原文:http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI5MzQ0NjMyMw==&mid=2247485460&idx=1&sn=ba0adfe35b685c5070fae4ba16b55fd2&chksm=ec70bfc8db0736de05535ed49c05ca4afe735a2886a44dce4c9400abefddef5f58ab61c7df78#rd
大家黄金周被挤得开心吗?小长假结束,收心准备学习了~
这期推送选自10月6日《经济学人》的Asia版块,讲的是最近印尼海啸所带来的灾难。
我们先听音频、看原文,可以一边读一边在大脑中构建海啸后的场景:
①THE houses, shops and restaurants that used to line the waterfront in the city of Palu are now just piles of debris. ②Cars and vans have been smashed against the few structures that remain standing. ③Uprooted trees are scattered among the wreckage. ④The main bridge crossing the river that bisects the city lies twisted, crushed and broken in two. ⑤The stench of decaying corpses is unmistakable.
①Most of this is the work of the tsunami that struck the city on September 28th. ②It was triggered by an earthquake of magnitude 7.5, which caused equally horrifying damage. ③In Palu, 80km from the epicentre, it razed buildings and cracked roads. ④One eight-storey hotel, in which 60 guests were staying, was flattened. ⑤The quake also caused soil liquefaction, in which seismic pressure transforms solid ground to quicksand. ⑥Whole neighbourhoods in Palu sank into the earth.
第一段
第一段就像一张航拍画面,从房屋建筑、车辆、树木、桥梁、尸体气味等几个角度,用寥寥数语便把海啸后的全貌刻画出来,给读者带来强烈的视觉和嗅觉上的冲击。
①THE houses, shops and restaurants / that used to line the waterfront in the city of Palu / are now just piles of debris.
①句讲了海啸后房屋建筑的情况,核心词:piles of debris.
这句话的主干是:THE houses, shops and restaurants are now just piles of debris.
这部分讲了海啸过后的场景:debris一词我们已经在《海洋塑料垃圾》中讲过了,表示broken or torn pieces of something larger “碎片、残骸”,这里指房屋被破坏后的断壁残垣。此外debris也可以用来表示“垃圾碎片”,替换garbage, rubbish, waste等。
that used to line the waterfront是houses, shops and restaurants的定语从句,起到修饰、补充信息的作用,意思是:这些房屋、商店和饭店,曾经临水而建。
line在这里是动词,表示to form rows along the sides of something “沿...排列成行”,比如十里长街送总理的场景,我们可以这样描述:
Crowds lined the street to see off Premier Zhou.
再举个例子:
The street was lined with small shops.
这街上小商铺鳞次栉比。
文中waterfront的意思是a part of a town or an area that is next to water“滨水区、滨水路”,line the waterfront就是“沿着滨水路排列”的意思。
我们把这两部分的信息整合一下:
在帕卢市,房屋、商店、饭店曾滨水而建,而如今却变成了成堆的瓦砾碎片。
这句话描述的场景如下:
②Cars and vans have been smashed against the few structures that remain standing.
②句讲的是海啸过后车辆的情况,核心词:smash.
smash的意思是hit sth very hard“猛烈撞击、猛烈碰撞”,比如:
The waves are smashing against the rocks.
海浪猛烈拍击着礁石。
再比如:
The car smashed into a tree.
汽车猛地撞到了树上。
文中Cars and vans have been smashed against the few structures是说:轿车和小型货车被重重的砸向了少数建筑。
that remain standing是the few structures的定语从句,起到修饰、补充信息的作用。意思是:少数依然矗立的建筑。
“建筑+be/remain/stay+standing”是一个固定搭配,意思是“依然矗立”,言外之意是,它周围的建筑物都倒塌了。比如叙利亚战乱之后,我们可以说:
Only a few buildings remain standing.
只有少数建筑依然矗立。
2015年尼泊尔地震时《经济学人》用到了stay standing这一表达:
But for the most part, the city’s glass-and-concrete structures stayed standing, despite notoriously poor enforcement of building codes.
