新西兰英语 670 Royal Commission into collapse of CTV Building

 　　First listen to June 25th 2012 to hear about the Royal Commission and follow the other links on that page.

　　The Royal Commission into the Canterbury Earthquakes has just finished eight weeks investigating the collapse¹ of the CTV building. Yesterday was the final day. During these eight weeks, the Commission tried to find out why the CTV building collapsed², killing³ 115 people.

　　It seems many mistakes were made. The lawyer for the families who died said the engineer who designed the building was inexperienced. He was a new graduate. His boss in the engineering company did not check the work. The City Council engineers at that time said the design was OK and gave building consent. Five years later, there were some problems in the building but nothing was done to fix these problems. After the first earthquakes in 2010, tenants⁴ in the building said that it did not feel safe; it shook when trucks went past, but again nothing was done.

　　However, the lawyer for the engineering company said that their design was good because the building did not collapse during the 7.1 earthquake in September 2010.

　　We now have to wait until November 12th for the final report from the Commission.

　　Vocabulary

　　investigate – examine, inquire into a problem

　　building consent – piece of paper which says the building design is OK

　　tenants – people who pay rent

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 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 tenants   

n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者

参考例句：

• A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。