听遍美国之空难性新闻[4]:20th Anniversary of Mt. St. Helens Eruption

听遍美国之空难性新闻[4]:20th Anniversary of Mt. St. Helens Eruption¹

 Twenty years ago a massive(1) blast(2) sideways from Mount St. Helens vaporized(3) forests in five thousand degree heat, flattened(4) hundreds of miles of timberland, and killed 57 people, many of whom vanished(5) beneath【在…下面】tons of ash.
 “We first thought it was a forest fire or something; then all of a sudden, we realized it was the mountain.”
“And you could see it churning【搅动;翻腾】churning and boiling, and you can actually hear it, just kind of a rumble【轰隆声】. So we were actually right under it.”
Scientists who watched it blow now say the eruption(6) began with a modest earthquake(7) enough to loosen the already unstable³ mountainside.
Peter Lipman (of the US Geological Survey) : “And that released the pressure that was holding the molten【熔化地】 rock inside the volcano(8) and then a number of seconds after, they observed the beginning of the landslide⁵(9), they saw the first ash cloud come out and the big explosions begin.”
Mt. St. Helens stunned(10) scientists with its ferocity【凶猛；残暴】; so much so it is now the most studied volcano in the world.
 Peter Lipman : “The events on May 18 involved an earthquake, a landslide, a horizontally (11)directed explosion, a vertically⁷(12) directed explosion. And the resulting deposits are immensely(13) complicated(14) .”
Scientists rush to Mt. St. Helens in the spring of 1980 to study what was then just a rumbling⁸ mountain. Lipman’s fellow scientist and friend David Johnston died in the blast. Johnston is memorialized outside his old office with a chunk【木板】 of the volcano he died studying.
Now tourist helicopters fly over the volcano’s edge. About three million people per year visit the one hundred thousand acre national preserve【保护区】.
Much of the land will look this way for centuries. But amid the dust, life returns, sometimes flourishes(15).
Bob Andrew (of the US Forest Service ): “It is beautiful. Wildflowers all over. We have lots and lots of wild elk⁹ and deer. In fact we have more deer than we had before.”
The fury of Mt. St. Helens has turned scientists’ attention to Oregon’s Mount Hood¹⁰ to the south and to Washington’s Mount Rainier. Both are geologic⁴ cousins. Both are capable of the same thing. Grey Lefay, CNN San Francisco.

听音瓶颈词汇

1.massive adj.巨大的；大规模的
2.blast  n.爆炸；爆发
3.vaporize v.使蒸发
4.flatten² v.使平坦；摧毁
5.vanish v.消失
6.eruption  n.(火山)爆发;(熔岩的)喷出
7.earthquake n.地震
8.volcano n.火山
9.landslide  n.滑坡
10.stun⁶ v.使大吃一惊；使目瞪口呆
11.horizontally adv.地平地；水平地
12.vertically adv.垂直地；直立地
13.immensely adv.极大地；广大地
14.complicated adj.复杂的；难懂的
15.flourish v.茂盛；繁茂

听音高级短语

all of a sudden 突然
a number of  一些
be capable of 能够；有能力

听音超级句型

Eruption began with a modest earthquake enough to loosen the already unstable mountainside.
爆发开始时伴有轻微的地震，使本来不够稳固的山体变得更加松弛。

A number of seconds after, they observed the beginning of the landslide, they saw the first ash cloud come out and the big explosions begin.
数秒钟后，他们发现山体开始滑坡，第一股浓烟溢出，然后爆炸随之而来。

 

1 eruption   

n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作

参考例句：

• The temple was destroyed in the violent eruption of 1470 BC.庙宇在公元前1470年猛烈的火山爆发中摧毁了。
• The eruption of a volcano is spontaneous.火山的爆发是自发的。

2 flatten   

v.把．．．弄平，使倒伏；使(漆等)失去光泽

参考例句：

• We can flatten out a piece of metal by hammering it.我们可以用锤子把一块金属敲平。
• The wrinkled silk will flatten out if you iron it.发皱的丝绸可以用熨斗烫平。

3 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。

4 geologic   

adj.地质的

参考例句：

• The Red Sea is a geologic continuation of the valley.红海就是一个峡谷在地质上的继续发展。
• Delineation of channels is the first step of geologic evaluation.勾划河道的轮廓是地质解译的第一步。

5 landslide   

n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利

参考例句：

• Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
• An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。

6 stun   

vt.打昏，使昏迷，使震惊，使惊叹

参考例句：

• When they told me she had gone missing I was totally stunned.他们告诉我她不见了时，我当时完全惊呆了。
• Sam stood his ground and got a blow that stunned him.萨姆站在原地，被一下打昏了。

7 vertically   

adv.垂直地

参考例句：

• Line the pages for the graph both horizontally and vertically.在这几页上同时画上横线和竖线，以便制作图表。
• The human brain is divided vertically down the middle into two hemispheres.人脑从中央垂直地分为两半球。

8 rumbling   

n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词

参考例句：

• The earthquake began with a deep [low] rumbling sound. 地震开始时发出低沉的隆隆声。
• The crane made rumbling sound. 吊车发出隆隆的响声。

9 elk   

n.麋鹿

参考例句：

• I was close enough to the elk to hear its labored breathing.我离那头麋鹿非常近，能听见它吃力的呼吸声。
• The refuge contains the largest wintering population of elk in the world.这座庇护所有着世界上数量最大的冬季麋鹿群。

10 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。