2006年VOA标准英语-College Students Returning to New Orleans

By Greg Flakus
New Orleans
17 January 2006

Tulane University   
  
Thousands of college students have returned to campuses in the still recovering city of New Orleans and their presence is expected to boost not only the city's morale¹, but its economy. Four-and-a-half months after Hurricane Katrina and the flood that devastated² the city, New Orleans is in need of such a boost.

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Hundreds of students, faculty³ and visitors have attended welcoming ceremonies at Tulane University over the past few days. The most prestigious⁴ university in New Orleans has had a return rate of about 88 percent and university officials believe it could top 90 percent after all registration⁵ is complete.

 
Scott Cowen
  
Tulane University President Scott Cowen says this is important for the city as a whole.  

"This is the first thing New Orleans has had to cheer about in many months, because it is a beginning for all of us here at the university and also for our great city," he said.

Tulane is the largest single employer in New Orleans and the return of around 10,000 students will provide a much needed infusion⁶ of cash into the local economy. Mr. Cowen says the re-opening of Tulane and the return of students, faculty and workers will boost the population of Orleans Parish by 20 percent.

Most of the city lies within Orleans Parish. Local political zones called counties elsewhere in the United States are called parishes in Louisiana.

Most of the returning students attended universities in other parts of the country last semester, after having had to flee Katrina. Surveys conducted a few months ago indicated that many of those displaced students might opt⁷ to stay where they were and never return. But the pull of New Orleans was strong.

Elisa Billie   
  
Elisa Billie, a freshman⁸ student, fled to her home state of Arkansas and attended the state university there. But she says she missed Tulane and New Orleans.

"I enjoyed it up there and I made the most of it, but, at the same time, I could not wait to get back. There is just no other place like this," she said. "I wanted to get back to my friends and my school and this city in general."

Tulane Engineering student and 11th-generation-New Orleans native 

 
Clay Kirby 
  
Clay Kirby says he hopes to apply some of his knowledge to help rebuild the city once he graduates, later this year. He attended the University of Mississippi last semester, but he never saw that as more than a temporary option.

"Being from here, it is a part of who you are when you grow up in New Orleans. That is the best way I can describe it. It is a piece of who you are. When you grow up in New Orleans, you are part of a community with roots that go way, way back," said Kirby. "I grew up in the Quarter [French Quarter] and Uptown. So, when you grow up in Uptown, or Lakeview, or New Orleans East, or the Lower Ninth Ward⁹, or the Quarter, or any neighborhood within New Orleans, it is a part of who you are."

With more than 13,000 students, Tulane provided the biggest chunk¹⁰ of the city's total pre-Katrina college and university student population of about 65,000. But other schools here are seeing a similar return of students, even though some of them suffered much worse storm and flood damage than Tulane.

The campus of Dillard University, whose student body is primarily African-American, is closed for repairs, but classes are being held at the downtown Hilton hotel in the meantime. The nation's only historically black and Roman Catholic University, Xavier, reopened after extensive repairs to several buildings. Xavier sits in one of the areas worst hit by flooding and nearby neighborhoods have yet to recover.

Johnson Cole  
  
Johnson Cole, who went back to his home state of Georgia just before Katrina struck this area, says he decided¹¹ to come back because of the intimate nature of the educational experience offered by Xavier.

"I came back because I enjoy the school," said Cole. "It is like the atmosphere of the school is a lot better and something you do not find at other places. Around here it is like people really care about you. Sometimes it is hard to find that at bigger colleges with a lot more students. It tends to be overcrowded."

The return of so many students is bound to have a positive effect on the local economy, but it is only one small step toward full recovery. Housing is in short supply because so many residential¹² areas were damaged or destroyed by the floods. At the University of New Orleans' main campus, near the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, many students now live in temporary travel trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some Tulane students are staying on a cruise ship docked near downtown and many other college and university students are commuting¹³ in from nearby areas that were not as devastated by Katrina.

1 morale   

n.道德准则，士气，斗志

参考例句：

• The morale of the enemy troops is sinking lower every day.敌军的士气日益低落。
• He tried to bolster up their morale.他尽力鼓舞他们的士气。

2 devastated   

v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词)；摧毁；毁灭；在感情上（精神上、财务上等）压垮adj.毁坏的；极为震惊的

参考例句：

• The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
• His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。

3 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

4 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

5 registration   

n.登记，注册，挂号

参考例句：

• Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
• What's your registration number?你挂的是几号？

6 infusion   

n.灌输

参考例句：

• Old families need an infusion of new blood from time to time.古老的家族需要不时地注入新鲜血液。
• Careful observation of the infusion site is necessary.必须仔细观察输液部位。

7 opt   

vi.选择，决定做某事

参考例句：

• They opt for more holiday instead of more pay.他们选择了延长假期而不是增加工资。
• Will individual schools be given the right to opt out of the local school authority?各个学校可能有权选择退出地方教育局吗？

8 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

9 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

10 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

13 commuting   

交换（的）

参考例句：

• I used the commuting time to read and answer my mail. 我利用上下班在汽车中的时间来阅读和答复给我的函电。
• Noncommuting objects are as real to the mathematicians as commuting objects. 对于数学家来说，不可交换的对象与可交换的对象是一样真实的。