新西兰英语 509 Royal Commission on Canterbury Earthquake

 　　Today the hearings began into the February 22nd earthquake to find out why buildings collapsed² and why so many people died. The hearings are like a court with a judge and two other people. Their job is to listen to experts and witnesses, and at the end to write a report which gives recommendations⁴ for change. A recommendation³ is a strong suggestion for the government to make changes. The hearings will not finish until after March next year.

　　The first thing that the judge did today was to welcome people in English and in Maori. The welcome was translated into nine languages, for the families of the foreigners who were killed that day. Many family members of those who died attended this morning. After the welcome, the names of all 182 people who died as a result of earthquake were read out. This took about 10 minutes and was followed by 2 minutes silence.

　　After that scientists explained what happened during the earthquake on February 22nd. The centre of that earthquake was right under the central city and was very shallow. There were extremely high levels of shaking. Many buildings collapsed and some taller buildings lost their stairs. Most of the people were killed by buildings which collapsed.

　　The question everyone wants to know is: why did those buildings collapse¹? At the end of the hearing, we hope the report will tell us how to make sure that buildings will not collapse next time there is an earthquake

　　Vocabulary

　　Royal Commission⁵ is a like a court. It is royal because the government (it represents the Queen) asked for these hearings.

　　hearings – a chance for people to say what happened and for the judge to hear what they say

　　collapse – fall down

　　witnesses – people who saw what happened

　　shallow – not deep

　　Questions

　　1.Why do we have 2 minutes silence on a sad occasion like this?

　　2.There is also a Royal Commission on the Pike River Mine. Why do we have a Royal Commission for these two events?

1 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

2 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

3 recommendation   

n.推荐（信）建议，优点，长处

参考例句：

• I wrote him a good recommendation.我为他写了一封很好的推荐信。
• This method deserves recommendation.这种做法值得提倡。

4 recommendations   

n.推荐( recommendation的名词复数 )；推荐信；正式建议；提议

参考例句：

• The board completely disregarded my recommendations. 董事会完全无视我的建议。
• Recommendations from two previous clients helped to establish her credibility. 两位以前的客户的推荐有助于确立她的诚信度。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 commission   

n.委托，授权，委员会，拥金，回扣，委任状

参考例句：

• The salesman can get commission on everything he sells.这个售货员能得到所售每件货物的佣金。
• The commission is made up of five people,including two women.委员会由五人组成，其中包括两名妇女。