时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2014年(九月)


英语课

 


Turkmen From Amerli Describe Survival of IS Siege


KIRKUK, IRAQ—


Over the past few weeks, hundreds of Shi'ite Turkmen have fled the town of Amerli seeking refuge in the northern city of Kirkuk. Despite recent military gains after U.S. airstrikes that were coordinated 1 with Iraqi and Kurdish forces, the situation remains 2 dire 3 for Amerli’s residents.


Coordinated effort, retaking Amerli


Sunday, at approximately 1:30 in the morning, the U.S. began to bomb Islamic State (or ISIL) positions around Amerli, a town of about 15,000 Shi'ite Turkmen which has been besieged 4 by the militants 5 for more than two months.


By noon, the airstrikes and the following coordinated attack by local militia 6, Kurdish peshmerga, and the Iraqi military seemed to have been a success.


Residents recall their experiences


Around noon, a call came in from Ali Ibrahim, a Turkmen policeman fighting in Amerli. "Our group has taken the village. The road is open. God willing in a few minutes the road will be opened completely," he said.


Then he yelled over the gunfire, "They are in. They are in. We’re moving forward. Come. Come. Come. It is free. It’s free. We have taken Shakr."


Ali al-Bayati, who escaped from Amerli earlier in the month, bellowed 7 words of encouragement down the phone.


Like so many others who had taken refuge with family members in Kirkuk, he hoped this meant he would be going home soon.


Mohammed Hamid and his mother were airlifted out Saturday. He described what life was like under constant attack from the Islamic State.


“Pregnant women couldn’t give birth because there were no doctors, so mothers were dying with their babies still inside them. Then we had to bury them. There was one group sitting in front of their door and a mortar 8 round hit right in front, killing 9 all of them,” stated Hamid.


After the Islamic State militants cut the electricity and water, residents of Amerli had to survive on salty well water that they cooled by leaving it in the shade. The nearly 50-degree Celsius 10 heat left Mohammed’s body covered in blisters 11. “All of our bodies were blistered 12 from the heat,” he said.


Amel Akram Khorshid was rescued by an Iraqi military helicopter three days ago. She kept her children alive by feeding them onions three times a day. “We were only eating bread and onions. I was roasting the onions directly on the fire and putting some salt on it. Then I gave it to my children to eat. We had nothing else to offer them,” she explained.


For Amel, Mohammed and the other displaced families, the Iraqi and Kurdish military success in Amerli is wonderful news. But although the siege by the Islamic State may have been broken, the humanitarian 13 crisis persists, with thousands of people still unable to leave.



1 coordinated
adj.协调的
  • The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
  • The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
2 remains
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
3 dire
adj.可怕的,悲惨的,阴惨的,极端的
  • There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
  • We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了,但是我们渡过了困难。
4 besieged
包围,围困,围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 )
  • Paris was besieged for four months and forced to surrender. 巴黎被围困了四个月后被迫投降。
  • The community besieged the newspaper with letters about its recent editorial. 公众纷纷来信对报社新近发表的社论提出诘问,弄得报社应接不暇。
5 militants
激进分子,好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )
  • The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来,反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
  • Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此,巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。
6 militia
n.民兵,民兵组织
  • First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面,其次是民兵。
  • There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。
7 bellowed
v.发出吼叫声,咆哮(尤指因痛苦)( bellow的过去式和过去分词 );(愤怒地)说出(某事),大叫
  • They bellowed at her to stop. 他们吼叫着让她停下。
  • He bellowed with pain when the tooth was pulled out. 当牙齿被拔掉时,他痛得大叫。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
8 mortar
n.灰浆,灰泥;迫击炮;v.把…用灰浆涂接合
  • The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
  • The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。
9 killing
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。
10 Celsius
adj.摄氏温度计的,摄氏的
  • The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
  • The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。
11 blisters
n.水疱( blister的名词复数 );水肿;气泡
  • My new shoes have made blisters on my heels. 我的新鞋把我的脚跟磨起泡了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
  • His new shoes raised blisters on his feet. 他的新鞋把他的脚磨起了水疱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
12 blistered
adj.水疮状的,泡状的v.(使)起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 );(使表皮等)涨破,爆裂
  • He had a blistered heel. 他的脚后跟起了泡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Their hands blistered, but no one complained. 他们手起了泡,可是没有一个人有怨言。 来自《简明英汉词典》
13 humanitarian
n.人道主义者,博爱者,基督凡人论者
  • She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业,并作了很大的贡献。
  • The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。
学英语单词
a bad hand at
Amankaragay
automatically repaired computer
auxanometer
baked beef
Bambi bucket
Benicito, R.
blatt
broadbrimmed
bulletin advertising
bum-rushes
capillary collector
capnodium footii
cardinality of a fuzzy set
cascais
casing test pressure
central business intensity index
claim for additional security
committee of school curriculum development
Concemin
conchords
corfing
dispence
Douglas SBD
exempt from filing annual income tax returns
exponential amplification
expropriate
free-radical oxidation
gas utility
gas-filled stabilizer
grain magnesite
grey decision
harboring
Healon
hebephrenias
high courts
histoincompatibilities
hounskull
hydrothermal eruption
individual identification method
inverse distributions
it is a wise child that knows his own father
jung's disease
Lapland owls
like a bullet
Microstegiums
miseducation
morphographic map
Ne.
neagtive quantity
neck rot
neodata
norise
novoyes
NTTP
onboard repair part
one-sigma estimate
one-thousandth
ordinary grip
oronotus alboannulatus
ossa vesalianum
PBIP
pecherz (pitchblende)
pedicular
pheochromocytoma of bladder
plain indexing
play the violin
pombgranade
Pope Day
presternoidea
prewired program
prohibitionists
Psetta maxima
psychologic warfare task
Ramus pharyngeus
right of innocent passage
satellite reflection
scale rudiment
Schlosser injection
SEELONCE
self healing ring
sequence zoom shooting
short-neeked fiask
sitcom
spontaneous-potential log
sport competition
street girls
take ... into custody
tedding
thaliphenine
theory of strength
tooth saturation
tornilla
tribrachs
tuber of dwarf lilyturf
ultrarun
update control
urea solution filter
variable format part description
Vibble
Waldorfian
webzines