新西兰英语 369 No progress on rescuing miners

　　Very little progress has been made today in rescuing the trapped miners¹ in Pike River Coal mine. The army robot with a camera on it broke down about half a km into the mine perhaps because of the water in the mine. A second army robot has arrived but the same thing could happen. Other bigger robots are coming from Australia and the US. The Prime² Minister, John Key, said the government will do everything possible to save the lives of these 29 men.
A camera dropped into a fresh air space showed damage but no sign of people. Drilling a hole is still continuing and a helicopter brought in another drill to work on another hole.
Meanwhile 65 rescuers are waiting to enter the mine. 18 of them have come from Australia. However, tests of air quality in the mine still show methane³ gas which could easily cause another explosion⁴. It is not safe to send in rescuers.
We saw a map of the tunnels on television and they looked like a street map of a small village. There are many connecting tunnels. The missing⁵ miners are possibly in three different areas. We also saw a video of air and dust which came out of the entrance after the explosion on Friday. The explosion was maybe 2km along the tunnel and lasted about 50 seconds.
By this time, many families are starting to give up hope that the miners will be rescued.
Question
It has been five days now. Can you imagine how families are feeling at this time?

1 miners   

矿工( miner的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The coal miners have come out for about two weeks. 煤矿工人已罢工约两周了。
• The roof of the cave dropped in on the miners, trapping them. 洞穴的顶部坍了下来，砸在矿工身上。

2 prime   

adj.首要的，主要的；最好的，第一流的

参考例句：

• The prime minister spoke of the general insecurity in the country.总理谈到了全国普遍存在的不安全。
• He met with the Prime Minister of Japan for an hour.他和日本首相会见了一个小时。

3 methane   

n.甲烷，沼气

参考例句：

• The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
• Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。

4 explosion   

n.爆发，发出，爆炸

参考例句：

• The police arrived right at the moment of the explosion.警察就在爆炸的那个时候赶到了。
• The shock of the explosion was felt far away.爆炸引起的震动很远都可感觉到。

5 missing   

adj.遗失的，缺少的，失踪的

参考例句：

• Check the tools and see if anything is missing.检点一下工具，看有无丢失。
• All the others are here;he's the only one missing.别人都来了，就短他一个。