万花筒2007-12-24:New Zealand Quake 新西兰地震

This is the moment New Zealand's largest earthquake in 20 years' struck.

I was behind the counter serving a couple of customers and just the power of the earthquake was just absolutely amazing, and you could just see your stock just flying across the floor, you know, it's just absolutely incredible power.

The 6.8 magnitude quake was centered in waters off the city of Gisborne, on New Zealand's East Coast. Seismologists say its depth prevented the risk of a tsunami¹. Even so, by day the full extent of the damage became clear. Many local residents say they were fortunate to escape injury.

All over the blow, it was me and my wife were there and underneath² the arch of the doorway³ and stayed there and we just going like this, and I thought quiet honestly the house was going to fall down, that's how bad it was.

We are just lucky that it was raining because most of the building fell onto a balcony which it was sunny most people would be dining outside.

11 people were treated for minor⁴ injuries. The quake was felt in New Zealand's capital Wellington more than 400 kilometers away. Sharp aftershocks continued to rock Gisborne. Authorities declared a state of emergency as the clean up began, though most people were able to return to their homes.

New Zealand is caught between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates and experiences around 14,000 earthquakes a year. But of those only a handful are severe and this kind of damage is rare. The most deadly struck in 1931, when 256 died after a quake hit the city of Napier, a few hundred kilometers south of Gisborne.

Andrew Potter, Reuters

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 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。

3 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

4 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。