VOA常速英语2018--印尼地震引发海啸 死亡人数持续增加

This is the Indonesian city of Palu. Just days after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and following tsunami¹ turned much of it to rubble². Rescuers are marking the debris³ with Indonesian flags to signal two excavators where they think bodies are trapped below, and while recovery efforts move forward, the outlook seems grim, as local authorities are not optimistic about what they will find underneath⁴ the wreckage⁵.

这里是印尼城市巴鲁。经历了7.5级地震的数天后，海啸将这里的很多地方夷为了平地。救援人员以国旗为标志，插在废墟瓦砾之上，为2台挖掘机提供信号，因为他们认为废墟之下可能困着人。虽然重建工作正在推进，但前景依然渺茫，当地政府对于是否能在废墟之下发现幸存者也不抱有太大希望。

It is highly possible that there are no survivors⁶. We discovered eight bodies with the rescue team, but we haven’t been able to bring them out because we don’t have the right equipment. The city of Palu sits on the west coast of Indonesia of Sulawesi Island. It was badly hit by last week’s earthquake and tsunami.

极有可能无人幸存。抢险队发现了8具尸体，但我们现在也没能将这些遗体解救出来，因为工具不合适。巴鲁这座城市地处印度尼西亚苏拉威西岛的西海岸。上周的地震及其引发的还小重创了这座城市。

By Thursday, the official death toll⁷ stood at more than 1,400, but numbers are expected to rise. Most of the dead accounted for from Palu, but death toll figures from more remote areas continue trickling⁸ in or may ultimately remain unknown.

截止到周四，官方统计的死亡人数已经超过了1400人，但这个数字预计还会增加。大多数遇难者都来自巴鲁市，但偏远地区的死亡人数也在不断增加，或者直到最后可能不会有确切数字。

1 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

2 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

3 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

4 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

5 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。

6 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

7 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

8 trickling   

n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动

参考例句：

• Tears were trickling down her cheeks. 眼泪顺着她的面颊流了下来。
• The engine was trickling oil. 发动机在滴油。 来自《简明英汉词典》