华盛顿邮报 土叙震后救援--在碎石瓦砾中活下去(3)

 

    Sarah, Tell me more about the geography of the region that was hit. Is this mostly cities? Is this a rural area?

    莎拉，详细讲讲受灾地区的地理情况。大部分是城市地区，还是农村地区？

    A lot of really big cities and towns were struck.

    许多受灾地区为大城市和城镇。

    So we're seeing Diyarbakir in Turkey, which is an overwhelmingly Kurdish area, Gaziantep, which was close to the epicenter of the quake.

    比如，土耳其的迪亚巴克尔，这个城市是库尔德人占绝大多数的地区，比如，加济安泰普，这个城市靠近震中。

    And these are all populated areas.

    这些都是人口密集的地区。

    The north of Syria is also very populated.

    叙利亚北部人口也密集。

    There's, you know, 4 million people in the Northwest alone.

    仅在西北地区就有400万人。

    The estimates of the killed are kind of alarming, and there is projections¹ that we may see thousands more deaths.

    死亡人数估计多得令人震惊，有预测称，我们可能还会看到数千人遇难。

    Yeah. And this is not the only hardship that this region has faced in recent years.

    是。这还不是该地区近年来面临的唯一困难。

    I know the civil war in Syria began over a decade ago.

    我知道叙利亚内战始于十多年前。

    What else has been going on in the region other than this earthquake?

    除了这次地震，这个地区还发生了什么事?

    Well, Syria has been going through kind of a myriad² of crises in the last decade.

    嗯，叙利亚过去十年经历了无数的危机。

    There's economic ruin all over the country.

    整个国家的经济都崩溃了。

    The government-held parts are also going through this because the government cannot afford to do most things as a result of the war and because of widespread corruption³ and warlords that have emerged since.

    叙利亚政府控制的地区也在经历经济崩溃，因为政府负担不起大部分事宜，这是战争的结果，也是因为腐败普遍、军阀遍地。

    The northwest of Syria and different parts of Syria are facing compounded effects.

    叙利亚西北部和其他地区正面临复杂影响。

    Just because there is a lack of water, there has been the spread of -- there's been cholera⁴ that's been spreading around Syria that we saw late last year, due to contaminated water and people drinking unclean water.

    叙利亚仅仅因为缺水，霍乱就在该国各地蔓延。去年年底，霍乱在叙利亚各地蔓延，原因是水源受到污染，人们喝了不干净的水。

    Another issue is climate-related issues.

    另一个问题是与气候有关的问题。

    So, we saw a lot of fires that have kind of wreaked⁵ havoc⁶ on Syria's wheat industry, which is a really big industry.

    我们看到多起火灾对叙利亚的小麦产业造成了严重破坏，小麦是一个庞大的产业。

    I mean, Syria used to be a breadbasket in the region, and now it has to import wheat from outside.

    叙利亚曾经是该地区的粮仓，现在却不得不从国外进口小麦。

    And this is also a problem that exists across the board for Syria.

    这也是叙利亚普遍存在的问题。

    Now a country that really did not rely on imports, that used to make everything itself -- or almost everything itself -- is now having to import at a dollar rate that it cannot afford because there is no money in the country.

    这个国家曾经不依赖进口，所有东西都自给自足，但现在，这个国家不得不以其承受不起的美元汇率进口物品，因为这个国家已经没有钱了。

    I mean, right now, you know, on top of the earthquake that's happening, there's really intense rainstorms that are taking place, which made rescue much more difficult.

    现在，除了正在发生的地震，还下起了大暴雨，这让救援变得更加困难。

    People couldn't hear. Rescuers couldn't hear the voices of people, especially in places like Syria.

    人们听不见声音。救援人员听不到人们的声音，尤其在叙利亚这个地方。

    Both government-held and the Northwest, there isn't that much capacity and technology to take people out, because this is a country that's just been ravaged⁷ by war.

    无论是政府控制的地区，还是（反叛势力控制的）西北地区，都没有那么多的能力把人们救出来，也没有那么多的技术实施救援，因为这是一个刚刚被战争蹂躏过的国家。

    So people were relying on their ears to find and identify human beings who were stuck under the rubble⁸. And the rain just made that so much harder.

    救援人员依靠他们的耳朵来寻找和辨认被困在废墟下的人们。而这场雨让救援行动变得雪上加霜。

1 projections   

预测( projection的名词复数 )； 投影； 投掷； 突起物

参考例句：

• Their sales projections are a total thumbsuck. 他们的销售量预测纯属估计。
• The council has revised its projections of funding requirements upwards. 地方议会调高了对资金需求的预测。

2 myriad   

adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量

参考例句：

• They offered no solution for all our myriad problems.对于我们数不清的问题他们束手无策。
• I had three weeks to make a myriad of arrangements.我花了三个星期做大量准备工作。

3 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

4 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。

5 wreaked   

诉诸（武力），施行（暴力），发（脾气）( wreak的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city. 地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• They have wreaked dreadful havoc among the wildlife by shooting and trapping. 他们射杀和诱捕野生动物，造成了严重的破坏。

6 havoc   

n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city.地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• This concentration of airborne firepower wrought havoc with the enemy forces.这次机载火力的集中攻击给敌军造成很大破坏。

7 ravaged   

毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫

参考例句：

• a country ravaged by civil war 遭受内战重创的国家
• The whole area was ravaged by forest fires. 森林火灾使整个地区荒废了。

8 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。