灾后重建 孩子优先

“再穷不能穷教育，再苦不能苦孩子。”这是中国政府表现出来的其对于教育的责任以及对于孩子们接受教育的关心，因为孩子是祖国的未来和希望。人员和财产损失惨重的四川汶川大地震不但使得许多孩子不幸遇难，生命的花朵就此凋零，而且还使许多劫后余生的孩子遭遇了巨大的身心伤害，学校塌了，家没了，甚至父母双双遇难了。地震带给灾区人民的肉体伤痛会渐趋平复，但给灾民造成的精神创伤和心里阴影却无法抹去，尤其对于灾区儿童而言，地震远远未成“过去式”。在地震中幸存的许多孩子少了曾经快乐而天真的笑容，心理专家称，比身体更难痊愈的，是孩子们的心理。为此，党中央和国务院十分关心孩子们的身心健康，胡锦涛总书记和温家宝总理曾多次看望受灾的儿童并且作出重要指示，要求各级地方政府认真做好与灾区孩子们有关的各项工作。恰好在地震发生过后半个多月，一年一度的六一国际儿童节来临了。全国上下，从胡总书记和温总理到灾区以外的孩子们，纷纷以各种方式帮助灾区孩子们过好灾后的第一个儿童节。通过英语媒体的报道，我们可以在关心灾区孩子的同时，学习到一些有用的英语表达。首先让我们来看看新华社发表的关于灾区孩子欢度六一儿童节的英语新闻报道。

Happy Children's Day, Chinese president says to quake-affected kids

NINGQIANG, Shaanxi, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao wished quake-affected kids a happy holiday ahead of Children's Day in northwestern Shaanxi Province, also heavily hit by the May 12 earthquake.

On Saturday morning, Hu arrived at Ningqiang county,neighboring to worst-hit Sichuan Province.

A magnitude 5.7 aftershock hit Ningqiang around 4 p.m. on Tuesday,leaving at least one injured, 860 houses destroyed and 3,100 damaged, adding up the damages.

Almost all the 340,000 locals in Ningqiang County were urged to live outdoors amid fear of possible aftershocks.

At Jinshansi village, almost all houses were flattened and villagers were living in tents for days.

As the Children's Day falls on Sunday, Hu went into a tent school in the village to condole the kids suffering from the quake.

"Today you have to study in the tent. But I promise you to help you build a new school. You will be sure to have a better classroom," he said after children stood up together and greeted him.

Then the President picked up a chalk, wrote 16 Chinese characters on the chalkboard and recited them together with the kids, "One in trouble, all to help; Rely on ourselves and work hard."

"When we rebuild our hometown, we should stick to this two sorts of spirits," Hu said.

Many children are very brave and strong in front of the major earthquake. I have learned from you and see the hope of the quake-hit regions and the whole country. I believe you will strive to become stronger and work hard in the future," he said.

Hu wished the kids a happy holiday and handed around gifts to them.

He then inspected relief work at the village and asking local officials to set the examples and lead residents to rebuild the hometown.

在上述新闻报道中，quake-affected kids就语法关系而言可以理解为“受地震影响的孩子”，实际上这里就是指“灾区儿童”，“灾区孩子”。中国学生学习英语的时候需要注意的是，Shaanxi指的是陕西，而Shanxi则是山西，这两个省在汉语拼音中的拼写其实是一样的，都是shanxi，但这样一来就带来了问题，即如果采用同样的拼写，人们不易区分哪个是陕西，哪个是山西。

1977年，联合国第三届地名标准化会议通过了关于“采用汉语拼音作为中国地名罗马字母拼法的国际标准”的决议。汉语拼音拼写必须按照我国法定的罗马字母拼音方案——《汉语拼音方案》。从这一点来说，把陕西拼写为Shaanxi是显然违背《汉语拼音方案》的基本法则的，但是，如果对两省的汉语拼音拼写不加区分又会带来许多问题，因此最终产生了现在的这种处理方式，即所谓技术处理方法，但是这种方法在理论上是找不到依据的，只能理解为在这种技术处理方法已经成为客观现实的情况下的一种约定俗成的用法。

一个地方和另一个地方相邻，可以用neighboring to这个说法，如Suzhou is neighboring to Shanghai.注意这里的neighboring是作为形容词来使用的，而不是动词的现在分词。

leaving at least one injured是“造成至少一人受伤”的意思，其中的leave为地道英语表达，leave在这里是“（某事）使（某人）落到某种地步”的意思，如His rudeness left me speechless（他的粗鲁气得我无言以对。）这里不由得联想到，我国的英语学习者在表达“造成”的时候只会不加区分地使用cause这一单词，这种不分语境的词语应用值得引起我们的警惕。

