四川大地震中英语精辟用词(2)

此次汶川地震造成的严重后果之一就是大量人员、尤其是正在学校上学的孩子们被掩埋在建筑物坍塌之后的废墟之中，在表示“废墟”的时候，英语中通常使用debris和rubble这两个单词。

　　如美联社的这篇报道提到：Rescuers saved a child from the debris of a school in the town of Beichuan 80 hours after the quake struck. They said they could hear weak calls for help from amid the rubble, Xinhua said.

　　其中，debris所涵盖的范围比rubble更广泛，它可以泛指一切物体解体之后形成的碎片或者残骸，比如说飞机发生空难之后的残骸the debris of a plane，又如，The beach was littered with debris（海滩上到处都是残骸）。必须指出的是，debris是不可数名词。相对而言，rubble用在此次地震灾难的报道中就更加具有针对性，因为它表示（被毁的建筑物或墙壁）的碎石，碎砖，瓦砾，而汶川地震之后大量人员就是被掩埋在rubble之中的。Rubble同样也是不可数名词。

　　此外，表示“倒塌的建筑物”时候，英语还经常使用ruin，它是可数名词，因此更经常使用ruins这个复数形式，其搭配介词是in.

　　如美联社的这一报道说：Two girls held handsin the ruins of their school and swore to each other they would not give up hope, Xinhua said.

　　在词语搭配方面，除了ruin之外，rubble和debris的搭配介词也都是in，如buried in the rubble/debris就是“被掩埋在废墟/瓦砾之中”的意思。

　　如果表达“被困”在废墟之中，那么，这时候的相应单词就是trap，其完整的词组表达就是英语被动式be trapped in the debris.

　　如美联社的报道说：A Chinese state news agency says rescuers have pulled a student to safety afterbeing trapped for 80 hours in the debris of a school following this week's massive earthquake.

　　地震中的遇险人员在遭到掩埋之后必定会呼救，这时候的对应英语表达除了上文提到的call for help之外还可以是yell for help，如美联社报道说：Xinhua News Agency said Friday that rescuers could still hear weak yells for help from the collapsed building in Beichuan in the northern part of Sichuan and hope to rescue more students.

　　汶川大地震造成的灾难性后果之一就是许多学校的教学楼坍塌了，此次我国媒体报道的时候使用的词语叫做“垮塌”，在英语中，无论是坍塌还是垮塌，其实都是一个词，即collapse，既是名词，也是动词。

　　还是美联社的同一篇报道中提到：In the town of Dujiangyan, a school collapse buried 900 students. In Wufu, nearly every building in the village withstood the quake but for a primary school, whose collapse killed some 300 students.

　　又如，美联社新闻说，Experts said hope was quickly fading for anyone still caught in the wreckage of homes, schools, offices and factories that collapsed in the magnitude-7.9 quake, the most powerful in three decades in quake-prone China.