VOA慢速英语20060313b

THIS IS AMERICA - Six Months After the Storm, New Orleans Tries to Reclaim¹ Its Famous SpiritBy Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Monday, March 13, 2006

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. This week, we have a report on the recovery efforts in New Orleans. Six months ago that city found itself in the deadly path of Hurricane Katrina.

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VOICE ONE:

Over the years, millions of people have visited New Orleans for its music, food, architectural design and unusual history. New Orleans was a mainly African-American city with many ethnic² influences and traditions. Almost one half-million people lived there.


New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

But at the end of August, Hurricane Katrina hit states along the Gulf³ Coast, in the southeastern United States. Louisiana suffered the greatest losses. More than one thousand people were killed in that state.

About two thousand people are still listed officially as missing, although many are believed to be alive. Louisiana's medical examiner says the missing include several hundred in New Orleans.

More than five hundred fifty people are known to have died in New Orleans. A new search for bodies in the wreckage⁴ started earlier this month, using dogs to smell for remains⁵.

VOICE TWO:

Estimates differ, but the current population of New Orleans seems to be around two hundred thousand. Many people have resettled, at least temporarily. Many are in Houston, Texas, and Baton⁶ Rouge⁷, the Louisiana capital. New Orleans was almost seventy percent black before the storm. So far, many of the African-Americans who left have not returned.

Fewer families means fewer children. Most of the public schools in New Orleans remain closed.

Some people who went home briefly⁸ had a terrible shock. They were unable to find even where their houses had stood. They said the damage looked like a huge bomb had exploded.

VOICE ONE :

Hurricane Katrina produced winds of two hundred eighty kilometers per hour or stronger. But in some areas, the winds alone did not do as much damage as expected. Then came the deadly floods. Floodwalls and earthen levees could not hold back the rising waters of Lake Pontchartrain. Soon, most of the city was underwater.

Driving through New Orleans today, you see areas that appear normal. But you also see areas of what looks like endless wreckage. In many cases people lost everything they had.

VOICE TWO:

Considering the extent of the damage, New Orleans officials often express surprise that so many people survived.

Most people acted on warnings. They left New Orleans before the storm. Others stayed in their homes, either for lack of transportation or simply by choice.

Rescuers in helicopters and boats pulled some people to safety. Others had to wait a long time for help.


Hurricane Katrina rescue

Thousands of people went to the New Orleans Convention Center and the Superdome for shelter. Conditions became crowded and deplorable. There were situations of anarchy⁹ in the city. But some reports by public officials and the news media were later found to have been overstated.

VOICE ONE:

There have been investigations¹¹ in Congress and the administration into what went wrong and what could be done better in the future. Democrats¹² in the House of Representatives, however, want an independent investigation¹⁰ of the federal reaction to Katrina.

A newly broadcast videotape shows a conference call with President Bush and other federal officials a day before Katrina hit. They hear warnings that water could flow over the top of the levees. The president later said he did not think anybody believed the levees would fail.

All levels of government have been accused of failures in the crisis. The director of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown, resigned in September. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin have also faced a lot of criticism.

In another newly broadcast video, from the hours after the storm hit, the governor tells federal officials that the levees appeared unbroken.

Since Katrina, Mayor Nagin has had to work harder for re-election. He now faces more than twenty opponents. The election is April twenty-second.


Ray Nagin

The mayor, who is black, recently apologized after he faced criticism for stating: This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be.

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VOICE TWO:

John Logan is a researcher at Brown University in Providence¹³, Rhode Island. Mister Logan says people of all colors and economic levels suffered in Katrina, but black people suffered the most flood damage. He found this was especially true of poor African-Americans. Many lived in the city's lowest-lying areas. New Orleans is built below sea level.

Other researchers have presented different findings about race and the effects of the storm. These dispute the idea that black people suffered a much greater share of the effects than whites did in relation to their numbers.

Some people displaced by Katrina do not have enough money to return and rebuild. Some had no homeowner's insurance, or policies that only paid for wind damage. Some are having to make loan payments on flooded houses even while paying to live in other places.

But several areas of New Orleans are not ready to be re-occupied yet. The Lower Ninth Ward¹⁴, for example, in nearly empty. Thousands of homes in the city might be too damaged to repair.

The next Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June first. The Army Corps¹⁵ of Engineers is working to repair the levee system around New Orleans in time. Yet why rebuild, some Americans say, when future storms might be as bad if not worse than Katrina?

