VOA标准英语2015--In Ukraine's Nikishino, No House Untouched by Fighting

In Ukraine's Nikishino, No House Untouched by Fighting

NIKISHINO, UKRAINE—

In the village of Nikishino, in eastern Ukraine, recent fighting has brought utter devastation¹. Ninety percent of the houses have been damaged or destroyed after government forces tried and failed to stop rebels advancing on the strategically important nearby town of Debaltseve.

The Ukrainian media called this place the gates of hell. Once a normal village five kilometers south of Debaltseve, Nikishino is now a moonscape saturated² with the refuse of war.

No house is untouched, and most are gutted³. Only the dogs remain.

For weeks, government forces crouched⁴ in these holes as separatists tightened⁵ the pocket around Debaltseve, a crucial rail hub that would give them control of the main highway from Donetsk through Luhansk to the Russian border. In the final days, the two sides faced each other from either end of the village, fighting in people’s bedrooms, kitchens and outbuildings.

For Irina Ribinskaya, who walks alone among the ruins, a mangled⁶ house is all that remains⁷ of her old life in this place that was once home to some 1,000 residents.

“Three of us were living here, me, my husband and my mother-in-law," she said, surveying the damage. "This is the house, or what’s left of it. There’s the summer kitchen; there was the shed where we kept our cow. There was the garage. They took everything, this is all we have now.”

She and her husband, Viktor, have returned to feed their dogs. They couple had just retired⁸ after long years working in the mines and on the railway. They spent weeks in the basement before finally escaping the shelling. Elena said their house was the most beautiful on the street, which is now barely discernable from the surrounding landscape.

"It's just war, if there wasn't a war, none of this would have happened," she said. "We weren't here when the house was actually destroyed. We were happy just to get out when we did. Who knows who did this.”

The town's World War II memorial is the only remaining witness to the fighting, its face torn by shrapnel.

In the surrounding fields, millions of summer’s unharvested sunflowers stand dead, the meadows sown with rockets and mines.

On January 30 the government pulled out, and the separatists announced they had control of Nikishino. By then, there was nothing here left to hold.

1 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 saturated   

a.饱和的，充满的

参考例句：

• The continuous rain had saturated the soil. 连绵不断的雨把土地淋了个透。
• a saturated solution of sodium chloride 氯化钠饱和溶液

3 gutted   

adj.容易消化的v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 )；取出…的内脏

参考例句：

• Disappointed? I was gutted! 失望？我是伤心透了！
• The invaders gutted the historic building. 侵略者们将那幢历史上有名的建筑洗劫一空。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 crouched   

v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He crouched down beside her. 他在她的旁边蹲了下来。
• The lion crouched ready to pounce. 狮子蹲下身，准备猛扑。

5 tightened   

收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧

参考例句：

• The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
• His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机，然后又松开了。

6 mangled   

vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• His hand was mangled in the machine. 他的手卷到机器里轧烂了。
• He was off work because he'd mangled his hand in a machine. 他没上班，因为他的手给机器严重压伤了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 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。

8 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。