英闻天下——332 Is Early Warning Earthquake System Effective?

 　　China is frequently hit by earthquake. Now it's planning to build a national earthquake monitoring and warning system within five years to reduce casualties and economic losses.

 

　　An official from the administration said while the system would not be able to forecast an earthquake, but it could detect quakes and notify people within seconds before seismic¹ waves actually hit them. The project has been filed with the country's top economic planner for approval, and includes the establishment of some 5,000 stations across the country with two billion yuan in funds, which is around 320 million US dollars. A trial program using nearly 100 monitoring stations is currently being carried out in southeast China's Fujian Province and has proven successful.

 

　　"Even if it's only several seconds in advance, people can be at least notified of an earthquake and then start to evacuate². They can react immediately. It's better than standing³ there doing nothing."

 

　　"I'm quite worried about the accuracy of the information, because it's reported that there were cases that they thought it were earthquakes, but it turned out it was just firecrackers during the Spring Festival."

 

　　"I'm wondering how the information is disseminated⁴. If the channel is TV, radio or internet, still there are some people who don't know. Not to mention that it's just a few seconds in advance."

 

　　It's been estimated that if people are warned three seconds in advance, casualties can be reduced by 14 percent. If the reaction time is ten seconds, casualties may be dropped by 39 percent.

1 seismic   

a.地震的，地震强度的

参考例句：

• Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
• The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。

2 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

3 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。

4 disseminated   

散布，传播( disseminate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Their findings have been widely disseminated . 他们的研究成果已经广为传播。
• Berkovitz had contracted polio after ingesting a vaccine disseminated under federal supervision. 伯考维茨在接种了在联邦监督下分发的牛痘疫苗后传染上脊髓灰质炎。