美国有线新闻 CNN 飓风"德尔塔"来袭 恐造成灾难性破坏

Hurricane Delta¹ headlines today's show. That's not a name that's in the regular rotation². We'll explain why in a moment. But first, the storm. It's powerful and it got that way quickly. Rapid intensification³ occurs when a hurricane's wind speeds increase by 35 miles per hour or more over a 24 hour period. By Tuesday afternoon, Hurricane Delta's wind speeds increased by 85 miles per hour in a day. And that hasn't happened since 2005 when Hurricane Wilma struck Cancun, Mexico. That same city was in the direct path of Hurricane Delta.

飓风“德尔塔”是今天节目的头条新闻。“德尔塔”并不在常规轮换名单上。之后我们来解释原因。现在先来关注这场风暴。这个风暴威力很强，而且发展极快。飓风风速在24小时内每小时增加35英里或更多时，就会出现风暴突然增强的情况。到周二下午，飓风“德尔塔”的风速在一天内增加了85英里每小时。这是自2005年飓风“威尔玛”袭击墨西哥坎昆以来从未发生过的情况。而坎昆正处在飓风“德尔塔”的行进路径上。

It was expected to make landfall Wednesday morning as a Category 4 storm. Forecasters predicted its sustained⁴ wind speeds would be between 130 and 156 miles per hour. That makes Delta capable of catastrophic damage. And it's storm surge⁵, the rise in sea water levels blown ashore⁶ by a hurricane, was expected to be six to nine feet higher than normal tide levels. This has been an active hurricane season. Atlantic storms have used up all 21 names on the annual list and Delta is the 25th storm that needed a name. So forecasters are using Greek letters like Delta and Gamma to identify the new systems.

预计该飓风将在周三早上以4级风暴的强度登陆。天气预报员预测其持续风速将在每小时130至156英里之间。这使得“德尔塔”有可能造成灾难性的破坏。其引发的风暴潮，即飓风导致的海平面上升，预计将比正常潮位高出6到9英尺。今年的飓风季相当活跃。大西洋风暴已经用完了年度名单上的21个名字，“德尔塔”是第25个需要命名的风暴。因此，天气预报员使用“德尔塔”和“伽马”这样的希腊字母来命名新风暴。

It's the first time they've had to do that since the record hurricane season of 2005. And Delta could become the first hurricane with a Greek letter ever recorded to strike the United States. After hitting Mexico, forecaster predicted the storm would then move into the western Gulf⁷ of Mexico and possibly hit the U.S. Gulf coast on Friday or Saturday. They say there's still a lot of uncertainty⁸ about where the storm will go and how strong it will become once it's in the Gulf.

这是自2005年创纪录的飓风季节以来，他们第一次不得不这样做。“德尔塔”可能成为有史以来第一个袭击美国的以希腊字母命名的飓风。预报员预测，在袭击墨西哥之后，该风暴将进入墨西哥湾西部，并可能在周五或周六袭击美国海湾沿岸。他们表示，就风暴将向何处移动以及进入海湾后的风暴强度而言，现在仍有很多不确定性。

1 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

2 rotation   

n.旋转；循环，轮流

参考例句：

• Crop rotation helps prevent soil erosion.农作物轮作有助于防止水土流失。
• The workers in this workshop do day and night shifts in weekly rotation.这个车间的工人上白班和上夜班每周轮换一次。

3 intensification   

n.激烈化，增强明暗度；加厚

参考例句：

• The intensification of the immunological response represents the body's natural defense. 增强免疫反应代表身体的自然保卫。 来自辞典例句
• Agriculture in the developing nations is not irreversibly committed, to a particular pattern of intensification. 发展中国家的农业并没有完全为某种集约化形式所束缚。 来自辞典例句

4 sustained   

adj.持久的，持续的v.维持( sustain的过去式和过去分词 )；支撑；忍受；长期保持

参考例句：

• Without correct leadership, the enthusiasm of the masses cannot be sustained. 没有正确的领导，群众的积极性就不可能持久。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• He has sustained a great loss by the death of his father. 他父亲的去世使他蒙受巨大的损失。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 surge   

n.汹涌，澎湃；vi.汹涌，强烈感到，飞涨；vt.放开，松手

参考例句：

• The surge travelled southwards along the coast.浪涛沿着海岸向南涌去。
• It failed to stimulate a surge of investment in industry.这没有能刺激工业投资的激增。

6 ashore   

adv.在(向)岸上，上岸

参考例句：

• The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前，孩子们就上岸了。
• He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。

7 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

8 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。