专八考试阅读素材之堵塞苏伊士运河

最近，苏伊士运河上发生一起匪夷所思的搁浅事件，被认为是该运河150年历史上出现的最严重拥堵事件。

台湾的长赐号（Ever Given）头尾被嵌入河道的两端，等于把河道“拦腰截断“，使得两边几百条货轮都无法通行。

情况如图 ➤➤

下面，我们先简单介绍一下苏伊士运河（Canal Suez）吧。

100多年前，马克思就把苏伊士运河称之为“东方伟大的航道”。

苏伊士运河1869年修筑通航，它沟通了红海与地中海，使大西洋经地中海和苏伊士运河与印度洋和太平洋连接起来。

苏伊士运河建成后，大大缩短了从亚洲各港口到欧洲去的航程，大致可缩短8000-10000千米以上，因此也是世界使用最频繁的航线之一。

约1880年的苏伊士运河➤➤

苏伊士运河是埃及经济的“摇钱树”，过往船只通行费一直是成为埃及外汇的主要收入来源，每年收入近百亿美元。

这一堵，让埃及政府的头很大，因为堵塞事件让国家每天损失数百万美元。

而对全球贸易来说，损失就更大了，据说每小时的损失都在4亿美元（约24亿人民币）！

据说这起事件主要是由于遭到强风袭击，船体偏斜，直接触底搁浅。目前这艘400米长的巨轮正卡在河堤两端，横向堵住运河，致使这条全球最繁忙的海上贸易大动脉完全阻塞。

来自《纽约时报》的报道：

Giant Ship Blocking Suez Canal Could Take 'Days, Even Weeks’ to Free.

译：巨轮阻塞航路，苏伊士运河“大堵船”或将持续数周。

拖船奋力拖拽沉重的巨型货轮，挖泥船清理沙子和泥浆，负责处理此事的救援公司周四警告说，令这艘堵塞埃及苏伊士运河交通的集装箱船脱离搁浅可能需要几天甚至几周时间。

As tugboats strained against the weight of the mammoth ship and dredgers worked to clear sand and mud，a salvage company working on the operation warned on Thursday that releasing the container vessel blocking traffic in the Suez Canal in Egypt could take days or even weeks.

数十艘载着运往世界各地港口的石油和货物的船只被困在运河中，运输中断导致的经济成本每时每刻都在增加。

Dozens of ships laden with oil and goods destined for ports around the world are stranded in the canal，and with each passing hour，the economic cost of the disruption grows more consequential.

自周二在沙尘暴的大风中搁浅后，“长赐号”（Ever Given）一直被卡在运河中无法移动。它的船头楔入了运河的东岸，船尾则楔入西岸。

The stuck ship，the Ever Given, has been wedged in the canal since running aground amid the heavy winds of a sandstorm on Tuesday. Its bow is lodged in the canal's eastern bank and its stern in the western bank.

1.wedge  vt. 楔入

2.aground  adv.搁浅（run / go aground）

3.bown  船头（stern n.船尾）

4.be lodged in 固定在某个位置

5.tugboatn 拖船

6.strain  vi.努力

7.mammoth  n.猛犸象（mammoth ship 巨轮）

8.dredgern 挖泥船

9.salvage company 救援公司

10.container vessel 集装箱船

11.（be） laden with 装载着（be loaded with）

12.（be） destined for 去往 / 目的地是

13.strand  vt.搁浅

14.disruption  n.中断

15.consequential  adj.随之发生的

CAIRO — As tugboats strained againstthe weight of the mammoth ship and dredgers worked to clear sand and mud, asalvage company working on the operation warned on Thursday that releasing thecontainer vessel blocking traffic in the Suez Canal in Egypt could take days oreven weeks.