Condole就是表示慰问，表示同情的意思。rebuild the hometown就是“重建家园”的意思。特别值得一提的是，One in trouble, all to help.Rely on ourselves and work hard属于典型的中国英语（China English，注意不是Chinese English，两者所指截然不同），即具有中国特色的词汇，这就是胡总书记视察陕西宁强县的时候勉励孩子们时候在黑板上写下的四句话“一方有难，八方支援，自力更生，艰苦奋斗”。类似的具有中国特色的词汇翻译，中国翻译协会经常组织专家定期发布，成为英语媒体表达我国具体国情时候使用的规范译文。

除了党和政府对灾区孩子们的六一儿童节表示关心外，灾区孩子们的上学问题也引起了党和政府的关心。由于灾区许多学校垮塌，而灾后重建工作任重而道远，因此，不少孩子被安排到了灾区以外的地方恢复上课。《中国日报》对此也进行了专门的报道如下：

Kids sent to study outside disaster zone
By Wang Ying, Liang Qiwen and Li Aoxue (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-31 07:55

Schools in some big cities have taken in students from earthquake-affected areas where classrooms were either utterly razed or rendered structurally unsound.

Five hundred primary school students from Anxian county of Mianyang, one of the areas hardest hit by the May 12 quake in Sichuan province, set off on a train from the provincial capital Chengdu bound for Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, on Thursday.

For eight months, the students will study in nine schools in Kunming, about 1,000 km south of Mianyang.

To help the children cope with this difficult period, the Yunnan branch of the All-China Women's Federation, local education authorities and thecivil affairs department jointly launched a "show-love" project.

Yunnan's government will cover all study and living expenses for these students during their stay.

Primary and high schools in Chongqing municipality have received more than 500 students from Sichuan, Tan Kaiming, an official with the Chongqing anti-earthquake headquarters, said.

The host schools will also provide physical and psychological therapy for the students, Tan said.

Also, 200 elementary and middle school students from Sichuan are now studying in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, with waived tuition or accommodation fees, Guangzhou education bureau official He Yuhong said.

Students from earthquake-affected areas will enjoy free room and board if enrolled in colleges and universities in Guangdong, the provincial education department said.

On Thursday, 44 senior middle school students from Beichuan county, one of the most-devastated areas, toured the Great Wall under the arrangement of the All China Women's Federation and Beijing municipal government.

To help distract the students from the horror and sorrow of the disaster, the federation and Beijing government will also arrange visits to major Olympic venues, Tian'anmen Square and the China Science Museum in the coming days, the Beijing News reported. And five students from Jiangyou, Sichuan, are now studying at Beijing No 105 Middle School. The five girls arrived in Beijing on Wednesday.

The grandmother of Jiang Yichen, one of the girls, contacted Beijing No 105 Middle School to arrange for their studies in the capital.

"I was lazy about my studies before but having stayed in a tent for more than 10 days, it feels so good to sit in a classroom," 16-year-old Zhong Xuerui said.

Beijing 105 High School is not a boarding school, but the school's authorities arranged for the five students to live in a teachers' dormitory and bought them daily necessities, such as bowls, shampoo and toothpaste.

In addition to waiving their tuitions and textbook fees, the school will also provide them psychological counseling.

"We just want to help students from earthquake-affected areas," deputy schoolmaster Zuo Weidong said.

The duration of their stays in Beijing will be determined by when classes resume in Jiangyou, he said.

在上述新闻报道中，study outside disaster zone指的就是灾区的孩子们被政府安排到了灾区以外的地方上学，因为对这些孩子们来说，尽早恢复上课不仅是确保他们的课程学习不会受到太大的影响，而且也意味着可以让他们通过认真学习而适度忘却这场巨大灾难给他们带来的身心伤害，如下文所说的help distract the students from the horror and sorrow of the disaster。

Earthquake-affected areas就是“地震灾区”，在这次关于四川地震的报道中，“灾区”的对应英语表达还出现了quake areas，quake zone，disaster zone等多个说法。

Utterly razed or rendered structurally unsound指的是建筑物遭到彻底破坏或者建筑结构已经不安全，其中的raze是一个十分地道的英语表达，意思是“把（城镇、建筑物）夷为平地”，其常见搭配为raze something to the ground。

