VOA常速英语:Heavy Rains Bring Raging Floods - and a Debate

短语讲解：

1. The flooding was so severe that the U.S. Corps of Engineers, which supervises national flood-control efforts, took the nearly uNPRecedented step of opening giant floodgates to keep high water from reaching Baton Rouge, the capital city of Louisiana, and the major port of New Orleans.

so… that如此…以至
例句：He ran so fast that I couldn’t catch up with him.
他跑得那么快，我没赶上他。
take step采取措施
例句：He says he will take step to tighten up the administration
他说他将采取措施加强行政管理。
keep from阻止; 免于
例句：Urgent business kept me from attending the meeting.
因有急事我不能去参加会议。

2. Whether to hold back the river or let it flood is a longstanding issue on the Mississippi - one that crystallizes each spring in the city of Davenport, Iowa.

hold back阻碍, 阻止
例句：They built dykes and dam to hold back the rising flood waters.
他们修筑了堤坝来阻挡上涨的洪水。

3. Parts of it are submerged during floods, but it’s by design.

by design故意地; 蓄意地
例句：Do you think he did this by design?
你认为他这样做是有意的吗?

4. The city has chosen not to build floodwalls, instead, turning the lowest-lying parts in town into floodable parkland.

turn into (使)变成
例句：The old building was turned into a library.
这座旧房子被改作了图书馆。

5. It provides sandbags to the few residential and business areas that take on some water during severe flooding.

take on呈现,穿上; 承担
例句：The old factory has taken on a new look.
这家老厂已呈现出一派新面貌。

6. But officials say dikes upstream from the city already act like a sluice, causing the river to flow even faster, deeper, and more dangerously through their town.

act like充当，用作，当作，起…的作用；做
例句：That sofa also acts like a bed.
那沙发也可当床。

7. If they built levees, Davenporters say, smaller communities below would have to do the same - and so on, all the way down the river.

and so on等等
例句：She spends her day doing housework, watching television, reading, and so on.
她以做家务、看电视、看书等等度过一天。
all the way一路上, 一直; 完全
例句：We can go all the way by motorboat.
我们可以一路上乘摩托艇去。

8. So Davenport takes its floods in stride and lets the mighty river do what rivers do from time to time.

from time to time不时, 偶尔, 间或,有时
例句：I can see Hieks at the library from time to time.
我在图书馆有时能看见希克斯。