VOA慢速英语2019 巴西大坝垮塌造成60人遇难,300人失踪（在线收听）

60 Dead, 300 Missing After Dam Collapse in Brazil

Rescue workers confirmed on Monday that at least 60 people are dead after a dam collapsed in Minas Gerais state in Brazil.

救援人员周一证实，巴西米纳斯吉拉斯州大坝垮塌造成至少60人遇难。

Officials say at least 300 other people remain missing.

有关官员称，至少还有300人失踪。

The dam, owned by Brazil's Vale mining company, collapsed Friday in the town of Brumadinho. Water and mud swept over hundreds of mine workers as they were taking a lunch break.

这座位于布鲁马迪纽镇、隶属于巴西淡水河谷矿业公司的大坝于周五垮塌，其引发的泥石流袭击了数百名正在午休的矿工。

Search efforts continued on Monday. Rescue workers used long pieces of wood to cross mud-covered areas to search for bodies inside of a bus. Villagers discovered the bus as they tried to rescue a nearby cow that was stuck in the mud.

搜救工作人在周一继续进行。救援人员利用长木板跨过泥土覆盖的区域，以搜寻一辆公汽中的尸体。村民们在试图拯救一头陷在泥浆中的奶牛时发现了这辆公汽。

Ademir Rogerio lives in Brumadinho. He cried as he looked at the mud where Vale’s facilities once stood on the edge of town.

Ademir Rogerio住在布鲁马迪纽镇。当他看到泥土淹没淡水河谷矿业公司一度屹立在城镇边缘的各种设施时，他哭了起来。

He told the Reuters news service, “The world is over for us. Vale is the top mining company in the world. If this could happen here, imagine what would happen if it were a smaller mine.”

他对路透社表示：“我们的天塌了。淡水河谷是全球最大的矿业公司。如果这里都能发生这种事情，想象一下如果它是一个更小的矿山会发生什么。”

Brazil’s top prosecutor, Raquel Dodge, said Vale should be held responsible and criminally prosecuted. She added that executives working there could also be personally held responsible.

巴西最高检察官拉奎尔·道奇（Raquel Dodge）称淡水河谷公司应当承担责任并受到刑事起诉。她补充说，当地的公司高管也可能需要亲自承担责任。

Reaction to the disaster could threaten the plans of new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. He wants to reduce restrictions on the mining industry, and has proposed opening up indigenous land areas and parts of the Amazon rain forest for mining.

民众对这场灾难的反应可能会威胁到巴西新任总统雅伊尔·博索纳罗（Jair Bolsonaro）的计划。他希望减少对矿业的限制，并提出开放土著土地和亚马逊雨林部分地区进行采矿。

Four years ago, another mining dam broke in the state of Minas Gerais. Nineteen people were killed. That dam was controlled by Vale as well as Australian mining company BHP Billiton.

4年前，米纳斯吉拉斯州另一座采矿大坝垮塌造成19人遇难。该大坝是由淡水河谷以及澳洲的必和必拓公司所控制。

The 2015 dam collapse released millions of tons of deadly iron waste along hundreds of kilometers. It caused what is considered Brazil's worst-ever environmental disaster.

2015年的这场大坝垮塌造成数百万吨致命的铁矿废弃物席卷了数百公里，它引发了被认为是巴西有史以来最为严重的环境灾难。

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Words in This Story

prosecutor – n. a lawyer who represents the side in a court case that accuses a person of a crime and who tries to prove that the person is guilty

facilities – n. something such as a building or large piece of equipment that is built for a specific purpose

indigenous – adj. produced, living, or existing naturally in a particular region or environment