新西兰英语 670 Royal Commission into collapse of CTV Building
英语课
First listen to June 25th 2012 to hear about the Royal Commission and follow the other links on that page.
The Royal Commission into the Canterbury Earthquakes has just finished eight weeks investigating the collapse 1 of the CTV building. Yesterday was the final day. During these eight weeks, the Commission tried to find out why the CTV building collapsed 2, killing 3 115 people.
It seems many mistakes were made. The lawyer for the families who died said the engineer who designed the building was inexperienced. He was a new graduate. His boss in the engineering company did not check the work. The City Council engineers at that time said the design was OK and gave building consent. Five years later, there were some problems in the building but nothing was done to fix these problems. After the first earthquakes in 2010, tenants 4 in the building said that it did not feel safe; it shook when trucks went past, but again nothing was done.
However, the lawyer for the engineering company said that their design was good because the building did not collapse during the 7.1 earthquake in September 2010.
We now have to wait until November 12th for the final report from the Commission.
Vocabulary
investigate – examine, inquire into a problem
building consent – piece of paper which says the building design is OK
tenants – people who pay rent
vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷
- The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
- The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。
adj.倒塌的
- Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
- The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。
n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财
- Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
- Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。