【英语语言学习】飞机失踪

 RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This Sunday marks one year since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it simply vanished. A massive international search was launched covering a vast stretch of ocean, but no trace of Flight 370 has ever been found.

MONTAGNE: And that has left the loved ones of those on board desperate for information, sifting¹ through possible theories about what happened to the 239 people on board. One of the passengers was Philip Wood, an American who was on his way home to Beijing, where he lived with his partner, Sarah Bajc.

SARAH BAJC: He never pinged me from the plane, which he always, always, always did. And there was no connection, of course, when the flight should have landed.

MONTAGNE: Philip Wood was traveling to Kuala Lumpur because he and Bajc were preparing to move there. In fact, she was packing up their apartment in Beijing when she got the news.

BAJC: I was paying very careful attention to the time because the movers were coming at 9 o'clock in the morning. And he should have been home by 7:15. You know, by 8:00, 8:15, I was starting to get really seriously worried. I'd been looking at the Malaysia Airlines website, and it just kept saying delayed, delayed. But take off was on time. And so I just thought to do an open Internet search and found the CNN article that the flight was missing. That was at about 8:30 in the morning.

MONTAGNE: I guess there's no good way to hear that. But that must have been an especially shocking way to hear it.

BAJC: Yeah, for it to be two hours after the designated landing time - and, you know, now we know, more than seven hours after the flight had gone off communication - it was shocking to me. And it took the airline until 2:30 that afternoon to contact me.

MONTAGNE: Well, during all the coverage², we did hear many complaints from families about how they were treated by officials from the airline and also the Malaysian government. What about that?

BAJC: Oh, it's been terrible. But at least in the beginning, it felt like they were trying to do the right thing. They mostly had volunteers from their own employee base, so flight attendants who were off-duty and people from customer service who were off-duty. And they were genuinely empathetic and caring. But they didn't have any information to share. And they were so darned disorganized. But then, as time has gone by, it's actually gotten worse - because you'd think they'd have learned a couple of lessons about what to do and not do when dealing³ with people in a crisis. But they've actually - their behavior has actually gotten worse. For instance, one of the requirements under the international guidelines for airline incidents is that the airline contact family members with any news updates before media is alerted. There has only been one time since the beginning that I have been notified of anything before I've heard it through media. And that was when I received a text message telling me that the plane ended in the southern Indian Ocean and all lives were lost. And I received that about 10 minutes before the press conference. And this goes for all the family members. No one receives information directly from the authorities. We all get it through our media contacts.

MONTAGNE: The media scrutiny⁴ was so intense in those first days and weeks, even months. I wonder how hard that was, and then what it was like when the spotlight⁵ turned away.

BAJC: Well, at the beginning, the ups and downs and all the false leads were exhausting and traumatic. And the official investigation⁶ team was horrific in their management of communication. So, you know, we were just on a constant high hopes and then dashed hopes and then high hopes and then dashed hopes. But along the way, one of the problems here is that the media has focused so much on the mystery aspect that they've stopped talking about - or really haven't ever given sufficient coverage to - systemic failures that occurred on the operational side. The reason the plane is missing is because Malaysia was negligent⁷ in their responsibility. They had an unidentified 777 flying through their airspace for almost an hour. And they did nothing.

MONTAGNE: Of course, that was reported. But what you're saying is that it was not the focus of the reporting. The focus was the mystery.

BAJC: The focus has been the mystery and all the conspiracy⁸ theories. We started off with more than a hundred, and we've narrowed it down to about 12 that we're still investigating. I mean, myself and a number of other family members have hired a private investigator⁹. And, you know, we've been able to narrow it down. But there's still about a dozen scenarios¹⁰ that we haven't been able to rule out, including the official story. But the official story is, like, at the bottom of the list. It is the least likely. There's a lot of evidence that points to an intentional¹¹ cover-up of what would normally be evident in a case like this. So, you know, the private investigator we've hired gives me this analogy to share with people. It's kind of like you've walked into a living room in a home where you believe a murder has been committed. And so you try to collect trace evidence. And there's nothing except for cleaning residue¹². There's no normal fibers¹³. There's no hair. There's no crumbs¹⁴. There's no normal dirt from a house. There's only cleaning residue. You know, that's kind of what our private investigator has found, that normal evidence that would exist if it was an accident - complete cargo¹⁵ manifest, air-traffic control records, including the system tracking, all of the cell phone tower and cell phone account records - that's all been missing.

MONTAGNE: Well, given this not being settled, do you have hope that Philip Wood, your partner, and others on board could still be alive?

BAJC: Of course I have hope. If I didn't have hope, then it would be really hard to keep my energy level going. On the other hand, I'm a very pragmatic and realistic person. But there's absolutely no evidence that the airplane crashed or that all on board were killed. And in the absence of that evidence, there is a tiny chance that people are still alive. And beyond that, there is the need to find the truth.

MONTAGNE: Do you have plans to mark the one year anniversary?

BAJC: A number of the family members will be holding an event on Sunday. I've let them know I'm not going to participate. From my perspective, March 8 is going to be a day to celebrate the incredible impact that Philip has made to my life and to remember all the good things. And so I'm going to stay home by myself and look through photo albums and read old love letters and treat it as a celebration as much as I can.

MONTAGNE: Well, our hearts go out to you. Thank you very much for talking with us.

BAJC: Thank you.

MONTAGNE: Sarah Bajc's partner, Philip Wood, was on board Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared one year ago on Sunday.

1 sifting   

n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• He lay on the beach, sifting the sand through his fingers. 他躺在沙滩上用手筛砂子玩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was sifting the cinders when she came in. 她进来时，我正在筛煤渣。 来自辞典例句

2 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

3 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

4 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

5 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

6 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

7 negligent   

adj.疏忽的；玩忽的；粗心大意的

参考例句：

• The committee heard that he had been negligent in his duty.委员会听说他玩忽职守。
• If the government is proved negligent,compensation will be payable.如果证明是政府的疏忽，就应支付赔偿。

8 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

9 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

10 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

11 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

12 residue   

n.残余，剩余，残渣

参考例句：

• Mary scraped the residue of food from the plates before putting them under water.玛丽在把盘子放入水之前先刮去上面的食物残渣。
• Pesticide persistence beyond the critical period for control leads to residue problems.农药一旦超过控制的临界期，就会导致残留问题。

13 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

14 crumbs   

int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式

参考例句：

• She stood up and brushed the crumbs from her sweater. 她站起身掸掉了毛衣上的面包屑。
• Oh crumbs! Is that the time? 啊，天哪！都这会儿啦？

15 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。