BBC news 2010-01-14 加文本

1.I believe two US teams will arrive this afternoon and perhaps two more, tomorrow hopefully with ,uh, heavy equipment as well as experts and dogs and so on.

as well as

as well as可以用来连接两个相同的成分，如名词、形容词、动词、介词，通常不位于句首。此时，as well as连接的虽然是两个并列成分，但强调的重点在前面，不在后面，意思为“不但……而且……”、“既……又……”、“除了……之外，还有……”翻译时要先译后面，再译前面。例如：

1)Living things need air and light as well as water. 生物不仅需要水，还需要空气和阳光。（连接名词）

2)She helped Tom as well as I. = She and I helped Tom. 我帮了汤姆的忙，她也帮了汤姆的忙。（连接主格代词）

3)She helped Tom as well as me. = She helped Tom and me. 她帮了我的忙，也帮了汤姆的忙。（连接宾格代词）

4)She continued her own work as well as hepled me. 她除了帮助我，还继续自己的工作。（连接动词）

5)He finds the mass of materials before, as well as after exeperiments. 他不但在实验后，还在实验前求出材料的质量。（连接介词短语）

6)The child is lively as well as healthy. 这孩子既健康又活泼。（连接形容词）

2.A magnitude 7 is equivalent to the energy given off by half a million tons of high explosives.

be equivalent to等于,与…相等,与…相当

Silence is sometimes equivalent to an allowance.
缄默有时等于允许。

3.Closeness to the surface is a key factor contributing to the severity of the ground shaking caused by a tremor.

contribute to促成

例句：Smoking is a major factor contribute to cancer.
      吸烟是致癌的一个重要因素。

4.The final factor is the lack of awareness among the population and the government about the possibility of an earthquake given that has been so long since the last major one.

given，provided

given与provided意思一样,表示“如果有……,则……”,
但两者的区别是provided后面只能跟that引导从句,而不能跟名词或名词性短语。而given后既可跟从句,又可跟名词性短语。

5.A high court in Nigeria has ruled that the vice president has the right to perform all duties on behalf of the president without a formal transfer of power.

on behalf of代表...

例句：She invested the money on behalf of her ward.
      她代表受她监护的人投资。