2006年VOA标准英语-More Than 100 Still Missing After Cameroon

By Joe Bavier
Abidjan
24 March 2006
 
  
  
At least 130 passengers are still missing, two days after the wreck¹ of a Nigerian vessel² off the coast of Cameroon. The wreck is one of a series of sea accidents to hit the region in recent years, as increasing numbers of immigrants seek their fortunes in neighboring countries.  Only 25 survivors³ have been rescued.

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The wooden ferry from Nigeria broke up in waters off the coast of Cameroon Wednesday.  A local fisherman alerted authorities after he found bodies floating in the water and survivors clinging to wreckage⁴ of the vessel about 12 kilometers off the port town of Kribi.

The official passenger count was 150.  However, some survivors said as many as 300 people were crowded aboard when the vessel sank. Bodies found on the beaches are being buried in mass graves in villages along the coast, making the total number of dead difficult to establish.

Wednesday's wreck is just the latest such incident off Cameroon's coast. The eastern edge of the Gulf⁵ of Guinea is part of a heavily traveled sea route between Nigeria and Gabon.

Red Cross sources say the ship was carrying passengers from Burkina Faso, Benin, Niger and Nigeria.

Gabon, an oil-producing nation with a shortage of manpower, has become a main destination, particularly for Nigerian laborers⁶.

Nigerian civil rights campaigner, Nasir Abbas, says, desperate economic conditions at home are forcing more and more Nigerians to seek work elsewhere.

"Quite frankly⁷, the issue of economic hardship is really pushing younger people [to go] out of the country, using all available means possible, whether legal or illegal," he said.  "And these are all young men, who are jobless, and who do not see a future in Nigeria."

However, Abbas says economics is not the only reason Nigerians are going abroad.  An insurgency⁸ in the Niger Delta⁹, religious violence across the country and political infighting in the run-up to elections next year, he says, have only aggravated¹⁰ an already difficult situation in the country.

"The country is rather tilting¹¹ towards an abnormal situation," he added.  "You just see nothing is working. People are tired. People are just disenchanted about the whole thing.  People are not really believing in the issue of this democracy."

More than 30 people drowned in almost identical circumstances last July.  Almost 70 children were rescued from a sinking vessel in Cameroonian waters in 2001.  And at least 280 passengers perished along the same route when their boat capsized in 1998.

1 wreck   

n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难

参考例句：

• Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
• No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。

2 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

3 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

4 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。

5 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

6 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

7 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

8 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

9 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

10 aggravated   

使恶化( aggravate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使更严重； 激怒； 使恼火

参考例句：

• If he aggravated me any more I shall hit him. 假如他再激怒我，我就要揍他。
• Far from relieving my cough, the medicine aggravated it. 这药非但不镇咳，反而使我咳嗽得更厉害。

11 tilting   

倾斜，倾卸

参考例句：

• For some reason he thinks everyone is out to get him, but he's really just tilting at windmills. 不知为什么他觉得每个人都想害他，但其实他不过是在庸人自扰。
• So let us stop bickering within our ranks.Stop tilting at windmills. 所以，让我们结束内部间的争吵吧！再也不要去做同风车作战的蠢事了。