中国西部偏远的青海省玉树州玉树县发生强烈地震后，救援人员用铁铲、撬棍和双手在民居和学校倒塌后的废墟上挖掘，争分夺秒地搜救生者。当局称，地震已造成至少589人死亡，超过10,000人受伤。
Rescuers used shovels, crowbars and their bare hands to dig through the rubble of collapsed homes and schools as they raced to find survivors of a severe earthquake that authorities said killed at least 589 people and injured more than 10,000 in a remote, predominantly Tibetan community in western China.
地震发生在周三早晨接近8点钟的时候，地点位于青藏高原上多山的青海省玉树州，该地区主要人口聚居区之一结古镇大部分被夷为平地。玉树约97%的人口都是藏族，很多人靠蓄养口牛、绵羊和马匹为生。
The quake hit shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday, jolting mountainous Yushu prefecture, part of the Chinese province of Qinghai on the Tibetan plateau, and flattening most of the town of Jiegu, one of the area's main population centers. About 97% of the people in Yushu are ethnically Tibetan. Many earn their living raising yaks, sheep and horses.
玉树地震英语新闻
在夜幕降临、结古镇气温降至零下之际，数百名军人、武警战士和其他急救人员在残垣断壁中搜寻生命迹象。中央电视台周三夜间报道称，已从倒塌的建筑中救出900名生还者。官员称，受伤居民正在医院和位于该镇中心广场及赛马场的临时医疗中心接受救治。
As darkness fell and temperatures dipped below freezing in Jiegu, hundreds of soldiers, troops from the paramilitary People's Armed Police and other emergency workers searched the wreckage looking for signs of life. State television reported Wednesday night that 900 survivors had been rescued from fallen buildings. Injured townspeople were being treated in hospitals, and at improvised medical centers in the town's central square and at a horse-racing track, officials said.
正在帮助搜救生者的42岁居民果央扎西（音）说，我们缺少设备，所以救援速度非常缓慢。他说，镇上几乎所有的房屋（很多房屋都采用了传统的土木结构）都已被摧毁。他还说，我们得加快速度，不然被埋人员就没有希望了。
'We are short of equipment,' said Guoyang Zhaxi, a 42-year-old resident helping to free survivors. 'So the speed of the rescue efforts is very slow.' He said nearly all houses in the town-many of which used traditional wood-and-earth construction-had been destroyed. 'We need to hurry up or the people who are buried will have no hope,' he said.
中国地震学家称地震震级为7.1级。美国地质调查局(U.S. Geological Survey)测得的震级为6.9级。整个一天余震不断。专业搜救队伍和数百名军人正在从中国其他地方被派往玉树去帮助搜救生还者。
'We are short of equipment,' said Guoyang Zhaxi, a 42-year-old resident helping to free survivors. 'So the speed of the rescue efforts is very slow.' He said nearly all houses in the town-many of which used traditional wood-and-earth construction-had been destroyed. 'We need to hurry up or the people who are buried will have no hope,' he said.
官方起先估计有400人在地震中遇难，但据美联社(Associated Press)援引中国官方媒体新华社报道，到周四上午，当地地震救援指挥部把死亡人数调高到了589人。青海玉树军分区司令员吴勇对美联社表示，由于大量房屋倒塌，死亡数字可能会进一步上升。 (建议：英语作文)