2006年VOA标准英语-20th Anniversary of Chernobyl Disaster Rem

By Anya Ardayeva
Moscow
24 April 2006
 
watch Chernobyl Anniversary

On April 26, 1986, a massive explosion tore through Reactor¹ Number Four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It was the most devastating² nuclear accident in history. Twenty years on, the debate continues on how many people were affected³ by the catastrophe⁴. The number of deaths attributed to the accident varies widely, from 4,000 to 90,000 deaths. 

But what is certain is that the area around the reactor, which was home to hundreds of thousands of people, will never be the same. Anya Ardayeva visited the 30-kilometer Exclusion⁵ Zone around Chernobyl … and spoke⁶ to some of those affected by the tragedy.

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Driving into the town of Pripyat, two kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear plant, is just like driving into any other town in Ukraine. Asphalt road, poplar trees, and apartment buildings.

But once you are there, you discover that something is missing: the people.  

Pripyat still exists but is abandoned   
  
Pripyat was abandoned exactly 20 years ago, days after the explosion at the nuclear plant's Reactor Number Four sent tons of highly radioactive particles into the atmosphere. Time has been frozen ever since.

Anatoli Zakharov and his family were among those who used to live in Pripyat. A firefighting brigade commander, he was on shift on the night of the accident, and arrived at the plant minutes after the explosion. He says his colleagues were unaware⁷ of the scale of the catastrophe -- all they knew was that fire needed to be put out.

Anatoli Zakharov  
  
“I could feel high radiation. Metal taste in my mouth, my skin was aching as if it was burned by the sun, I was sweating, feeling dizzy,” he recalls.  “That night, we were waiting. Waiting to see what happens to us later -- tomorrow, the day after -- what news was to come. And it was in May we learned that the first two fire fighters died and then the other four.”

Only 16 of that night's shift of 28 men are still alive. Anatoli was lucky -- he received less radiation than his colleagues and survived. He ran away from the hospital to tell his wife and children about the accident at the plant. They were evacuated⁸ two days later, after officials acknowledged the catastrophe had occurred.

“They later said that they didn't tell the truth because they wanted to avoid panic,” says Anatoli. “But I think it would have been better if they told the truth, people would have left earlier and they would have been exposed to (less) radiation. Kids, everyone, they were there for two to three days, exposed to it. My family too.”

Over 336,000 people have been relocated from the 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone around the Chernobyl Plant to cleaner areas.

Some villages were so contaminated they had to be flattened⁹ and buried. A move also designed to ensure that no one could ever occupy them again.

 
Mikhailo Radkevich 
  
But there are people still living in the Zone for whom the walls of their home matter more than any nuclear accident. Eighty two-year-old Mikhailo Radkevich was evacuated from his village a week after the accident and moved into a new home a few months later. But he didn't like the new house and decided¹⁰ to go back.

“If I was 20, I would have probably gone away from here. But I am 81, where can I go? Where? I have two sons and a daughter in Kiev, and they are asking me to come live with them, but I don't want to. My home is here,” says Mikhailo.

He and his wife eat home-grown vegetables and meat and seem to worry little about radioactive contamination.

“When the explosion happened, everyone started talking about radiation. But it was here before. The wind blew it all to Belarus. Here, its clean,” he says.

And strangely enough, 20 years after the accident, wildlife is booming in the Zone.  Some scientists say this is further proof that the biggest danger to nature is not radiation but the activities of human beings.

Trees and bushes are slowly taking over the once-flourishing Pripyat.  Built from scratch in 1970, this was a model town housing the staff of the nuclear plant. It was regarded as one of the finest places to live in the Soviet¹¹ Union -- filled with roses and children, the average age of the town's population was 26.

On the day of the deadly explosion, 16 weddings took place in Pripyat. The town was fully¹² evacuated only four days later. Some 50,000 people were told that there was a fire at the plant and that they would be back in a few days.

None of them will ever return.

1 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

2 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

3 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。

4 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

5 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 unaware   

a.不知道的，未意识到的

参考例句：

• They were unaware that war was near. 他们不知道战争即将爆发。
• I was unaware of the man's presence. 我没有察觉到那人在场。

8 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

9 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

12 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。