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VOA标准英语2011--New Zealand’s Second City Rises Again

时间:2011-09-30 06:29:43

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New Zealand’s Second City Rises Again After Earthquake Disaster

Officials in New Zealand’s second largest city say it will cost more than $15 billion to rebuild parts of Christchurch that were devastated1 earlier this year by an earthquake. In February, a magnitude 6.3 quake killed 181 people and left much of the city center in ruins. Thousands of homes have been left uninhabitable.
Damage in Christchurch
The epicenter of one of New Zealand’s worst natural disasters was close to the Christchurch suburb, Lyttleton, 12 kilometers from the city center.
More than seven months after the February 22 quake, efforts to rebuild the city are progressing, albeit2 slowly.
Thousands of residents have left the city and many of those who remain, such as Lisa Brignall, a migrant from South Africa, are feeling the strain, as aftershocks continue to shake the ground.
Coping with hardship
“It takes its toll," she said. "My husband has even considered, you know, leaving for the sake of our sanity3. Yes. It’s hard.”
“So, were are going in through the study door which is pulled away from the house a wee [small] bit and there is a big bucket here to collect the rainwater. There is a big hole in the roof there,” said Christchurch resident Siobhan Grimshaw, when she describes the wrecked4 shell of her home in the city’s Mount Pleasant district. Grimshaw and her husband, David, are among thousands of residents waiting for their ruined homes to be rebuilt, as insurance companies continue the mammoth5 task of assessing a vast number of damaged properties.
“One, we haven’t really got a choice because all our money is invested into our house, so if we walk away we would be bankrupt," she added. "Two, I love New Zealand, I love living here. I love Christchurch. I love the community. The people are just amazing.
“I think we’ll end up with a better house at the end of the day, even though we have spent a lot of money getting to where we are," continued Grimshaw. "Yeah, I’m keen to get back and let’s hope we can do it sooner rather than a lot later.”
"I definitely thought I was going to die a few times," she said. "With the first big earthquake in September that was really terrifying. "We’d obviously never been in an earthquake before and, in February, I saw the city center buildings come down and the clouds of dust, and a lot of injured people.”
Rebuilding plans
City officials have announced plans to rebuild its central business district as a low-rise precinct dominated by parkland.
Buildings will be restricted to a maximum of seven stories and constructed to rigorous standards, to avoid the damage and loss of life inflicted6 by the earthquake that tore through Christchurch in February.
Mayor Bob Parker says, in the next 20 years, the city will emerge as a safe, sustainable, low-rise garden city.
“The energy that had been stored in the Earth has largely dissipated," he said. "In many ways, we emerge one of the safest areas now in New Zealand and indeed around the earthquake ring of fire around the Pacific, to live in because we will be safer. We will be built to a very high level of seismic7 sustainability. And, we will be in an area which to all intents and purposes has fired its bullets. And, we should expect gradually a much more relaxed seismic environment for hundreds of years into the future.”
Already 6,000 homes have been abandoned and are considered to be on land that is too unstable8 for them to be rebuilt. Thousands of other properties have yet to be fully9 assessed and they, too, could be condemned10.
Then, there is the damage to roads, as well as sewers11 and water systems.
The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority was set up by the New Zealand government to lead recovery work.
City's future
Its chief executive, Roger Sutton, is optimistic about the city’s future.
“A lot of cities in the world do not have good quality earthquake insurance. Christchurch, in general, most people have insurance, most people’s land is insured as well," said Sutton. "So, a lot of money is going to flow into the city through the insurance and re-insurance industry and that is going to make a very big difference.
The scale of it, you know, NZ$20 billion in damage that is about 10 percent of New Zealand’s GDP [gross domestic product]," continued Sutton. "So in terms of natural disasters this is getting right up there. I think the Japanese earthquake was one or two percent of their GDP. This is 10 percent of our GDP. So without that very high level of insurance we have got this would be a much, much bleaker12 city. The outlook would be much bleaker.”
Christchurch is being transformed and the skyline is slowly changing. But, for the displaced people here, change cannot come soon enough.


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1 devastated eb3801a3063ef8b9664b1b4d1f6aaada     
v.彻底破坏( devastate的过去式和过去分词);摧毁;毁灭;在感情上(精神上、财务上等)压垮adj.毁坏的;极为震惊的
参考例句:
  • The bomb devastated much of the old part of the city. 这颗炸弹炸毁了旧城的一大片地方。
  • His family is absolutely devastated. 他的一家感到极为震惊。
2 albeit axiz0     
conj.即使;纵使;虽然
参考例句:
  • Albeit fictional,she seemed to have resolved the problem.虽然是虚构的,但是在她看来好象是解决了问题。
  • Albeit he has failed twice,he is not discouraged.虽然失败了两次,但他并没有气馁。
3 sanity sCwzH     
n.心智健全,神智正常,判断正确
参考例句:
  • I doubt the sanity of such a plan.我怀疑这个计划是否明智。
  • She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
4 wrecked ze0zKI     
adj.失事的,遇难的
参考例句:
  • the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
  • the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞
5 mammoth u2wy8     
n.长毛象;adj.长毛象似的,巨大的
参考例句:
  • You can only undertake mammoth changes if the finances are there.资金到位的情况下方可进行重大变革。
  • Building the new railroad will be a mammoth job.修建那条新铁路将是一项巨大工程。
6 inflicted cd6137b3bb7ad543500a72a112c6680f     
把…强加给,使承受,遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • They inflicted a humiliating defeat on the home team. 他们使主队吃了一场很没面子的败仗。
  • Zoya heroically bore the torture that the Fascists inflicted upon her. 卓娅英勇地承受法西斯匪徒加在她身上的酷刑。
7 seismic SskyM     
a.地震的,地震强度的
参考例句:
  • Earthquakes produce two types of seismic waves.地震产生两种地震波。
  • The latest seismic activity was also felt in northern Kenya.肯尼亚北部也感觉到了最近的地震活动。
8 unstable Ijgwa     
adj.不稳定的,易变的
参考例句:
  • This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实,装不了这么多书。
  • The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。
9 fully Gfuzd     
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。
10 condemned condemned     
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
  • The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。
11 sewers f2c11b7b1b6091034471dfa6331095f6     
n.阴沟,污水管,下水道( sewer的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The sewers discharge out at sea. 下水道的污水排入海里。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • Another municipal waste problem is street runoff into storm sewers. 有关都市废水的另外一个问题是进入雨水沟的街道雨水。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
12 bleaker 2959d1cf2c4360dbd8e27b6a06e82f1b     
阴冷的( bleak的比较级 ); (状况)无望的; 没有希望的; 光秃的
参考例句:
  • Horoscopes are merely harmless escapism from an ever-bleaker world. 占星术只不过是让人逃避越发令人沮丧的世界的无害消遣罢了。
  • On the ground the mood is bleaker. 具体形势更加严峻。

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