VOA标准英语2010年-Divers Find Oil Under Surface; BP Cont

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric¹ Administration (NOAA) confirms that some of the oil escaping from that ruptured² well in the Gulf³ of Mexico is staying beneath the surface, raising new environmental concerns about the disaster. BP says there is no significant oil staying underwater.

Scuba⁴ divers⁵ showed U.S. legislators video of the spill which they shot while 20 meters under the sea and 64 kilometers off the U.S. Gulf coast.  The oil is so thick below this depth that it blocks out almost all light. "Something I've never seen in diving, in my whole life out here," said diver Al Walker.

Fellow diver Scott Porter says the substance feels like a mixture of clay and wax.  He had to scrape it off his hands.  Soap had no effect. "I don't know of anything that would be able to live through that," Porter said.

Yet on Wednesday, BP continued to deny any large amount of oil under the surface.

"No one has yet found any concentrations that measured higher than the parts per million," said BP's Doug Suttles.

Meantime, Congress conducted five oil spill hearings on Capitol Hill Wednesday.  Legislators want to know why risks weren't studied when oil rigs drill 5,000 feet below the water.

"I'm just terribly bothered about the lack of foresight⁶, both by our government and of BP and, of course, BP will pay a price for that," said Congressman⁷ Vernon Ehlers. "Perhaps even a failure of the corporation at the rate it's going."

"The industry pretends that accidents simply can't happen and the government pretends that industry is the most reliable source of information for making regulatory decisions," said Jeffrey Short. "In the end, this socializes all the risks and privatizes all the problems," said Jeffrey Short, with Oceana, an international conservation organization:

Scientists say BP's usage of nearly four million liters of dispersants is forcing the oil to remain at lower depths in the ocean, where it is carried along the water columns with the currents.  The result is a plume⁸, which depletes⁹ oxygen and kills off living organisms.

Representative Mario Diaz-Balart posed this question to the Environmental Protection Agency's Albert Venosa: "We know the effects of crude oil are coming to the surface and oiling the animals, but we do not know what the long-term effects are of this thing floating along in the water column," said Mario Diaz-Balart. "Could it be worse than if it would have been allowed to just float?" 

"I can only speculate," said Albert Venosa. "I don't really know."

"So, here we are releasing hundreds of thousands of gallons [liters], whatever the number is gallons....of this chemical into the ocean, not knowing what the affect is going to be longterm, if it's worse or not," said Diaz-Balart. "That to me is inconceivable."

However, if no dispersants were used, all the oil would be surfacing.  Visible on the beach.  Visible on the animals.  Scientists now say it's what they can't clearly see that's starting to worry them. 

 

1 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

2 ruptured   

v.（使）破裂( rupture的过去式和过去分词 )；（使体内组织等）断裂；使（友好关系）破裂；使绝交

参考例句：

• They reported that the pipeline had ruptured. 他们报告说管道已经破裂了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wall through Berlin was finally ruptured, prefiguring the reunification of Germany. 柏林墙终于倒塌了，预示着德国的重新统一。 来自辞典例句

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 scuba   

n.水中呼吸器

参考例句：

• I first got hooked on scuba diving when I was twelve.12岁时我开始迷上了带水中呼吸器潜水。
• While on honeymoon in Bali,she learned to scuba dive.她在巴厘岛度蜜月时学会了带水肺潜水。

5 divers   

adj.不同的；种种的

参考例句：

• He chose divers of them,who were asked to accompany him.他选择他们当中的几个人，要他们和他作伴。
• Two divers work together while a standby diver remains on the surface.两名潜水员协同工作，同时有一名候补潜水员留在水面上。

6 foresight   

n.先见之明，深谋远虑

参考例句：

• The failure is the result of our lack of foresight.这次失败是由于我们缺乏远虑而造成的。
• It required a statesman's foresight and sagacity to make the decision.作出这个决定需要政治家的远见卓识。

7 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

8 plume   

n.羽毛；v.整理羽毛，骚首弄姿，用羽毛装饰

参考例句：

• Her hat was adorned with a plume.她帽子上饰着羽毛。
• He does not plume himself on these achievements.他并不因这些成就而自夸。

9 depletes   

使大大的减少，使空虚( deplete的第三人称单数 )； 耗尽，使枯竭

参考例句：

• Stress depletes both energy and motivation. 压力不仅消耗体力而且让你丧失动力。
• Scientists refute a longstanding theory of how HIV slowly depletes the body's capacity to fight infection. 科学家驳倒一个爱滋病毒如何慢慢地耗尽身体容量对抗感染的长时间理论。