Heavy Rains Bring Raging Floods - and a Debate

Heavy Rains Bring Raging Floods - and a Debate

This spring, so-called "100-year floods" swamped many communities along the Mississippi River, America's largest commercial waterway.
The flooding was so severe that the U.S. Corps¹ of Engineers, which supervises national flood-control efforts, took the nearly unprecedented² step of opening giant floodgates to keep high water from reaching Baton³ Rouge⁴, the capital city of Louisiana, and the major port of New Orleans.
The result was the deliberate flooding of millions of hectares of rural areas and small settlements in Louisiana's already swampy⁵ "bayou country."
Whether to hold back the river or let it flood is a longstanding issue on the Mississippi - one that crystallizes each spring in the city of Davenport, Iowa.
Over the past decade, floodwaters reached near-record levels there three times. Each time this happened, photos showed the city's baseball stadium nearly submerged, giving the impression that much of Davenport was under water.
Parts of it are submerged during floods, but it's by design. The city has chosen not to build floodwalls, instead, turning the lowest-lying parts in town into floodable parkland. It provides sandbags to the few residential⁶ and business areas that take on some water during severe flooding.
It also moves a dozen or so homes out of the floodplain each year, and requires new homes built there to be elevated.
Critics say that floodwalls and levees could prevent the flooding altogether. But officials say dikes upstream from the city already act like a sluice⁷, causing the river to flow even faster, deeper, and more dangerously through their town.
If they built levees, Davenporters say, smaller communities below would have to do the same - and so on, all the way down the river.
No thank you. So Davenport takes its floods in stride and lets the mighty⁸ river do what rivers do from time to time.

1 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。

2 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

3 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。

4 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。

5 swampy   

adj.沼泽的，湿地的

参考例句：

• Malaria is still rampant in some swampy regions.疟疾在一些沼泽地区仍很猖獗。
• An ox as grazing in a swampy meadow.一头牛在一块泥泞的草地上吃草。

6 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

7 sluice   

n.水闸

参考例句：

• We opened the sluice and the water poured in.我们打开闸门，水就涌了进来。
• They regulate the flow of water by the sluice gate.他们用水闸门控制水的流量。

8 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。