慢速英语:Designing a Quake-Resistant Building Starts at the Soil

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Builders in developing countries are often not required to build strong buildings. So, when a disaster strikes, the damage is often widespread.
发展中国家的建设者经常都没有被要求建造坚固的建筑物。所以，当灾难袭来时，通常都有大面积的破坏。

Yet Japan is one of the most developed countries in the world. Still, the March eleventh earthquake and tsunami waves destroyed more than fourteen thousand buildings.
但是日本是世界上最发达的国家之一。三月十一日的地震和海啸巨浪仍然摧毁了超过一万四千幢的建筑物。

Brady Cox is an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Arkansas. He is also an earthquake expert with an organization called Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance, or GEER. The group studies major disasters.
布雷迪考克斯是阿肯色大学土木工程系的一个助理教授。他也是极端地理灾害调查（GEER）组织的一位地震专家。该组织研究重大的灾害。

Professor Cox says Japan has one of the best building-code systems in the world.
考克斯教授表示日本拥有全球最好的建筑设计规范系统之一。

BRADY COX: "The problem is this earthquake was just a mammoth earthquake, one of the, you know, top five earthquakes in recorded history. So anytime you have an earthquake that large, you are going to have damage."
布雷迪考克斯：“问题在于这次的地震是一个大地震，你知道的，有历史记录以来最大的五次地震之一。因此，无论什么时候你遭遇了那么强的一次地震，都会造成损毁。”

The quake measured magnitude nine. 这次地震被测定为九级。
BRADY COX: "One thing I think a lot of people don't understand is that building codes are meant to prevent loss of life in earthquakes, that doesn’t mean that the buildings won't -- or bridges for that matter, or anything -- won't sustain significant damage."
布雷迪考克斯：“我想很多人不理解的一点在于建筑设计规范是用来防止人类在地震中丧生，这并非意味着建筑物，桥梁或者其它诸如此类的东西不会遭受巨大的损坏。”

Mr. Cox says Japan has invested a lot in seismic research and design since a magnitude 7.5 earthquake in Niigata in nineteen sixty-four. That same year a 9.2 quake shook the American state of Alaska.
考克斯先生表示，自从1964新滹7.5级地震以来，日本已经在地震研究和设计上投入很多钱力。同一年，美国的阿拉斯加也遭遇了一次9.2级的地震。

BRADY COX: "Those two earthquakes really opened up a lot of new research on something called soil liquefaction, in particular. And, you know, the Japanese, they have more earthquakes greater than magnitude six or seven than probably any other country in the world. I mean, they get hit a lot."
布雷迪考克斯：“那两次地震确实为很多新的研究，尤其是一种被称为“土壤液化”的研究开辟了道路。你知道的，日本人经历的六级或七级以上的地震可能比世界上其它国家还要多。我是指，他们经常遭遇地震。”

Soil liquefaction is the process by which the strength or stiffness of soil is weakened by an event like the shaking of an earthquake. The soil begins to move like liquid.
土壤液化是在诸如地震的这种灾害中，土壤的强度和刚度被弱化的一个过程。土壤开始像液体一样流动。

Professor Cox says the first step to designing an earthquake-resistant building is to study the soil.
考克斯教授称，设计抗震建筑要做的第一步是先研究土壤。

BRADY COX: "Then the structural engineers take that information and they use it to detail the building in terms of, is this going to be a steel structure? Is it going to be reinforced concrete? And then you get into all kinds of things in terms of the designs of the columns and the beams and the framing of the building and the connections. And how much steel do you put in?"
布雷迪考克斯：“然后结构工程师拿着那些土壤的资料，并用它们来详述建筑的有关方面，这将是钢铁结构吗？这会是钢筋混泥土吗？接着你就会陷入所有关于建筑物的柱，梁和构架的设计和连结的思考中。你应该用多少条钢筋？”

A team from Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance is planning a trip to Japan to examine the destruction. Mr. Cox and other members of GEER went to Haiti after the powerful earthquake last year, and continue to work with Haitian officials.
来自极端地理灾害调查的一个团队计划赴日本考查破坏的程度。考克斯先生和其它极端地理灾害调查的成员去年海地大地震后去了那里，一直与海地政府官员一同工作。

BRADY COX: "A lot of the work that we’ve been doing has been focusing on the rebuilding effort and how to especially make sure that the rebuilding of schools and hospitals, and kind of critical facilities that you would need to respond to an emergency -- police and fire stations, government buildings -- that those things get rebuilt appropriately."
布雷迪考克斯：“我们一直着手在做的很多工作的重点一直都是努力重建，特别是如何确保医院和学校的建筑物，紧急情况的重要应急场所——警察局，消防局和政府大楼等这些建筑物能得到合理重建。”

And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. I'm Christopher Cruise.
这就是美国之音慢速英语科技报道，Juan撰稿。我是I'm Christopher Cruise。