NEWS-联合国增加对海啸受难者的援助

UN Raises Record Aid Amounts for Tsunami¹ Victims

 

The United Nations says international donors² have committed $700 million in immediate³ aid to victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami. While funds flow in at an unprecedented⁴ pace, the goal of reaching all victims remains⁵ elusive⁶.

 

U.N. emergency relief coordinator⁷ Jan Egeland is predicting that donors will meet or exceed the goal of nearly one billion dollars for immediate aid. After more than 80 contributing states met in Geneva, Mr. Egeland said this is the first time the world body has collected so much so soon after a disaster.

 

That optimism was tempered, however, by word that two and a half weeks after the tsunami struck, relief workers still have not reached large areas along Sumatra's northwest coast. Kevin Kennedy of the U.N. Office of Humanitarian⁸ Affairs in New York says analysis through helicopter searches and satellite imagery indicates as many as 40 population centers are still inaccessible⁹ by land.

 

Jan Egeland : The road is washed out for hundreds of kilometers. The road no longer exists. It's gone. It's at sea, as a matter of fact. Where the ocean came in, and it came up to a distance of three miles at some points, the road is completely destroyed, so the road is just not there. One cannot build a road hundreds of kilometers long in the space of two weeks. It's just not possible. Particularly when our assets are focused on trying to get assistance out by air and other things to meet those needs.

 

Mr. Kennedy says air surveillance of the inland region to search for possible survivors¹⁰ has been incomplete because of the dense¹¹ foliage¹². But he says newly-arrived helicopters will allow a better assessment¹³ within the next couple days.

 

Mr. Kennedy: We have begun …a more organized assessment of the needs along western coast of Sumatra, principally using helicopters from the United States, operating off ships off shore. That began today, and that's a combined operation,…and I think as we gather that data we'll have a better sense of who we’re reaching and who we’re not reaching.

 

Mr. Kennedy says aid is arriving rapidly at central points in northern Sumatra, such as Banda Aceh and Medan, for delivery outward. The Banda Aceh airport, for instance, handled an average of three flights a day before the tsunami struck. Now it handles 200 a day. Extra crews of air traffic controllers are being flown in to the area to handle the backlog¹⁴ of arriving cargo¹⁵ planes.

 

Officials estimate that governments and private individuals have pledged more than three billion dollars in short and long-term aid for the 12 countries hit by the tsunami.

Peter Heinlein, VOA News, the United Nations．

 

1 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。

2 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

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 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 elusive   

adj.难以表达(捉摸)的；令人困惑的；逃避的

参考例句：

• Try to catch the elusive charm of the original in translation.翻译时设法把握住原文中难以捉摸的风韵。
• Interpol have searched all the corners of the earth for the elusive hijackers.国际刑警组织已在世界各地搜查在逃的飞机劫持者。

7 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

8 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

9 inaccessible   

adj.达不到的，难接近的

参考例句：

• This novel seems to me among the most inaccessible.这本书对我来说是最难懂的小说之一。
• The top of Mount Everest is the most inaccessible place in the world.珠穆朗玛峰是世界上最难到达的地方。

10 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

11 dense   

a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。
• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage. 小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。

12 foliage   

n.叶子，树叶，簇叶

参考例句：

• The path was completely covered by the dense foliage.小路被树叶厚厚地盖了一层。
• Dark foliage clothes the hills.浓密的树叶覆盖着群山。

13 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

14 backlog   

n.积压未办之事

参考例句：

• It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.要花一个月的时间才能清理完积压的工作。
• Investment is needed to reduce the backlog of repairs.需要投资来減轻积压的维修工作。

15 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。