新奇事件簿 飓风厄玛袭击加勒比海

A record-breaking hurricane is causing death and destruction as it passes through the Caribbean and heads towards the U.S. state of Florida. On Thursday, Hurricane Irma caused major devastation¹ across the Caribbean islands of Barbuda, St. Martin, Anguilla and the British Virgin² Islands. The Prime Minister of Barbuda, Gaston Browne, said about 95 per cent of the buildings on the island had suffered some damage. He said: "It's absolute devastation. The island is literally³ under water….Barbuda is barely habitable." A government official for St Martin said: "There is massive destruction. We'll concentrate our first efforts so that in the next hours people can get access to food and drinking water."

一场创纪录的飓风穿过加勒比海，前往美国佛罗里达州的过程中造成了人员死亡和财产破坏。周四，飓风厄玛在加勒比海巴布达岛，圣马丁岛，安圭拉岛以及英属维尔京群岛造成了重大破坏。巴布达首相加斯东·布朗(Gaston Browne)称该岛大约95%的建筑受到不同程度的损坏。他说：“这是绝对的破坏。整座岛完全被淹没在水下。巴布达几乎已经不能居住了。”圣马丁一名政府官员表示：“破坏范围非常大。我们将努力提供救援，这样未来几小时人们就能得到食物和饮用水。”

Hurricane Irma is a category 5 storm – the strongest on the 1-5 scale of hurricanes. It is the second strongest hurricane ever to be recorded and the strongest ever recorded east of the Caribbean Sea. Irma has kept a wind speed close to 300kph for more than 24 hours. This is the longest period ever recorded. Meteorologists said Hurricane Irma was over 1,200km wide. It is likely to become a Category 4 hurricane when it makes landfall in Florida on Saturday morning. Florida officials have already ordered a mandatory⁴ evacuation of Florida Keys - the southern part of the state of Florida. Residents there are bracing⁵ themselves for winds of up to 300kph and massive and damaging storm surges.

飓风厄玛是一场五级风暴——飓风总共分为五级，这是最高级。这是有记录以来第二强飓风，也是加勒比海东部最强的飓风。厄玛记录到持续了超过24小时的风速接近300米每小时的飓风。这是有记录以来持续时间最长的。气象学家表示，飓风厄玛的宽度超过1200千米。周六早上在佛罗里达登陆时可能降为四级飓风。佛罗里达官员已经下达佛罗里达岛链撤离令——也就是佛罗里达南部地区。那里的居民将迎来高达300千米每小时的大风和破坏性的暴风雨。

1 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

3 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。

4 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

5 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。