新西兰英语 524 Most oil removed from Rena（在线收听） |
Most of the oil has now been pumped out of the ship, the Rena, which hit a reef on October 5th. The ship carried 1700 tonnes of heavy oil. 350 tonnes leaked into the sea. This oil killed more than 1300 sea birds and polluted the sand and rocks around the coast of Tauranga. The job of pumping the remaining oil from the ship’s tanks into an oil tanker has been very dangerous work. Men worked deep inside the Rena. The ship has many cracks in it and could break up any time. Tomorrow the job of removing the containers will begin. A crane ship will anchor beside the Rena to lift off each container. This is difficult work, especially if the sea is rough. This job will take many months as the crane can only remove five or six containers a day. There are 1280 containers still on the Rena; 466 of them are on the deck and the rest are inside.
Another ship is searching for the 70 or more containers which fell off the Rena. Most of those are at the bottom of the sea.
To find about more about what happened, type Rena in the search box at the top right.
Vocabulary
remove – take out
reef – group of rocks
pumped – pushed out through a pipe
leaked – came out by accident
polluted – made the environment dirty
the coast – the place where the sea meets the land
remaining – the oil that is left after 350 tonnes leaked into the sea
oil tanker – ship which carries oil
1280 containers still on the Rena – these are left on the Rena
crane – a large machine which lifts things into the air
anchor – a heavy object on the end of a chain that keeps a boat in one place |
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