TED演讲之面对灾难:海地的工程灾难

 　　I learned about the Haiti earthquake by Skype.  我是从Skype上知道海地地震的。

　　My wife sent me a message, "Whoa, earthquake," and then disappeared for 25 minutes. 我妻子给我发了个消息，“哇，地震了，”然后就消失了25分钟。

　　It was 25 minutes of absolute terror that thousands of people across the U.S. felt. 这是绝对恐怖的25分钟，数以千计的美国人都感觉到了。

　　I was afraid of a tsunami;  我曾担心是海啸。

　　what I didn't realize was there was a greater terror in Haiti, and that was building collapse¹. 我没意识到的是，更可怕的事在海地发生了，那就是建筑坍塌。

　　We've all seen the photos of the collapsed² buildings in Haiti. 我们都看到过海地建筑坍塌的照片。

　　These are shots my wife took a couple days after the quake, 这些是我妻子在地震后几天拍摄的，

　　while I was making my way through the D.R. into the country.  当时我正从D.R.赶往海地。

　　This is the national palace -- the equivalent of the White House. 这是国家宫殿，相当于白宫。

　　This is the largest supermarket in the Caribbean at peak shopping time. 这是加勒比最大的超市购物高峰时的场面。

　　This is a nurses' college -- there are 300 nurses studying. 这是一所护士学校，有三百名护士在此学习。

　　The general hospital right next door emerged largely unscathed. 学校旁边的综合医院基本安然无恙。

　　This is the Ministry³ of Economics and Finance.  这是经济与金融部。

　　We have all heard about the tremendous human loss in the earthquake in Haiti, 我们都听说了海地地震所造成的巨大的人员伤亡，

　　but we haven't heard enough about why all those lives were lost. 但我们并不十分了解造成所有这些生命逝去的原因。

　　We haven't heard about why the buildings failed. 我们不了解为什么这些建筑会坍塌。

　　After all, it was the buildings, not the earthquake, that killed 220,000 people, 毕竟，是这些建筑，而不是地震，导致220,000人死亡、

　　that injured 330,000, that displaced 1.3 million people, 330,000人受伤、130万人无家可归、

　　that cut off food and water and supplies for an entire nation. 整个国家都缺乏食物、水和补给品。

　　This is the largest metropolitan-area disaster in decades, 这是几十年来大城市地区最大的灾难。

　　and it was not a natural disaster -- it was a disaster of engineering. 但它不是自然灾难。它是场工程灾难。

　　AIDG has worked in Haiti since 2007, AIDG从2007年起开始在海地工作，

　　providing engineering and business support to small businesses. 为小型企业提供工程和商业支持。

　　And after the quake, we started bringing in earthquake engineers  在地震后，我们带领地震工程师进入震区，

　　to figure out why the buildings collapsed, to examine what was safe and what wasn't. 以弄清楚什么导致了建筑坍塌，并检查那些没有坍塌的建筑是否安全。

　　Working with MINUSTAH, which is the U.N. mission in Haiti, 我们与MINUSTAH一起工作，他们是联合国驻海地机构，

　　with the Ministry of Public Works, with different NGOs, we inspected over 1,500 buildings. 与公共工程部一起工作，还有其他的一些NGO组织，我们检查了超过1500栋建筑。

　　We inspected schools and private residencies. 我们检查过的有学校和私人住所。

　　We inspected medical centers and food warehouses⁴. 我们还检查了医疗中心和食品仓库。

　　We inspected government buildings.  我也检查了政府的建筑。

1 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

2 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

3 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

4 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。