VOA标准英语2008年-Flood Victims Cope in India's Bihar State

The annual monsoon¹ rains have unleashed² flooding in several parts of India, killing³ nearly 1,500 people and leaving millions of others homeless. The worst affected⁴ region is the eastern state, Bihar, where a river burst its embankment, last month, and flooded large parts of the state. Anjana Pasricha has a report on how flood victims in one of India's poorest states are coping, weeks after they were swept out of their homes.
　
Flood victims stand in a queue to receive food at a relief camp in Saharsa, in the northern Indian state of Bihar, 23 Sept. 2008

No one in 13-year-old Soni Kumari's village in Bihar's Supaul District had ever seen a flood. The village lies far away from the river. So, when the raging waters of the Kosi River engulfed⁵ their homes, chaos⁶ ensued.

Soni fled the torrent⁷. But the young girl lost contact with her parents and brothers and sisters and arrived alone in a boat to a relief camp. She still does not know whether her family found sanctuary⁸ in another relief camp or was swept away by the floodwaters.

Nearly one month later, the young girl has no idea what the future holds for her.

She says she will not go back to her village because there is too much water there. She only wants to return if her parents are found.

Soni is among the three million victims made homeless when the Kosi River, swollen⁹ with monsoon waters, burst an embankment and changed course, swallowing up huge swathes of a populous¹⁰ region in one of India's poorest states.

Tens of thousands of villagers now squat¹¹ in relief camps that have sprung up around temporary tents or public buildings. They have a common story to tell: homes have been submerged, meager¹² possessions have been swept away, families have been separated and lush, green fields, which yielded an income, are covered with muddy water.

Among these distraught victims is Chandra Kala Devi, 25. She has arrived with her young son, but does not know what fate befell her husband.

She says they spent nearly six days on the roofs of local market shops, with hardly any food and water, hoping the flood would ebb¹³. But when the situation worsened, she had to flee, leaving behind everything: homes, possessions and animals.

In the relief camps, the government, international aid organizations and local charities have joined hands to cope with the disaster, which the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a "national calamity¹⁴".

The huge relief operation is focused on providing food and clean water, building temporary toilets, and ensuring that disease and epidemics¹⁵ do not aggravate¹⁶ the misery¹⁷ of the victims. The government and aid organizations are also trying to reunite families separated when the disaster struck.
　
Villagers wade¹⁸ through floodwaters towards safer areas near Saharsa, about 280 kilometers (175 miles) northeast of Patna, India, 02 Sept. 2008

But victims worry about how to pick up the threads of their lives. State representative of the United Nations Children's Fund in Bihar, Bijaya Rajbhandari, says many of them will have to stay in the camps at least until the end of the year. He says houses are destroyed and much of the land will be unfit for cultivation¹⁹ for some time.

"Those populations which have been completely washed out, houses have been washed out, schools have washed out, that means they cant²⁰ go back," he said. "They have nothing left out there. There is a issue even of land which has been affected because of the silt²¹. So, also it will have the impact on the winter crop, so that means livelihood²² of thousands of people is at risk."

Pravind Kumar Praveen of ActionAid has been working with flood victims in Supaul District, which bore the brunt of the flooding. He says many villages were caught unaware²³ when their homes were flooded and, as a result, lost everything.

Praveen says the flood came so suddenly that most villagers were unable to salvage²⁴ anything. He says they just managed to save themselves.

The state government has been criticized for not reinforcing river embankments to prevent the flood and for not giving adequate warning to communities, once the river had breached²⁵ its embankments.

Poonam Khetrapal Singh, the deputy regional director of the World Health Organization's Southeast Asia region, says it is important to evacuate²⁶ people quickly in a region where flooding makes millions homeless, every year.

"We have had floods always, but the intensity²⁷ of floods has gone up, as we have seen lately in flooding that has occurred in Sri Lanka, in Bangaldesh, in Nepal, in India," she said. "A lot of people are displaced, so there has to be preparedness to shift these people to better areas, when we find that a natural calamity of this magnitude is coming."

Aid agencies say that governments in South Asia, where natural disasters have been taking an increasingly heavy toll²⁸ on poor communities, must focus more on preparing for disasters rather than responding to them after they happen.

 

1 monsoon   

n.季雨，季风，大雨

参考例句：

• The monsoon rains started early this year.今年季雨降雨开始得早。
• The main climate type in that region is monsoon.那个地区主要以季风气候为主要气候类型。

2 unleashed   

v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The government's proposals unleashed a storm of protest in the press. 政府的提案引发了新闻界的抗议浪潮。
• The full force of his rage was unleashed against me. 他把所有的怒气都发泄在我身上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 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。

4 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

5 engulfed   

v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was engulfed by a crowd of reporters. 他被一群记者团团围住。
• The little boat was engulfed by the waves. 小船被波浪吞没了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

7 torrent   

n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发

参考例句：

• The torrent scoured a channel down the hillside. 急流沿着山坡冲出了一条沟。
• Her pent-up anger was released in a torrent of words.她压抑的愤怒以滔滔不绝的话爆发了出来。

8 sanctuary   

n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区

参考例句：

• There was a sanctuary of political refugees behind the hospital.医院后面有一个政治难民的避难所。
• Most countries refuse to give sanctuary to people who hijack aeroplanes.大多数国家拒绝对劫机者提供庇护。

9 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

10 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。

11 squat   

v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的

参考例句：

• For this exercise you need to get into a squat.在这次练习中你需要蹲下来。
• He is a squat man.他是一个矮胖的男人。

12 meager   

adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的

参考例句：

• He could not support his family on his meager salary.他靠微薄的工资无法养家。
• The two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began their meager meal.两个男人同一个女人围着火，开始吃起少得可怜的午饭。

13 ebb   

vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态

参考例句：

• The flood and ebb tides alternates with each other.涨潮和落潮交替更迭。
• They swam till the tide began to ebb.他们一直游到开始退潮。

14 calamity   

n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件

参考例句：

• Even a greater natural calamity cannot daunt us. 再大的自然灾害也压不垮我们。
• The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crushing calamity.偷袭珍珠港(对美军来说)是一场毁灭性的灾难。

15 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。

16 aggravate   

vt.加重(剧)，使恶化；激怒，使恼火

参考例句：

• Threats will only aggravate her.恐吓只能激怒她。
• He would only aggravate the injury by rubbing it.他揉擦伤口只会使伤势加重。

17 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

18 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

19 cultivation   

n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成

参考例句：

• The cultivation in good taste is our main objective.培养高雅情趣是我们的主要目标。
• The land is not fertile enough to repay cultivation.这块土地不够肥沃，不值得耕种。

20 cant   

n.斜穿，黑话，猛扔

参考例句：

• The ship took on a dangerous cant to port.船只出现向左舷危险倾斜。
• He knows thieves'cant.他懂盗贼的黑话。

21 silt   

n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞

参考例句：

• The lake was almost solid with silt and vegetation.湖里几乎快被淤泥和植物填满了。
• During the annual floods the river deposits its silt on the fields.每年河水泛滥时都会在田野上沉积一层淤泥。

22 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

23 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

24 salvage   

v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救

参考例句：

• All attempts to salvage the wrecked ship failed.抢救失事船只的一切努力都失败了。
• The salvage was piled upon the pier.抢救出的财产被堆放在码头上。

25 breached   

攻破( breach的现在分词 )； 破坏，违反

参考例句：

• These commitments have already been breached. 这些承诺已遭背弃。
• Our tanks have breached the enemy defences. 我方坦克车突破了敌人的防线。

26 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

27 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

28 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。