新西兰英语 420 New Zealand Usar return from Japan
The New Zealand Urban Search and Rescue (Usar) team which went to Japan, returned home today. They said there was nothing more they could do in Japan. There is no hope of finding any survivors 1 now because of the extreme cold.
This is different from the scene in Christchurch where Usar teams from many different countries worked for more than two weeks trying to rescue people from buildings which had collapsed 2. The weather was still warm and there was still a slight hope of finding survivors. In other earthquakes around the world, sometimes there have been miracles – survivors found after 10 days or more. However, in Christchurch there were no more survivors after the first two days.
The police said they have found 166 bodies. About 140 of those have been identified so far.
It has been difficult to identify some of the bodies. NZ experts and experts from other countries have worked hard to make sure there are no mistakes. They spent time with families and friends asking about physical details of the missing person including clothes worn that day. They asked dentists for dental records and they used DNA 3. This process takes time. The fire in the CVT building has made identification 4 more difficult. More than half of the bodies came from the CTV building.
Vocabulary
A miracle is a wonderful happening that is hard to believe.
Identify – verb; identification – noun meaning the process of finding out who the person is; an ID card is an identity card. You need an ID – e.g. your passport in some situations.
So far – up till now. There will be more later e.g. So far, we have had x after-shocks bigger than 5.0.
It takes time – a useful phrase to explain a long process.
Grammar
“The fire in the CVT building has made identification more difficult.” This is a useful structure: to make something (more) difficult / harder / easier/ better / hotter / sweeter / bigger etc.
Note the number of present perfect verbs used to show something that happened in the past but still true now.
Questions
What physical details are important for identifying someone?
- The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
- survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者
- 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。
- DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
- Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。
- He's made a formal identification of the body.他正式确认了死者身份。
- We should have identification card on the person when we go out.我们外出时应随身携带身份证。