但整体来说,该城的玻璃混凝土建筑物依然矗立,尽管建筑规范的实施情况非常糟糕。
我们看这句话的翻译:
轿车和小型货车被重重的砸向了几处依然矗立的建筑。
如图:
③Uprooted trees are scattered among the wreckage.
③句讲了树木的情况,核心词:uprooted和scattered.
uproot=up+root,顾名思义,表示“连根拔起”,uprooted trees便是“被连根拔起的树木”的意思。
对于一个人来讲,“家”就是他的“根”,当我们把人“连根拔起”的时候,就是“迫使他离开故乡、无家可归”了。比如:
The war uprooted nearly two-thirds of the country's population.
战争迫使该国近三分之二的人口无家可归。
此语境下,可以用displace, leave sb homeless替换uproot.
如果树木“拦腰折断”,我们可以用snap这个词,比如之前有一篇关于美国龙卷风的报道,文中说:
Trees were uprooted and snapped, and at least one home was damaged.
树木被连根拔起、拦腰折断,至少一处房屋遭到破坏。
前段时间日本也遭受了台风袭击,一家外媒的标题是这么写的:
Snarled traffic and snapped trees
交通堵塞,树木被拦腰折断。
(snarl有“使交通堵塞”的意思,snarled traffic就相当于我们常说的traffic jam)
scatter的意思是throw or drop over a wide area in an irregular way“撒”,常见搭配为scatter sth around/over/across,比如做鱼时有一道最后工序:
Scatter the onions over the fish.
把洋葱撒在鱼上面。
毕业后,大家各奔东西,我们可以说:
After graduation, everyone scattered.
文中Uprooted trees are scattered among the wreckage是说,树木连根拔起,零乱的倒在废墟中。
wreckage是“残骸、废墟”的意思,类似上文的debris.
我们看一下这句话的翻译:
树木连根拔起,零乱的倒在废墟中。
④The main bridge crossing the river that bisects the city lies twisted, crushed and broken in two.
④句讲了桥梁的情况,关键词:twisted, crushed and broken in two.
这句话的主干是:The main bridge lies twisted, crushed and broken in two.
"lie/stand/sit+adj."表示to be, remain or be kept in a particular state“处于(某种状态)”,lie/stand/sit类似于remain,可以当成系动词,但比系动词更生动。比如,这栋建筑被损毁,我们以前会说:
The building was destroyed.
现在可以说:
The building lies destroyed.
再比如,我们第六期第二单元学过一篇《经济学人》,讲的是专家建议缩短暑假长度,文中有这么一句话:
Many school buildings sit idle in the summer.
很多学校建筑夏天处于闲置状态。(sit idle比be idle好很多)
twist表示“使扭曲”,crush指“压碎,弄皱”,主干部分是说:主桥梁被挤压变形、断成两半。
crossing the river是现在分词作bridge的后置定语,指“跨越这条河的桥梁”。
什么样的河呢?river后面又跟了个定语从句来补充信息:that bisects the city.
bisect的意思是to divide something into two equal parts“把...一分为二”,the river that bisects the city是说“那条把这座城市一分为二的河流”,这样说有点别扭,我们可以换一种方式:一条河流从城中穿过。
我们按照中文的顺序,把信息重新排列组合一下:
一条大河从城中穿过,河上的主桥被挤压变形、断成两半。
⑤The stench of decaying corpses is unmistakable.
⑤句从嗅觉角度体现了灾后情况,关键词:stench.
这句话的主干是:The stench is unmistakable.
stench是bad smell的意思,表示“恶臭”,这部分是说:恶臭是毋庸置疑的。
2015年尼泊尔地震,《经济学人》的报道中也出现了stench:
They complained of the stench from human corpses and dead livestock.
由此可判断,stench后面既可以加of,也可以加from.
of decaying corpses修饰stench,指“尸体腐烂的恶臭”。
decay是“腐烂”的意思,corpse指“尸体”。
我们看这句话的翻译:
尸体腐烂所散发的恶臭十分明显。
第二段
第二段讲了引发这场海啸的因素:地震,以及地震所造成的灾害。我们从中节选前两句话进行精读。
①Most of this / is the work of the tsunami / that struck the city on September 28th. ②It was triggered by an earthquake / of magnitude 7.5, which caused equally horrifying damage.
