VOA慢速英语2014 马来西亚航班在乌克兰被导弹击落

 

Malaysian Airliner¹ Shot Down by Missile in Ukraine 马来西亚航班在乌克兰被导弹击落

All 298 people on a Malaysia Airlines flight died when a missile apparently² struck the plane on Thursday. It was traveling from Amsterdam, Holland to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at the time.

The wreckage³ fell over a wide area around Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian government forces are fighting pro-Russia separatists in that area.

On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama called the incident an “outrage of unspeakable proportions.”  

“Evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile that was launched from an area that is controlled by Russian-backed separatists inside of Ukraine.”

Mr. Obama spoke⁴ from the White House. He did not say who was responsible for the crash. But he did note what he called a steady flow of support from Russia for the separatists.  

“This includes arms and training. It includes heavy weapons and it includes anti-aircraft weapons.”

Mr. Obama called for an immediate⁵ cease-fire between the Ukrainian government and the separatists. He said the two sides must stop fighting to permit an investigation⁶.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon led a worldwide call for an open investigation of the crash. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the crash was, in his words, “not an accident; it’s a crime.” And German Chancellor⁷ Angela Merkel said, “There are many indications that the plane was shot down, so we have to take things seriously.”

Malaysia’s Transport Minister said it would be an “outrage against human decency” if the airliner was shot down on purpose.  

The crash of flight MH17 happened four months after another Malaysia Airlines plane, Flight MH370, went missing. That plane was traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, China. Extensive searches have taken place across the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean. But it has not been found.

On Thursday, officials from Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry⁸ said that MH17 was flying at a height of about 10,000 meters when a Buk missile struck it. The Buk is a Russian-made surface-to-air missile that can hit extremely high targets. A Malaysia Airlines statement said Flight MH17 lost contact with Ukrainian air-traffic controllers at 2:15 UTC.  

About the same time, social media postings on Twitter and the Russian website VKontakte claimed that separatists had shot down an AN-26 military transport plane near the town of Torez, not far from the where the passenger plane crashed. A separatist leader and Russian citizen known as Igor Strelkov reportedly placed the posts.

The VKontakte posting included a video showing smoke rising from the fields outside Torez. It said the military transport was shot down in the area somewhere near the Progress coal mine.

Later, a new posting on the Vkontatke Website and Twitter replaced it. The new posting came from Alexander Borodai, the leader of the separatist People’s Republic of Donetsk. It said a passenger jet had crashed near Torez. The separatist leader denied involvement in the crash and suggested that Ukrainian government forces were responsible.

Most of the passengers on the Malaysian plane were Dutch. Many were scientists heading to an international AIDS conference in Australia.

Emergency workers reported that more than 180 bodies have been located. Reports conflict about whether the plane’s audio and video recorders have been recovered.

1 airliner   

n.客机，班机

参考例句：

• The pilot landed the airliner safely.驾驶员使客机安全着陆。
• The passengers were shepherded across the tarmac to the airliner.旅客们被引导走过跑道去上飞机。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 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。

6 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

7 chancellor   

n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长

参考例句：

• They submitted their reports to the Chancellor yesterday.他们昨天向财政大臣递交了报告。
• He was regarded as the most successful Chancellor of modern times.他被认为是现代最成功的财政大臣。

8 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。