Render则又是一个在英语中广泛使用且十分地道而我国广大英语学习者不习惯使用的单词，其含义较为宽泛，在这里是“使……变成……”的意思，与make近义，其语法结构要求后接一个宾语和一个由形容词或分词充当成分的宾语补足语，常用被动语态，如the new law has been rendered useless。Unsound本身就指“（建筑物等）不安全的，不稳固的”，而这里出现在其前面的structurally一方面是出于语法结构上与前面的utterly对称，另一方面也是强调，在强烈地震中，一些学校的大楼虽然没有垮塌，但是其结构已经严重不安全，因此不再适宜作为教室使用。

Bound 也是一个多义词，在这里指的是“（车船飞机等交通工具）开往某个目的地”，其搭配介词为for，如The cargo ship is bound for the Middle East. 也可以组成合成词，如a Shanghai-bound train（一列开往上海的火车）。

Kunming, about 1,000 km south of Mianyang这一结构则是属于比较典型的英语新闻报道特点，即出现地名的时候需要交代其方位和距离。虽然昆明对于中国人而言都知道其位于哪里，但是，根据英语新闻报道的语法要求，这里还是交代了其和绵阳之间的方位和距离。

All-China Women's Federation是中华全国妇女联合会，简称全国妇联，类似的表达还有中国全国总工会，其英文说法是All-China Federation of Trade Unions，All-China Federation of Youth 中华全国青年联合会(全国青联) ，All-China Students' Federation 中华全国学生联合会（全国学联）等等。

中国政府部门和民间组织的英文表达在人民日报网站英文版有完整的叙述，有兴趣者可以去那里查询。 education authorities就是“教育部门”的意思，注意authorities在英语中又是一个十分地道的表达，经常用来表示“有关部门”，“管理部门”，“当局”，使用复数形式，如本文下段提到的school's authorities （也可以表达为school authorities）就是指“校方”。

Civil affairs department就是“民政部门”。这里顺便介绍一下，civil 是一个十分常用的多义词，而且随着搭配的不同，其含义之间的相关性相距甚远，civil servant是“公务员”，“文职人员”，civil law是“民法”，civil wedding是“（不举行宗教仪式的）世俗婚礼”，相对应的是religious wedding或church wedding，civil war是“内战”，civil rights是“公民权”，civil aviation是“民用航空”，而civil engineering则是“土木工程”。

Cover all study and living expenses指的是支付（承担）全部学习和生活费用，目前，所有接纳灾区孩子入学的地方政府和教育部门都作出了相同的规定，即免除这些劫后余生的孩子在灾区以外地区就读的所有费用，如下文所说的tuitions and textbook fees（学费和书本费）。在cover all study and living expenses这个表达中，cover又是一个多义词，中国学生最熟悉的意思是“覆盖”，但实际上其在英语中还有许多其他用法，如we covered 40 miles yesterday，这里的cover表示走了多少路程。He will be sent to Beijing to cover the 2008 summer Olympics，这里的cover表示新闻记者的采访报道。在本文中，cover指的是有经济能力支付，相当于pay for something，常见用法有cover the cost of something（支付费用），cover the expenses（承担开支）等等。 host schools指的是此次地震灾难之后接待灾区学生入读的学校。

Psychological therapy就是“心理治疗”，类似的说法还有本文下段有提及的psychological counseling，因为对于心灵受到伤害的灾区孩子们来说，心灵的恢复更为重要。

Waived tuition or accommodation fees就是免除学费和食宿费，其中的waive表示“宣布放弃/取消”，其名词是waiver，中国学生申请赴美国留学时获得的校方经济资助时，最常见的一种就是叫做tuition waiver，简单地说就是免掉学费，不用交学费就可以上学。有一些运气好的学生则还可以获得XXX美元的奖学金加一个tuition waiver，也就是说除了不用交学费，还有XXX美元的奖学金。Tuition waiver在美国学校的奖学金中占有很大的比例，在没有其他资助的情况下，这就是我们通常所说的半奖。免掉你的学费，并通过其他途径获得一定数额的生活保证，对于学费不菲的美国留学来讲，是一件令人很愉快的事情。美国大学提供的其他奖学金还包括fellowship, teaching assistant, research assistant等等。

Free room and board就是住宿和膳食免费，其中的room and board在英语中几乎成为一个固定搭配，专门用来指学生等人员在学校、尤其是寄宿学校等场所享受住宿和膳食时候所必须支付的膳宿费。Board还可以作为动词，表示学生在校寄宿，因此，寄宿学校就叫做boarding school，本文下段就有提及。

Daily necessities就是“日用必需品”。

Olympic venues指的是奥运会比赛场馆，venue表示“举办地点”，“举行场所”，即一项活动举行的时候所使用的场所，如The venue for the latest round of talks is the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse（最新一轮谈判的地点是钓鱼台国宾馆。）在体育比赛中，venue作为比赛场地的意思，使用得更普遍。