VOA标准英语2011--Turkish Villagers Watch Syrian Crisis Un

Turkish Villagers Watch Syrian Crisis Unfold

As the Syrian government continues its violent crackdown on protestors, thousands of people are fleeing across the Turkish border. In the village of G黺e珑i, Turkish residents have been watching the refugees stream across. The villagers have a unique vantage point on the events taking place across the border.
At the bottom of the valley lies the border dividing Turkey and Syria.
From their rooftops, the residents of G黺e珑i gather in a daily vigil - searching for any glimpse of what is unfolding in the Syrian hills beyond. Many have relatives living there.?
In the late afternoon hundreds of people begin to gather over the border. As the crowd swells¹ they hold a body aloft wrapped in a white sheet.
They carry it to an area of open ground among the orchards².
Locals say the body has been brought here to show the atrocities³ taking place in Syria to the watching media.
Muhammed is among those watching from the village. He arrived here 2 days ago from Syria. He says there are around 2,000 refugees hiding next to the border among the orchards. He said the Syrian security agents are targeting people who tried to leave the country.
"They are attacking peoples houses and trying to stop them escaping. They break in to people's houses and arrest them there. They even attacked them where they are hiding among the trees and took their children away from them. One woman has given birth hiding in those trees. The area where they're living is completely open to attack. They drink only river water. They wash their clothes in the river and they wash their food with the river water and they drink it," he said.
Muhammed says the body is one of four shot dead by the Syrian security force in the villages just over the border.
Long-time G黺e珑i resident Abdullah?n has seen the numbers of people gathering⁴ on the border steadily⁵ grow in the past few days. "They are scared to be killed that's why they're here. But maybe they don't let them come in. I don't know if they want to come to this side or if they stay there I'm sad, of course I'm sad. We are all brothers, we are all Muslims," he said.
Ambulances and Turkish military patrols pass by along the border. Villagers say some refugees are being housed at the local border post.
Locals on the Turkish side say that 2 days ago a group of several hundred refugees came over the border and were picked up by the Turkish military. The Syrians won't let any foreign journalists in and they're shutting down mobile phone and internet networks which means it's impossible to say if more refugees are on their way.
Preparations are being made for more arrivals - like a refugee camp in the nearby town of Yaylada??.
Turkish officials say 4,300 people have now fled across the border. The true number including those who slipped across undetected is likely to be much higher.
Back in G黺e珑i, the crowd of mourners has disappeared from view. Syrian refugee Muhammed says the protests will go on until the Assad regime is finished. "All they want is to have democracy and freedom. They don't want anything else from Bashr al-Assad. They want to live in a civilised way like all other countries in the world," he said.
Like the rest of the outside world, the people of G黺e珑i will continue to watch and wonder exactly what is happening in the lands beyond the border

1 swells   

增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情）

参考例句：

• The waters were heaving up in great swells. 河水正在急剧上升。
• A barrel swells in the middle. 水桶中部隆起。

2 orchards   

（通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They turned the hills into orchards and plains into granaries. 他们把山坡变成了果园，把平地变成了粮仓。
• Some of the new planted apple orchards have also begun to bear. 有些新开的苹果园也开始结苹果了。

3 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

5 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。