2019年经济学人 印尼灾难新闻发言人苏托波(1)

 

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho ("Pak Topo"), Indonesia's disaster spokesman, died on July 7th, aged¹ 49. Three times the government asked him and he turned the job down, not wanting to become a mouthpiece for them; but in the end they pressed him, and in 2010 Sutopo Purwo Nugroho became the new spokesman for Indonesia's Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB). Almost his first job was to persuade 350,000 people to move away from Mount Merapi on the island of Java. The great, stately, active volcano had been monitored for a long time.

苏托波·普沃·努格罗荷是印尼的灾难新闻发言人，他于7月7日去世，享年49岁。政府曾经三次请他拒绝这份工作，不想他成为政府的代言人。但是政府最后征用了他，而且在2010年，苏托波·普沃·努格罗荷成为了印尼国家减灾署的新发言人。他的第一份工作几乎是说服35万人离开爪哇岛上的默拉皮火山。这座雄伟壮观的活火山已被监测了很长时间。

People believed it hosted a sultanate of sometimes peevish² spirits who had to be soothed³, not shunned⁴, when they were angry. His job was to persuade the locals to forget that, and just leave. He gave the warning late on October 24th. By the evening of October 25th, when the mountain blew its top, the BNPB had overseen⁵ the evacuation of almost everyone. (The tight time-lapse was ideal; if he'd waited longer, the evacuees⁶ would have started to wander back.) He was there when grey ash started falling on the heads of the elderly villagers he was leading out.

人们认为它招待着一个有时脾气暴躁的苏丹人，当他们生气时，必须安抚他们，而不是避开他们。他的工作是说服当地人忘记这件事情，离开就好。他在10月24日晚些时候发出了警告。到10月25日晚上，当火山爆发的时候，印尼国家减灾署几乎监督了所有人的疏散。紧凑的时间间隔是理想的；如果他等更久的话，疏散的人们就会开始往回走。当灰开始落在他带领出来的老年村民的头上时，他就在那里。

The sight made him cry. Worse, though, was the fact that more than 350 people ignored his warnings, preferring to stay on the right side of the spirits. Before he arrived at the agency, forecasts of natural disasters were a fairly random⁷ occurrence. Often they were missed, or the government panicked without reason, dragging along a public panicked by hoaxes⁸ posted online.

这一幕让他哭了。但是，更糟的是，超过350人忽略了他的警告，他们选择留在精神的正确的一边。在他来到该机构之前，对自然灾害的预测是相当随机的。他们经常失手，或者政府毫无理由地惊慌失措，拖着被网上发布的骗局吓坏的公众。

1 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

2 peevish   

adj.易怒的，坏脾气的

参考例句：

• A peevish child is unhappy and makes others unhappy.一个脾气暴躁的孩子自己不高兴也使别人不高兴。
• She glared down at me with a peevish expression on her face.她低头瞪着我，一脸怒气。

3 soothed   

v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦

参考例句：

• The music soothed her for a while. 音乐让她稍微安静了一会儿。
• The soft modulation of her voice soothed the infant. 她柔和的声调使婴儿安静了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 shunned   

v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was shunned by her family when she remarried. 她再婚后家里人都躲着她。
• He was a shy man who shunned all publicity. 他是个怕羞的人，总是避开一切引人注目的活动。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 overseen   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was overseen stealing the letters. 他被人撞见在偷信件。 来自辞典例句
• It will be overseen by ThomasLi, director of IBM China Research Laboratory. 该实验室由IBM中国研究院院长李实恭(ThomasLi)引导。 来自互联网

6 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

7 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

8 hoaxes   

n.恶作剧，戏弄( hoax的名词复数 )v.开玩笑骗某人，戏弄某人( hoax的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The disc jockey, a young separatist named Pierre Brassard, has made his name with such hoaxes. 这位名叫彼埃尔 - 布拉萨尔的音乐节目主持人，是一名年轻的分离主义者，以制造这类骗局闻名。 来自百科语句
• This chain-letter hoaxes, has mutated over the years. 这一骗局多年来在互联网上不断发展和变异。 来自互联网