VOA标准英语2008年-US Warship Arrives in Georgian Port With Aid

A U.S. ship carrying humanitarian¹ aid has arrived in Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi carrying humanitarian aid for residents of western Georgia displaced by Russia's recent military incursion. From the Georgian city of Gori, VOA's Peter Heinlein reports, authorities are assessing the destruction as Russian troops pull back from some areas they occupied for much of the past two weeks.
　
US sailors unload humanitarian boxes on deck of guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul anchored in the harbor of Batumi, western Georgia, 24 Aug. 2008

The USS McFaul sailed into Batumi Sunday loaded with blankets, bottled water, milk, baby food, diapers and hygiene² kits³. That was the easy part. The next challenge is to distribute the aid to those who need it.

U.S. Agency for International Development director Henrietta Fore⁴ told VOA this week that $13 million of U.S. aid has arrived, and more is coming. But Russian roadblocks are impeding⁵ the flow in many places.

"There are still checkpoints on the roads," Fore said. "That to us is an indication that it is not free access for humanitarian supplies or assessments⁶. Through our non-governmental partners, we're able to get to many parts of Georgia, but we need access. So, roadblocks make it difficult for humanitarian assistance to get through to people most in need."

While Batumi is open, the strategic oil port of Poti, 80 kilometers to the north, is essentially⁷ closed. Despite a protest march by angry Georgians Saturday, Russia is maintaining roadblocks outside Poti, which is the gateway⁸ for merchandise moving to Georgia, other Caucasus republics and Central Asia.

In another development, a Georgian train struck what authorities say was a mine Sunday near the town of Gori, 55 kilometers northwest of the capital, Tbilisi. Russian troops withdrew from Gori Friday after more than a week of occupation, but still maintain a checkpoint on a main road just outside the city.

Georgia's security chief, Kakha Lumaya, tells VOA Russia still controls many of his country's key roads and large chunks⁹ of territory, in what the European Union and the United States call a violation¹⁰ of a French-mediated cease-fire Russia agreed to earlier this month.

"What concerns us is that they pulled out some of their troops, they maintain at least eight checkpoints across the region, and another eight or nine in the western part of the country, including areas, which have never been part of any conflict zone, areas where there has never been any Russian military presence, including peacekeepers," Lumaya said.

Lumaya says he has been assured by a senior Russian general that some of the roadblocks would be removed within a few days. But Russian forces will apparently¹¹ stay in a "security zone" around the Russian-held regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, adding significantly to the amount of Georgian territory they control.

A tour of Gori after the Russian pullback revealed widespread evidence of mayhem and looting, apparently by Russian troops and irregular forces who descended¹² on the town. Videos posted on the internet site, YouTube, clearly show uniformed Russian soldiers smashing in bulletproof glass fronts of banks in Gori's main square, directly in front of a towering statue of the city's most famous native son, former Soviet¹³ dictator Joseph Stalin. Mikheil Giorgadze of the TBC Bank examined the destruction.

"Russian soldiers took everything. The computers. Everything," Giorgadze said. "You see the ATM [automatic teller] machine is broken, they were trying take money from these boxes. See they were trying."

Giorgadze says the entire looting episode posted on YouTube was captured by the bank's security cameras.

Gori residents were eager to show visiting journalists the extent of the looting and destruction. They have opened a media center to take reporters on guided tours, including the sites where they say Russian planes dropped cluster bombs in a residential¹⁴ area, and where they say soldiers used electrically charged metal rods to wipe out almost the entire population of a fish farm outside the city.

Girogi Meladze, a U.S.-educated lawyer working at the center, says Russian jets dropped bombs over Gori day and night for a week, forcing residents to flee to the hills above the city.

"They went to the forests up there and they lived in the forests, and we get the first people coming back three-four days ago. The morning of [August] 8 is when everything started," Meladze said. "So, then it was going up and down, up and down, but the planes never stopped from [the] eighth to 15."

Standing¹⁵ in the town square here in Gori, it is hard to miss the irony¹⁶ of the statue of Stalin, peering out over the square at the smashed windows and buildings looted by Russian soldiers.

 

1 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。

2 hygiene   

n.健康法，卫生学 （a.hygienic）

参考例句：

• Their course of study includes elementary hygiene and medical theory.他们的课程包括基础卫生学和医疗知识。
• He's going to give us a lecture on public hygiene.他要给我们作关于公共卫生方面的报告。

3 kits   

衣物和装备( kit的名词复数 )； 成套用品； 配套元件

参考例句：

• Keep your kits closed and locked when not in use. 不用的话把你的装备都锁好放好。
• Gifts Articles, Toy and Games, Wooden Toys, Puzzles, Craft Kits. 采购产品礼品，玩具和游戏，木制的玩具，智力玩具，手艺装备。

4 fore   

adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部

参考例句：

• Your seat is in the fore part of the aircraft.你的座位在飞机的前部。
• I have the gift of fore knowledge.我能够未卜先知。

5 impeding   

a.(尤指坏事)即将发生的，临近的

参考例句：

• Fallen rock is impeding the progress of rescue workers. 坠落的石头阻滞了救援人员的救援进程。
• Is there sufficient room for the kiosk and kiosk traffic without impeding other user traffic? 该环境下是否有足够的空间来摆放信息亭？信息亭是否会妨碍交通或者行走？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

6 assessments   

n.评估( assessment的名词复数 )；评价；（应偿付金额的）估定；（为征税对财产所作的）估价

参考例句：

• He was shrewd in his personal assessments. 他总能对人作出精明的评价。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Surveys show about two-thirds use such assessments, while half employ personality tests. 调查表明，约有三分之二的公司采用了这种测评；而一半的公司则采用工作人员个人品质测试。 来自百科语句

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 gateway   

n.大门口，出入口，途径，方法

参考例句：

• Hard work is the gateway to success.努力工作是通往成功之路。
• A man collected tolls at the gateway.一个人在大门口收通行费。

9 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

10 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

11 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

12 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

13 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

14 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。

15 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

16 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。