CNN 2010-05-31

It was worse right back there where it's super thick, man. I've never seen anything like it. It just rolled in on. It’s quite unreal.

Oh man, look at that streak¹. Look at the holes off of those. It's thick, thick, thick.

Like mud.

That's unreal. This is ugly. This is really ugly.

Ugly is definitely an understatement. And we're only 12 miles from shore. By far, the thickest oil we've seen yet. This is just disturbing. Check it out. I mean, the oil, layers of oil actually building on each other in a putty-like form. This definitely is not dispersed². It's barely weathered at all. It almost looks like it's fresh, fresh from the pipe. Some areas of the oil are thicker than others. This is only the western edge of the slick. We are still not even 50 miles from the site of the spill. Unbelievable.

Our little armada pauses. We're out here with five other boats, and all of them have this nasty oil stuck to the hull³. That's going to be a chore getting off. This boat just across the way, those guys are lowering a submersible camera to take a look at what the water and oil mixture looks like below the surface.

Boats are carrying scientists peering into and under the oil. Dr. Ian McDonald takes samples back to his lab in Florida, while Dr. Doug Inkley patrols for the National Wildlife Federation⁴. A dead eel⁵ floats toward our boat.

Do you have a jar large enough to put this in?

It too is taken as a sample, now headed to the lab for a closer look. Minutes later, something else is in the water. This one is alive.

That animal might be in a lot of trouble.

You normally don't see sharks like this running around on the surface, but this animal looks like it's in distress⁶.

The shark dives as we approach. Along the way, we see other sea creatures struggling in the oil like this baby crab⁷. What's on the surface is easy to see.

The animals like this that are out in the open ocean and we don't see them washed up. How do you assess that? You have a shark that dies in the water here and sinks to the bottom. Where's the assessment⁸ on that? How do you assess that?

Can't count it. Much like the oil still spewing from the well, the amount of wildlife lost here may never be known. Rob Marciano, CNN, Venice, Louisiana.
 

1 streak   

n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动

参考例句：

• The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
• Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹？

2 dispersed   

adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的

参考例句：

• The clouds dispersed themselves. 云散了。
• After school the children dispersed to their homes. 放学后，孩子们四散回家了。

3 hull   

n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳

参考例句：

• The outer surface of ship's hull is very hard.船体的外表面非常坚硬。
• The boat's hull has been staved in by the tremendous seas.小船壳让巨浪打穿了。

4 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

5 eel   

n.鳗鲡

参考例句：

• He used an eel spear to catch an eel.他用一只捕鳗叉捕鳗鱼。
• In Suzhou,there was a restaurant that specialized in eel noodles.苏州有一家饭馆，他们那里的招牌菜是鳗鱼面。

6 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

7 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

8 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？