2007年VOA标准英语-Officials Say No Chance of Survivors From Kenya

By Katy Migiro
Nairobi
07 May 2007

Rescue teams in Cameroon resumed work at the site of the crashed Kenya Airways¹ flight at daybreak. The plane crashed early Saturday after take-off from Doula airport in Cameroon and was found late Sunday in a mangrove² swamp surrounded by forest. Katy Migiro has this report from the VOA bureau in Nairobi.

Cameroon troops provide security at crash site of a Kenya Airlines plane in Mbanga Pongo, Cameroon, 07 May 2007

Officials say there is virtually no chance of there being any survivors³ among the 114 people on board.

Speaking from Cameroon, Kenyan transport minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere told VOA that he walked through knee deep mud to reach the plane on Sunday night.

"Last night I joined the governor of the region and other senior officials from Cameroon and Kenya around 7:00 o'clock at night and we all visited the site" he said. "So we saw the remains⁴ of the airplane deep in the tropical forest in a very very marshy⁵ and muddy area where the aircraft dived and three quarters of it is actually buried in the mud."

Cameroonian army and police officers hacked⁶ through the forest to recover wreckage⁷ from the plane. The Kenya government has dispatched Kenya Air Force officers to assist the Cameroonians in their efforts.

No one has yet been able to explain why the plane that was six months old crashed. The flight was delayed because of a storm and it was still raining heavily when it took off.

Kenya Airways chief executive Titus Naikuni said the plane stopped emitting emergency signals soon after the initial distress⁸ call, although the automatic device should have kept up emissions⁹ for two days.

1 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

2 mangrove   

n.(植物)红树，红树林

参考例句：

• It is the world's largest tidal mangrove forest.它是世界上最大的红树林沼泽地。
• Many consider this the most beautiful mangrove forest in all Thailand.许多人认为这里是全泰国最美丽的红树林了。

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 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

5 marshy   

adj.沼泽的

参考例句：

• In August 1935,we began our march across the marshy grassland. 1935年8月，我们开始过草地。
• The surrounding land is low and marshy. 周围的地低洼而多沼泽。

6 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

7 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。

8 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

9 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。