2007年VOA标准英语-Brazil Athletes Mourn Plane Crash Victims

By David Byrd
Rio de Janeiro
18 July 2007

Brazilian athletes at the Pan American Games are marking a three-day mourning period following the country's worst airline disaster.  As VOA's David Byrd reports from Rio de Janeiro, athletes will wear black armbands to remember the nearly 200 people who died Tuesday in the Sao Paulo crash.

An EMT worker reads about the crash at a local newsstand

Brazilian television read the names of those killed in Tuesday's fiery¹ crash at Sao Paulo Congonhas Airport. Brazilian newspapers carried banner headlines and half-page photos of the tragedy.

The Airbus A-320 was owned by Brazil's domestic Tam Airlines.  It crashed as it was attempting to land on a rain-slickened runway.  The runway had recently been resurfaced, but had not had grooves² carved into it to drain the water. 

News reports from Sao Paulo say the pilot had apparently³ tried to take off again, but did not get altitude and slammed into a building across a busy highway from the airport.

Flags are at half-staff along Rio's Copacabana Beach, 18 July 2008

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared three days of national mourning. 

At the Pan American games in Rio de Janeiro, a statement from the Brazilian Olympic Committee said that the nation's athletes would wear black arm bands to mark the mourning period.  A moment of silence is to be observed before events in which Brazilian athletes are competing. 

Along Rio's Copacabana Beach, the beach volleyball competition continued, but flags are at half-staff.  

The crash was the worst air disaster in Brazil's history.  In September, a Gol Aerolinhas Inteligentes SA Boeing 737 and an executive jet collided over the Amazon rain forest, killing⁴ 154 people. 

In February, a Brazil federal court briefly⁵ banned takeoffs and landings of three types of large jets, because of safety concerns.  An appeals court overruled that, saying the safety concerns were not sufficient to outweigh⁶ the severe economic hardship it would cause Brazil.

1 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

2 grooves   

n.沟( groove的名词复数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏

参考例句：

• Wheels leave grooves in a dirt road. 车轮在泥路上留下了凹痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Sliding doors move in grooves. 滑动门在槽沟中移动。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

4 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。

5 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

6 outweigh   

vt.比...更重，...更重要

参考例句：

• The merits of your plan outweigh the defects.你制定的计划其优点胜过缺点。
• One's merits outweigh one's short-comings.功大于过。