开罗 —— 拖船奋力拖拽沉重的巨型货轮，挖泥船清理沙子和泥浆，负责处理此事的救援公司周四警告说，令这艘堵塞埃及苏伊士运河交通的集装箱船脱离搁浅可能需要几天甚至几周时间。

Dozens of ships laden with oil andgoods destined for ports around the world are stranded in the canal, and witheach passing hour, the economic cost of the disruption grows moreconsequential.

数十艘载着运往世界各地港口的石油和货物的船只被困在运河中，运输中断导致的经济成本每时每刻都在增加。

The stuck ship, the Ever Given, hasbeen wedged in the canal since running aground amid the heavy winds of asandstorm on Tuesday. Its bow is lodged in the canal’s eastern bank and itsstern in the western bank.

自周二在沙尘暴的大风中搁浅后，“长赐号”(Ever Given)一直被卡在运河中无法移动。它的船头楔入了运河的东岸，船尾则楔入西岸。

Eight large tugboats were attempting topush and drag the ship from its unintended berth, the Suez Canal Authority saidin a statement on Thursday, but at about 1,300 feet long — roughly equivalentto the height of the Empire State Building — and weighing around 200,000 metrictons, dislodging the Ever Given is proving challenging.

苏伊士运河当局在周四的一份声明中说，八艘大型拖船试图将船拖出这个意外的泊位，但事实证明，要让这艘长约400米（约等于帝国大厦的高度）、重约20万吨的船脱浅是很困难的。

An attempt to extract the ship ataround 8 a.m. on Thursday did not succeed, forcing salvagers to try again laterin the day, the ship’s technical manager, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, saidin a statement on Thursday. The company said that a specialized suction dredgerhad arrived to help dig the ship out.

该船的机务管理公司伯恩哈德·舒尔特船舶管理公司(Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement)在周四的一份声明中说，周四早间8点左右，将这艘船脱浅的尝试没有成功，迫使救援人员不得不在当天晚些时候再次尝试。该公司表示，一艘专业的吸泥船已经抵达，用挖掘的方式助这艘船脱困。

The Japanese company that owns theship, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, acknowledged in a statement on Thursday that thesituation was “extremely difficult” and apologized for the disruption caused bythe episode. “We will continue to do our utmost” to move the ship, it said.

这艘船的拥有者日本正荣汽船株式会社(Shoei Kisen Kaisha)在周四的一份声明中承认，局势“极其艰难”，并为事件造成的干扰表达歉意。公司称“我们将继续竭尽全力”将船移走。

Peter Berdowski, chief executive ofRoyal Boskalis Westminster, which has been appointed by Ever Given’s owner tohelp move the vessel, told the Dutch current affairs program Nieuwsuur onWednesday that the operation to free the ship could take “days, even weeks.”

皇家博斯卡里斯威斯敏斯特(Royal Boskalis Westminster)是“长赐号”船东指定的帮助移动该船的公司，其首席执行官彼得·贝尔多夫斯基(Peter Berdowski)周三告诉荷兰时事节目《新闻时刻》(Nieuwsuur)，该船的脱浅作业可能需要“几天甚至几周”。

Mr. Berdowski, whose company has beeninvolved in expanding the Suez Canal, said that Ever Given was stuck on bothshallow sides of the V-shaped waterway. Fully loaded with 20,000 containers,the ship “is a very heavy beached whale,” he said.

这家公司参与了苏伊士运河拓宽工程，贝尔多夫斯基说，“长赐号”卡在V型水道两侧的浅水部分。他说船满载了2万个集装箱，“是一条在滩涂搁浅的沉重鲸鱼。”

The authorities had first tried tofloat the vessel using tugboats, a model that worked to free the CSCL IndianOcean, a similarly sized container ship that became stuck in the Elbe River in2016, near the port of Hamburg, Germany. Salvaging that ship took 12 tugboatsand three attempts, and part of the sandbank where the ship ran aground had tobe dredged.

