口译汉英参考译文-13.doc

Lesson 13 13.3 The Indian Ocean Tsunami The Indian Ocean tsunami, which took place in late 2004, shocked and grieved the whole world. It swept many Indian Ocean countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka. The death toll reached 300,000 of whom 100,000 were Indonesians. Lots of families lost their loved ones. During this unexpected disaster, the number of people who suffered directly or indirectly reached 5 million. The international community has given disaster relief aid and donations to the disaster-stricken areas. The aid from the Chinese government and people was over 1.2 billion RMB. Such a great disaster in the 21st century deserves pondering. Reflecting upon the disaster, people ask why it happened and whether it could have been avoided. People now are revealing in-depth thought and analysis on the cause of the disaster. First, it was a punishment for humanity’s behavior against nature. The primary cause of the catastrophe lay in the great number of houses built along the ocean shores and the great damage done to the environment. Earthquakes and their resulting tsunamis are natural phenomena. However, this tsunami claimed tens of thousands of lives. We cannot wholly attribute it to nature because human beings have expropriated places that should not be expropriated. Numerous hotels and restaurants were built along the seafront in many countries in order to attract tourists. This has undoubtedly increased the risk of being struck by natural disasters. Some experts have pointed out that coral reefs and mangroves in the shallow water areas could have protected people from the tsunami. However, in the past 20 or 30 years, people have fished and farmed shrimp and logged mangroves in excess. As a result, people have paid a heavy price. Secondly, the lack of preventive and warning mechanisms against tsunami left people completely unprepared and unprotected. The earthquake itself didn’t cause the huge damage, but the tsunami that followed it 2 hours afterwar