VOICE ONE:

Supporters of New Orleans see many reasons to rebuild the city. Local officials point out, for example, that New Orleans is a major seaport¹⁶ for a lot of trade to and from the United States. Oil and agriculture are two industries that depend on it.

New Orleans is also a major place for tourism. And a big reason for that is the yearly celebration of Mardi Gras. The name means Fat Tuesday in French. It marks the day before the beginning of the Christian¹⁷ season of Lent.

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VOICE TWO:

After Hurricane Katrina, some people did not think New Orleans should hold a Mardi Gras celebration this year. But the city carried on a tradition begun in the eighteen hundreds.

By Fat Tuesday, February twenty-eighth, an estimated one hundred thirty thousand visitors had gathered in New Orleans. There were smaller crowds and fewer events than in the past. Still, people stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the parades and joined in the noisy spirit of Mardi Gras.

Officials estimated that the two weeks of Carnival¹⁸ celebrations had about seventy percent of the usual crowds. Still, it appeared that the local economy gained at least two hundred million dollars.

Some people who lived in the city before the storm returned for Mardi Gras. They included a number of African-Americans. Some talked of returning to live in New Orleans.

VOICE ONE:

Colorful floats paraded along the streets of the French Quarter. Marching bands played New Orleans jazz. Mayor Nagin rode a horse in a parade organized by an African-American group, the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. He dressed as Russel Honore, Army general who led military support in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi after Katrina.


A Mardi Gras float this year

A small group paraded in the Lower Ninth Ward, past the tortured shapes of wreckage. Houses, cars, buses, bicycles, mailboxes, trees.

VOICE TWO:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which hit the Gulf Coast later in the season, were two of the most intense Atlantic storms ever recorded. Officials at FEMA says eighty-eight thousand million dollars in federal money has already been approved for aid, recovery and rebuilding. And President Bush is asking Congress for twenty thousand million more. Last week he discussed his budget request during his tenth visit in the last six months to New Orleans and other affected¹⁹ areas.

Thirty-four members of Congress recently visited storm-damaged areas of the Gulf Coast. The lawmakers said they wanted to see how the federal money was being spent. They wanted to see progress, or lack of it.

What the lawmakers saw when they visited New Orleans could play a part in deciding the future of that city.

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VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver²⁰. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at www.unsv.com. Please join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 reclaim   

v.要求归还，收回；开垦

参考例句：

• I have tried to reclaim my money without success.我没能把钱取回来。
• You must present this ticket when you reclaim your luggage.当你要取回行李时，必须出示这张票子。

2 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

3 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

4 wreckage   

n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏

参考例句：

• They hauled him clear of the wreckage.他们把他从形骸中拖出来。
• New states were born out of the wreckage of old colonial empires.新生国家从老殖民帝国的废墟中诞生。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 baton   

n.乐队用指挥杖

参考例句：

• With the baton the conductor was beating time.乐队指挥用指挥棒打拍子。
• The conductor waved his baton,and the band started up.指挥挥动指挥棒，乐队开始演奏起来。

7 rouge   

n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红

参考例句：

• Women put rouge on their cheeks to make their faces pretty.女人往面颊上涂胭脂，使脸更漂亮。
• She didn't need any powder or lip rouge to make her pretty.她天生漂亮，不需要任何脂粉唇膏打扮自己。

8 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

9 anarchy   

n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• There would be anarchy if we had no police.要是没有警察，社会就会无法无天。
• The country was thrown into a state of anarchy.这国家那时一下子陷入无政府状态。

10 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。

11 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

12 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 providence   

n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝

参考例句：

• It is tempting Providence to go in that old boat.乘那艘旧船前往是冒大险。
• To act as you have done is to fly in the face of Providence.照你的所作所为那样去行事，是违背上帝的意志的。

14 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

15 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

16 seaport   

n.海港，港口，港市

参考例句：

• Ostend is the most important seaport in Belgium.奥斯坦德是比利时最重要的海港。
• A seaport where ships can take on supplies of coal.轮船能够补充煤炭的海港。

17 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

18 carnival   

n.嘉年华会，狂欢，狂欢节，巡回表演

参考例句：

• I got some good shots of the carnival.我有几个狂欢节的精彩镜头。
• Our street puts on a carnival every year.我们街的居民每年举行一次嘉年华会。

19 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。

20 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。