AS IT IS 2016-02-06 Trending Today: Have You Seen the Tsunami Ghosts of Japan?

AS IT IS 2016-02-06 Trending Today: Have You Seen the Tsunami¹ Ghosts of Japan?

This is What’s Trending Today.

Nearly 19,000 people were killed when an earthquake and powerful tsunami struck Japan in March of 2011.

A Japanese university student is working on a project in Ishinomaki, a coastal² city affected³ by the disaster. She recently spoke⁴ with over 100 of the city’s taxi drivers. And some of the drivers say they have offered rides to passengers who turn out to be ghosts.

These spirits ask for rides to places that were destroyed by the huge waves, and then they disappear.

The Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported the story last month, but it is trending today on Facebook.

The blogger Perez Hilton, who has over 6 million Twitter followers⁵, wrote a story about it. A number of other websites also have the story.

One taxi driver told a story about a young woman he met in the summer of 2011. She asked for a ride to an area that the tsunami destroyed.

The driver asked if she really wanted to go there because very little was still there.

Then the woman asked, “Have I died?” and disappeared.

Today on Facebook, people are writing about their own experiences with the spirit world, and talking about the ghosts in Japan.

The student says the drivers were not making up the stories, because they started up their taxi cab meters, drove off, and have the records to prove it. They had to pay the “ghost” fares themselves.

Words in This Story

ghost – n. the spirit of a dead person thought of as living

blogger – n. a person who writes and publishes articles and commentaries⁶ on a web site

tsunami – n. a very high, large ocean wave that can result from a powerful earthquake

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 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

3 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

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 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

6 commentaries   

n.实况报道( commentary的名词复数 )；评论；评注；批评

参考例句：

• The schools produced diligent excerpting from older manuscripts, summarizing, and commentaries. 各学院从古代手稿里作了辛勤的摘录、总结和评注工作。 来自辞典例句
• The schools produced diligent excepting from older manuscripts, summarizing, and commentaries. 各学院从古代手稿里作了辛勤的摘录，总结和评注的工作。 来自辞典例句