新西兰英语 554 Debris from Rena

 　　Debris¹ from the Rena has reached beaches in the Coromandel. There are bags of milk powder, plastic and rope on the beaches and broken containers.

　　The sea around the Rena is white from broken bags of milk powder. There is also oil for about 3km around the ship.

　　It is now too dangerous to take containers off the broken stern² of the ship. There are worries that this part of the ship will sink, taking many containers to the bottom of the sea. However, if the weather improves, it may be possible to drag the two halves of the ship to shallow³ water. This would make it easier to remove the containers.

　　Now a ship is using sonar equipment to find containers in the water so that other ships can enter and leave the Port of Tauranga safely.

　　Vocabulary

　　debris – pieces of rubbish from something that is broken e.g. after a fire or flood (French word so we don’t pronounce the final “s”)

　　reach – arrive

　　stern – back end of the ship; opposite is bow [bau]

　　drag – pull with difficulty

　　shallow – opposite is deep

　　sonar – sound

　　Grammar

　　Here is a useful structure: This would make it easier to…

　　The grammar is: this makes it easier / more difficult / harder to + verb

1 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

2 stern   

adj.严厉的，严格的，严峻的；n.船尾

参考例句：

• The ship was in a blaze from stem to stern.整艘船从头到尾都着火了。
• The headmaster ruled the school with a stern discipline.校长治校严谨。

3 shallow   

adj.浅的，肤浅的，浅显易懂的；n.(pl.)浅滩，浅处；v.变浅

参考例句：

• The dish is too shallow to serve soup in.盘子太浅，盛不了汤。
• His analysis was always shallow.他的分析总是很肤浅的。