救援人员搜寻世界贸易中心废墟下的幸存者

救援人员搜寻世界贸易中心废墟下的幸存者

Rescuers Search Trade Center Wreckage
Jim Malone
Newark, New Jersey
12 Sep 2001 13:43 UTC

The day after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, rescue workers are 1)sifting through the 2)rubble¹ of what was the World Trade Center in a 3)desperate attempt to reach those who may have survived.
As dawn broke over the city that never sleeps, the 4)ruins of the collapsed² twin towers of the World Trade Center continued to smolder³ and a major gap appeared in one of the world's most famous 5)skylines.
Firefighters work near surviving 6)fragments of the World Trade Center Rescue teams are working 7)feverishly to comb through the 8)wreckage of the collapsed World Trade Center 9)amid reports that some survivors⁴ deep in the rubble were in touch by cell phone.
New York Governor George Pataki spent much of the night observing the rescue and recovery effort in lower Manhattan. "You see 10)incredible courage downtown," he said. "I was down there late last night and early this morning and you can see and sense in the eyes of the firefighters their 11)tremendous sense of loss because so many of their colleagues are trapped or have died. But you can also sense their courage under very difficult 12)circumstances they are going through the search and rescue in the hopes that we can still save some lives."
Scores of firefighters and police officers are 13)unaccounted for and may have died when the twin towers collapsed shortly after being struck by 14)hijacked 15)airliners Tuesday morning.
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani says city officials are bracing⁵ for a staggering casualty toll⁶. "Worst fears are that the numbers are going to be in the thousands," he said. "In addition to the police officers and firefighters, at the time that this attack took place the building has typically thousands and thousands of people in it. The only thing that we don't know is how many people in that one hour window, approximately, that they had to leave the building, how many of them were able to get out. We know that thousands did. We also know that there were a lot that were left behind and I don't think that we are going to know that number until the relief and rescue efforts take place over the next two, three, four days."
City schools and government offices closed Wednesday. Much of the city was eerily⁷ quiet, as most tunnel and bridge crossings into Manhattan remained closed. Hospitals that were busy Tuesday are bracing for an even busier day and fresh appeals have been issued for blood 16)donations.
New York Mayor Giuliani says city residents are pulling together in the 17)aftermath of Tuesday's attack. "The thing that we have to do is demonstrate that the spirit of New York City is not just buildings," said Mayor Giuliani."The buildings are important to us but the spirit of New York is about the spirit of its people, that we are a free people, that we are 18)dedicated to democracy and that we are not going to allow these 19)cowards to stop New York from being the greatest city in the world, because it is and it is going to continue to be."
Rescue workers were encouraged Wednesday morning when they were able to pull a handful of people alive from the rubble, raising hopes of finding more survivors. But many expect that the grim task of retrieving⁸ the dead will go on for days.

(1) sift[sIft]v.详审
(2) rubble[5rQb(E)l]n.碎石
(3) desperate[5despErEt]adj.不顾一切的, 拚死的, 令人绝望的
(4) ruin[5ru:In]n.毁灭, 崩溃, (pl.) 废墟, 遗迹
(5) skyline[5skaIlaIn]n.地平线, 以天空为背景映出轮廓
(6) fragment[5frA^mEnt]n.碎片, 断片, 片段
(7) feverishly adv.兴奋地
(8) wreckage[5rekIdV]n.遭难
(9) amid[E5mId]prep.在...中
(10) incredible[In5kredIb(E)l]adj.<口>难以置信的
(11) tremendous[trI5mendEs]adj.极大的, 巨大的
(12) circumstance[5s:kEmstEns]n.环境, 详情, 境况
(13) unaccounted[QnE5kaJntId]adj.未说明的, 未解释的
(14) hijack[5haIdVAk]vt.抢劫, 劫持, 劫机, 揩油
(15) airliner[5eElaInE(r)]n.定期班机, 客机
(16) donation[dEJ5neIF(E)n]n.捐赠品, 捐款, 贡献
(17) aftermath[5B:ftEmAW]n.结果, 后果
(18) dedicated[5dedIkeItId]adj.专注的, 献身的
(19) coward[5kaJEd]n.懦弱的人, 胆小的人

 

1 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

2 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

3 smolder   

v.无火焰地闷烧；n.焖烧，文火

参考例句：

• The smolder will soon be a flame.闷火很快变为烈焰。
• It can smolder undetected for hours,then suddenly explode in fiery destruction.也有可能好几小时内不被发觉，突然激烈的爆炸。

4 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

5 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

6 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

7 eerily   

adv.引起神秘感或害怕地

参考例句：

• It was nearly mid-night and eerily dark all around her. 夜深了，到处是一片黑黝黝的怪影。 来自汉英文学 - 散文英译
• The vast volcanic slope was eerily reminiscent of a lunar landscape. 开阔的火山坡让人心生怪异地联想起月球的地貌。 来自辞典例句

8 retrieving   

n.检索（过程），取还v.取回( retrieve的现在分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）

参考例句：

• Ignoring all, he searches the ground carefully for any cigarette-end worth retrieving. 没管打锣的说了什么，他留神的在地上找，看有没有值得拾起来的烟头儿。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• Retrieving the nodules from these great depths is no easy task. 从这样的海底深渊中取回结核可不是容易的事情。 来自辞典例句