VOA标准英语2011--Foreign Nationals Evacuated from Egypt

Foreign countries are working hard to get their nationals out of Egypt as anti-government protests rage on.
The U.S. State department says it has already flown over 1,000 Americans out of Egypt and plans to evacuate¹ over 1,000 more in the next couple of days. Those flights have been dropping evacuees² off in Cyprus, Turkey, and Greece.
On Monday night a group of Americans landed in Istanbul, Turkey where they were met by U.S. embassy officials.
At the airport, one of the evacuees, Taylor Swift, spoke³ to reporters. "I just know the embassy thought that we were in danger so they wanted us to evacuate just for our better safety and stuff," said Swift.
"16 and 18 year old kids with guns and swords that were guarding our neighborhood, the neighborhood watch which I thought was a very funny, funny phrase for children with swords," said Eric Tragor.
Anti-government protests have rocked Egypt for over a week now. Most of the Egyptians who are rallying say they want to oust⁴ the country's long time president Hosni Mubarak.
The U.S. isn't the only country getting its nationals out. China and Iraq have also begun evacuations, along with other countries including Canada, India, Israel, and Indonesia.
But some countries, such as European nations Britain, Germany, and France, say as things now stand they have no plans to evacuate their citizens.
Frances Tuke is a spokesperson for the Britain-based travel agency group ABTA. "The foreign and commonwealth⁵ office doesn't feel that that is necessary. No new British nationals are going in to Egypt, into those areas that are being advised against. But there is no need at this point for any mass evacuation," said Tuke.
Resorts in the Red Sea are a popular tourist destination for European travelers.
Tuke says travel agents are still booking flights to spots like Sharm el-Sheikh - around 500 kilometers from Cairo.
Those holidays actually are going on as normal. There's absolute calm there and in fact there's no sign of any unrest in those particular destinations.
The Egyptian army pledged on Monday not to use force against demonstrators. On Tuesday hundreds of thousands of protestors flooded the streets of Cairo and thousands more rallied in other major cities around the country.

1 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。

2 evacuees   

n.被疏散者( evacuee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Moreover, for multi-exits, evacuees select a exit based on game theory. 在有多个出口时，疏散人员根据对策论选择出口。 来自互联网
• Evacuees wade through flooded area following heavy monsoon rains in Peshawar on Saturday, July 31, 2010. 撤离灾区涉水通过后在白沙瓦沉重的季风降雨在周六，2010年7月31日。 来自互联网

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 oust   

vt.剥夺，取代，驱逐

参考例句：

• The committee wanted to oust him from the union.委员会想把他从工会中驱逐出去。
• The leaders have been ousted from power by nationalists.这些领导人被民族主义者赶下了台。

5 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。