2007年VOA标准英语-Truck Bomb Devastates Iraqi Village

By Margaret Besheer
Irbil, Iraq
07 July 2007

A bombing casualty, from the village of Armili, Iraq, is treated in Kirkut hospital, 7 Jul 2007

A suicide truck bomber¹ has set off his explosives in a rural Iraqi village, killing² more than a hundred people and injuring more than 250 others. As VOA's Margaret Besheer reports from northern Iraq, the town was home to minority ethnic³ Turkmen.

The bomber struck early Saturday when many shoppers were in the market in the normally quiet village of Amrli.

The force of the blast leveled shops and mud-brick homes and rescuers spent hours digging victims from the rubble⁴.

This witness says the situation is disastrous⁵. He says the terrorists have targeted innocents -- the elderly and children. He says there are no police or American troops in Amrli, only the poor.

The farming village of Amrli, in the northern province of Salahaddin, is home to mostly minority ethnic Turkmen. The closest town is Tuz Khormatu, about 45 kilometers to the north, where many of the wounded were taken for treatment. Officials say some were also taken to hospitals in other provinces.

Local authorities immediately blamed the bombing on al-Qaida. Spectacular car and truck bombing attacks, like the one in Amrli, are a hallmark of the Sunni terrorist group.

As rescuers continue to sift⁶ through the rubble, officials caution that the death toll⁷ could rise.

1 bomber   

n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者

参考例句：

• He flew a bomber during the war.他在战时驾驶轰炸机。
• Detectives hunting the London bombers will be keen to interview him.追查伦敦爆炸案凶犯的侦探们急于对他进行讯问。

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

4 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。

5 disastrous   

adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的

参考例句：

• The heavy rainstorm caused a disastrous flood.暴雨成灾。
• Her investment had disastrous consequences.She lost everything she owned.她的投资结果很惨，血本无归。

6 sift   

v.筛撒，纷落，详察

参考例句：

• Sift out the wheat from the chaff.把小麦的壳筛出来。
• Sift sugar on top of the cake.在蛋糕上面撒上糖。

7 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。