当局首先尝试使用拖船进行拖拽，该型号的拖船曾帮助相似大小的“中海印度洋”号(CSCL Indian Ocean)，该船于2016年被困在德国汉堡港附近的易北河中。12艘拖船尝试了三次，不得不对船搁浅部位的部分沙洲进行挖掘。

Mr. Berdowski said that the Ever Given,operated by a company called Evergreen, was too heavy for tugboats alone,adding that salvagers might need to extract fuel, pump out water from theballast tanks and remove some of the containers to make the ship lighter andtherefore easier to move. And the dredging may require extra equipment, hesaid.

贝尔多夫斯基说，“长赐号”——由名为长荣海运(Evergreen)的公司运营——对于拖船来说过重，他还说，救援人员可能需要取出燃料，抽走压载舱中的水并卸下一部分集装箱，以减轻船的重量，令其更容易移动。他说，挖泥可能需要额外的设备。

Everything depends on how deep themassive container ship is stuck. “The more deeply the ship is stuck, the harderit is to lose weight, the more time it will take to free it,” Mr. Berdowskisaid.

一切都取决于这艘大型集装箱船被卡住的深度。贝尔多夫斯基说：“船卡得越深，减轻重量就越困难，脱困所花费的时间就越多。”

The ship’s manager has said in astatement that a preliminary investigation found that the vessel groundedbecause of strong winds, not because of mechanical or engine failure. Thecompany said that all 25 crew members, who the ship’s owner said were allIndian citizens, were safe and that there were no reports of injuries,pollution or cargo damage.

该船的管理者在一份声明中说，初步调查发现使该船搁浅的原因是强风，而不是因为机械或发动机故障。公司称所有25名船员——据船东称均为印度公民——都是安全的，没有人员伤亡、污染或货物损坏的报告。

The global shipping and supply industry— already battered by the surge in orders caused by the coronavirus pandemicand recent disruptions at factories in Japan and Texas — waited to see whetherthe disruption from the traffic jam would amount to a couple of days’ minorinconvenience, or something worse.

全球船运和供应业已经受到新冠病毒大流行造成的订单激增以及最近日本和得克萨斯州工厂瘫痪的冲击。该行业迫切想知道的是，运河堵塞的干扰是只会造成几天小小的不便，还是更糟的后果。

The canal, from which Egypt derivesmuch of its revenues and geopolitical significance, handles about 10 percent ofall global trade. By connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, the canaloffers a shortcut worth about 10 days of sailing time to ships carrying oil andcargo from Asia to Europe and beyond. More than 50 ships pass through it on anaverage day.

该运河是埃及的重要收入来源，其地缘政治意义也来自于此，全球贸易的10％需要通过这里。连接红海与地中海的运河，为从亚洲到欧洲乃至其它地区的石油和货物运输船只提供了一条约10天航程的捷径。平均每天有50多艘船通过该

Egypt opened a new lane in one sectionof the canal in 2015, an $8 billion expansion that the president, Abdel Fattahel-Sisi, heralded as a historic national accomplishment. But the Ever Given issitting diagonally across another section of the canal, one that has only onelane.

2015年，埃及在运河的一个河段上开辟了一条新航道，总统阿卜杜勒-法塔赫·塞西(Abdel Fattah el-Sisi)宣布这个斥资80亿美元的扩建工程是历史性的国家成就。但是，“长赐号”横档搁浅的河段只有一条航道。

The head of the Suez Canal Authority,Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, said in a statement on Thursday that the day before, 13ships had been expected to be able to move through the canal after the EverGiven was tugged out of the way. But the salvage operation was taking longerthan hoped, forcing the ships to drop anchor in a waiting area, the authoritynoted in the statement.

苏伊士运河管理局局长奥萨马·拉比(Osama Rabie)中将在周四的一份声明中说，在前一天，原本预计有13艘船将在“长赐号”脱浅后穿过运河。但是，当局在声明中指出，脱浅行动花费的时间比预期的长，迫使船只在等候区抛锚等待。

    距离专八考试还有

21天

   你准备好了吗？

      阅读、写作一起提分！