万花筒2008-01-20:希斯罗机场瘫痪

Heathrow Airport was forced to cancel scores of flights and other aircraft flying into the UK had to be diverted to other airports after a crash landing

The busiest international runway on earth, today, it was at a standstill, planes static, and from this, the heart of Heathrow, disruption quickly spread. Tonight, there are signs it could engulf¹ more than 30,000 passengers.

You are gonna have to contact the police , and try to rebook your flight with British Airways².

Airport staff are bearing the brunt as 221 flights are cancelled. Heathrow tonight has just announced it has special permission for night flights to minimize this backlog³.

I'm trying to get to Italy, and I checked the website from work about literally⁴ half an hour ago, and they said there was a 15 minutes plane, now I've arrived, they tell me it's cancelled.

Tonight, this coach carried passengers who should have flown in for connecting flights, some are angry at the lack of help.

Uh, if we lost this flight, we had to phone this number, and get another flight, if there was another flight available.

Earlier, passengers who'd expected to land at Heathrow found themselves at airports like Standsted and Luton instead , many were highly confused.

We've been rerouted to some places I don't even know what town this is, and we're going to the United States. So we are actually back to Heathrow, and re-arrange our flight.

It's the first time we came here, and we don't know where we have to go, and how…

The Prime Minister's flight en route to China from Heathrow was among the very first affected⁵, onboard the aircraft was ITV News's Tom Bradby.

The whole airport is like sort of, plane park, there are planes everywhere, backed up, uh, waiting to get on.

Tonight as Heathrow staff prepare for desperate passengers bedding down, the emotional impact of this turmoil⁶ is taking its toll⁷.

1 engulf   

vt.吞没，吞食

参考例句：

• Floodwaters engulf a housing project in the Bajo Yuna community in central Dominican Republic.洪水吞没了多米尼加中部巴杰优那社区的一处在建的住房工程项目。
• If we are not strong enough to cover all the minds up,then they will engulf us,and we are in danger.如果我们不够坚强来抵挡大众的意念，就会有被他们吞没的危险。

2 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

3 backlog   

n.积压未办之事

参考例句：

• It will take a month to clear the backlog of work.要花一个月的时间才能清理完积压的工作。
• Investment is needed to reduce the backlog of repairs.需要投资来減轻积压的维修工作。

4 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

6 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

7 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。