an area that was prone¹² to these quakes? Was it inevitable¹³ that it was — did you see it coming?

　　DAVID APPLEGATE: Absolutely. It was inevitable when we think about the long-term hazard.

　　There's been significant earthquakes. Now, there haven't been a lot in the past, say, 50, 60 years. But if we look back deeper into time, we see a series of large quakes. The fact that we hadn't had them recently means that stress has been building up. And so it was — there was an inevitability¹⁴, not the exact moment of when it would happen, but that it would happen.

　　GWEN IFILL: So, is what we saw the culmination¹⁵ of a slow buildup or is it a precursor¹⁶ to more?

　　DAVID APPLEGATE: Well, for this particular zone, it relieved the stress. You saw on the map that it starts in one place, that epicenter, but then it ruptured¹⁷ to the east.

　　GWEN IFILL: Which is northwest. I said northeast, but yes.

　　DAVID APPLEGATE: That's right, off to the northwest. And then it ruptured to the east past Kathmandu. So a whole segment of this large fault has ruptured.

　　Now, that relieves the stress there, but it does mean that it's — there may be additional stress on other sections of the fault.

　　GWEN IFILL: So, is it fair to say, if the last big quake in this region happened in 1934, or more than 80 years ago, that this was overdue¹⁸?

　　DAVID APPLEGATE: Well, there have been — there have been other events, other sections of the plate, but for this particular zone, that 1934 quake didn't relieve the stress.

　　It was further off to the west. I think the epicenter was just south of Mount Everest. So it relieved the stress in that area, but it didn't relieve it in this area.

　　GWEN IFILL: Much discussion about aftershocks. We heard the aid worker talk about fear. But there's also some real other concerns as well.

　　DAVID APPLEGATE: Well, aftershocks are one of the things that are most difficult of dialing with a large disaster, an earthquake disaster.

　　With a hurricane, the weather comes through, the sun comes out, people are able…

　　GWEN IFILL: Then it's over.

　　DAVID APPLEGATE: It's over. But with the aftershocks, it's that constant drumbeat.

　　And as we heard from the — from Oxfam, the issue here is, it's also a mental one, in addition to the physical effects of it, that for every magnitude 5 — and we have had several — let's see — we have had over 50 magnitude 4 and 5 earthquakes and even a couple of magnitude 6s in the aftershock zone across that whole area that we described.

　　Well, so, in addition to that, that means you still have, say, another — hundreds of smaller 3s and 4s that are going to be affecting people just constantly. And so that's a huge challenge.

　　GWEN IFILL: Given what you know about the area's topology, is the death toll¹⁹ likely to rise?

　　DAVID APPLEGATE: There are still a lot of areas where — as we heard, a lot of the focus has been on Kathmandu, but particularly the epicentral region, it is very remote.

　　We know it's not just the issue of the earthquake shaking itself, but landslides²⁰ are going to be — happen throughout that region. That can have further effects, damming rivers, potential for down the stream.

　　GWEN IFILL: David Applegate of the U.S. Geological Survey, thank you.

　　DAVID APPLEGATE: Thank you.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 sanitation   

n.公共卫生，环境卫生，卫生设备

参考例句：

• The location is exceptionally poor,viewed from the sanitation point.从卫生角度来看，这个地段非常糟糕。
• Many illnesses are the result,f inadequate sanitation.许多疾病都来源于不健全的卫生设施。

3 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

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 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

6 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

7 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

8 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》

9 junction   

n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站

参考例句：

• There's a bridge at the junction of the two rivers.两河的汇合处有座桥。
• You must give way when you come to this junction.你到了这个路口必须让路。

10 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

11 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

12 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

13 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

14 inevitability   

n.必然性

参考例句：

• Evolutionism is normally associated with a belief in the inevitability of progress. 进化主义通常和一种相信进步不可避免的看法相联系。
• It is the tide of the times, an inevitability of history. 这是时代的潮流，历史的必然。

15 culmination   

n.顶点；最高潮

参考例句：

• The space race reached its culmination in the first moon walk.太空竞争以第一次在月球行走而达到顶峰。
• It may truly be regarded as the culmination of classical Greek geometry.这确实可以看成是古典希腊几何的登峰造级之作。

16 precursor   

n.先驱者；前辈；前任；预兆；先兆

参考例句：

• Error is often the precursor of what is correct.错误常常是正确的先导。
• He said that the deal should not be seen as a precursor to a merger.他说该笔交易不应该被看作是合并的前兆。

17 ruptured   

v.（使）破裂( rupture的过去式和过去分词 )；（使体内组织等）断裂；使（友好关系）破裂；使绝交

参考例句：

• They reported that the pipeline had ruptured. 他们报告说管道已经破裂了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wall through Berlin was finally ruptured, prefiguring the reunification of Germany. 柏林墙终于倒塌了，预示着德国的重新统一。 来自辞典例句

18 overdue   

adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的

参考例句：

• The plane is overdue and has been delayed by the bad weather.飞机晚点了，被坏天气耽搁了。
• The landlady is angry because the rent is overdue.女房东生气了，因为房租过期未付。

19 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

20 landslides   

山崩( landslide的名词复数 )； （山坡、悬崖等的）崩塌； 滑坡； （竞选中）一方选票占压倒性多数

参考例句：

• Landslides have cut off many villages in remote areas. 滑坡使边远地区的许多村庄与外界隔绝。
• The storm caused landslides and flooding in Savona. 风暴致使萨沃纳发生塌方和洪灾。