①②两句起到过渡的作用,由第一段的海啸场景引出地震的介绍。
①句中,Most of this is the work of the tsunami,this指的就是第一段的灾后场景,work在这里指“工作成果、作品”,这句话是说,这些场景大多是由海啸引发的。
后面又跟了一个定语从句,修饰tsunami:that struck the city on September 28th
strike表示“袭击、侵袭”,从句部分是说,这场海啸9月28日袭击该城。
表示“灾难袭击某地”,除了strike,我们还可以说damage, destroy, devastate, hit, jolt, rock, shake, shatter, level, flatten, raze, batter, reduce sth to ruins/rubble/ashes, cut swathes through等。
damage, destroy, devastate,hit等很好理解,不再多讲。
jolt表示“使震动,使颠簸”,shake、rock(v.)与之同义,三者都用于地震,比如CBS关于印尼地震的报道:
Many villagers remained traumatized as aftershocks continued to jolt the region.
《时代周刊》的报道:
Powerful tsunami sweeps away houses in Indonesia after earthquakes shake the island.
还有一家外媒是这么写的:
Indonesia was rocked by a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake Friday, with the national disaster agency saying that "many" buildings had collapsed in the aftermath of the huge tremor.
shatter表示“使粉碎”,常用于爆炸,rock有时也用于爆炸。
level, flatten, raze表示“把...夷为平地”,可用于地震、风暴海啸、爆炸等,后面可以直接加建筑或城市。比如《卫报》里的一个句子:
Driving along the coastline, the seemingly fickle nature of the damage is striking, swaths are flattened, while some buildings stand untouched.
(这里又出现了“stand+adj.”的用法。)
接下来的两句话也出现了raze和flatten:
③In Palu, 80km from the epicentre, it razed buildings and cracked roads. ④One eight-storey hotel, in which 60 guests were staying, was flattened.
在离震中80公里的帕卢市,地震摧毁房屋、破坏道路。一家住友60名客人的八层楼高的酒店被夷为平地。
batter表示“拍打”,可用于地震、风暴海啸,比如有关日本地震的报道:
The quake was the latest in a string of natural disasters to batter the country.
reduce sth to ruins/rubble/ashes是个非常简易的搭配,表示“使sth沦为废墟/平地”。
cut a swathe through是一个非常酷炫的表达,swathe是“长条土地”的意思,cut a swathe through的字面意思就是“从...当中切开一长条土地”,有种撕裂的感觉,就像电影《2012》中描述的这一场景:
所以,cut a swathe through表示的是badly destroy“严重损坏”,可用于地震、海啸等。
第二句话:It was triggered by an earthquake / of magnitude 7.5,an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 指“7.5级的地震”,也可以说“a 7.5 magnitude earthquake”。
trigger表示“引发”。
which caused equally horrifying damage是“7.5级地震”的定语从句,equally表示“同样地”,指地震造成的损失和海啸同样可怕。
我们看这两句话的翻译:
这大都是由9月28日袭击该城的海啸所引发的,这场海啸由一场7.5级的地震引发,地震造成的损害和海啸造成的同样可怕。
⑤⑥两句有兴趣的可以简单看一下:
⑤The quake also caused soil liquefaction, in which seismic pressure transforms solid ground to quicksand. ⑥Whole neighbourhoods in Palu sank into the earth.
地震也会造成土壤液化,地震压力会把坚实的地面变成流沙。帕卢的整个居住区都沉到地下。
经济学人精读写作第七期
报名入口
第七期话题预告:网络、快餐、外卖、出国旅行、职业与性别、吸烟、保护生物、农村人口外流、现代家庭亲疏关系、网约车等十大常见话题中的八个。
聚焦阅读与写作能力,顺便提高听说译,丰富谈资。
课程介绍可点击上方图片进行了解。
感谢阅读!