2006年VOA标准英语-San Francisco Marks 100th Anniversary of D

By Elaine Lu
San Francisco
17 April 2006
 
watch Earthquake report

San Francisco, one of the most colorful and historic cities in the United States, is about to celebrate the 100th anniversary of a massive earthquake. This report was produced by VOA's Mandarin¹ Service and is narrated² by Elaine Lu.

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A firestorm raged for three days after the 1906 earthquake
  
  

At 5:12 on the morning of April 18th, 1906, San Francisco was heavily damaged by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake.  The raging firestorm that followed lasted three days, and consumed most of what remained.  Of the city's 400,000 residents, more than 3,000 lost their lives; 225,0000 lost their homes. 

Today, the city remembers the devastating³ quake with a soulful mass at the Grace Church, and an evocative photographic exhibition called After the Ruins, featuring Mark Klett's modern re-photography of images taken after the disaster.

Karin Breuer
  
  
Karin Breuer, is the curator of the exhibition, which documents what was a busy and active city.  “This again is the San Francis Hotel, which withstood the quake quite well, but did not survive the fire.  There are a lot of charred⁴ windows.

And this is one of our famous houses in San Francisco.  It's called the Octagon House. It has eight sides.”

Photographers captured some of the relief efforts: material was transported by train and then by horse-carriage to reach people on the streets. 

Among those hard-hit by the disaster was the Chinese community.  Anti-Chinese sentiment was strong  -- immigration restrictions⁵ were in effect -- and the Chinese could not count on aid from others.  

Lew Hing owned two canneries in West Oakland, across the Bay from San Francisco.  When refugees turned up, Lew Hing took them in.  

 
Bruce Quan 
  
Bruce Quan is the greatgrandson of Lew Hing. “What my greatgrandfather immediately did was to open up the cannery grounds to the Chinese refugees.  He hired cooks to cook Chinese food for them.”

The city of Oakland has now established a Lew Hing Day in honor of his humanitarian⁶ efforts.

San Francisco was rebuilt in short order -- recovering sufficiently⁷ to host a world exposition just nine years later.

The grandeur⁸ of San Francisco's City Hall testifies to its indomitable spirit. It has the tallest dome⁹ in the U.S., and is one of the most quakeproof structures in the city. 

San Francisco, however, is far from being quake proof -- or safe. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the probability of a magnitude 6.7 or above earthquake by the year 2032 is as high as 62 percent.

It was the San Andreas fault, one of the eight major faults in the San Francisco Bay area that slipped and caused the 1906 quake. The most likely site for the next big earthquake is thought to be the Hayward fault, which runs along the east side of San Francisco Bay through Oakland and Berkeley.  It is now exposed for the public to see.

Bruce Johnson
  
  
How prepared is San Francisco for another earthquake like the one a century ago?  Resident Bruce Johnson says, “This is earthquake country, we have to be prepared.”

Johnson is the spokesperson for San Francisco's Earthquake Centennial Events. "As a citizen in San Francisco, it is your responsibility to prepare yourself and your family to survive."

But for the next few days’ residents of San Francisco want to enjoy the celebration of the city's resilience and rebirth after the 1906 quake -- and not worry about what's coming next.

1 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

2 narrated   

v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Some of the story was narrated in the film. 该电影叙述了这个故事的部分情节。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Defoe skilfully narrated the adventures of Robinson Crusoe on his desert island. 笛福生动地叙述了鲁滨逊·克鲁索在荒岛上的冒险故事。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

4 charred   

v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦

参考例句：

• the charred remains of a burnt-out car 被烧焦的轿车残骸
• The intensity of the explosion is recorded on the charred tree trunks. 那些烧焦的树干表明爆炸的强烈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

6 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

7 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

8 grandeur   

n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华

参考例句：

• The grandeur of the Great Wall is unmatched.长城的壮观是独一无二的。
• These ruins sufficiently attest the former grandeur of the place.这些遗迹充分证明此处昔日的宏伟。

9 dome   

n.圆屋顶，拱顶

参考例句：

• The dome was supported by white marble columns.圆顶由白色大理石柱支撑着。
• They formed the dome with the tree's branches.他们用树枝搭成圆屋顶。