英语杂谈：90 A big deal

This is bigger than the Super Bowl. This is actually bigger than the Olympics. This is really a big deal for Africa, but it’s also a big deal for the United States. Because you know they really have something to prove. Much of the world sees them really as rookies in football but they are expected. They are playing England who actually invented football tomorrow.

 

The amount that's been coming out might be a lot, lot more than we ever knew. Let's go to the pictures under water. The latest numbers that we have, as Ali says, about twice as high as a previous estimate. They're now saying 40,000 barrels a day, or 1.7 million gallons a day, might be escaping and might have been escaping for weeks.

 

I think we're still dealing¹ with the flow estimate and we're still trying to refine those numbers. One portion of the work, as we've just indicated, came up with a higher flow rate. As it stands right now, the actual production capability² at optimum for the Discovery Enterprise and the Q4000, if they're operating at maximum efficiency, is 18,000 and 10,000, respectfully, so that's 28,000.

 

At about 5:30 last evening, the Little Missouri River, which is along this campground, was at about three and a half feet. And within 12 hours, by 5:00 or 5:30 this morning, it was at 20 feet. So it was a very rapid flash flood that inundated³ that area. The Red Cross that there may have been as many as 300 people there. Obviously they're in the process of trying to determine if there's other people missing and they're in heavy search and rescue mode now with National Guard, state police, park and tourism people, as well as law enforcement, emergency management personnel.

 

1 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。

2 capability   

n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等

参考例句：

• She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
• Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。

3 inundated   

v.淹没( inundate的过去式和过去分词 )；（洪水般地）涌来；充满；给予或交予（太多事物）使难以应付

参考例句：

• We have been inundated with offers of help. 主动援助多得使我们应接不暇。
• We have been inundated with every bit of information imaginable. 凡是想得到的各种各样的信息潮水般地向我们涌来。 来自《简明英汉词典》