ABSTRACT

As Chinese is parataxis language while English is hypotaxis language, there are many differences between the two languages. Based on the aesthetic linguistics and reception aesthetics, this paper aims to analyze the method of geological disaster news in English and Chinese, explore the similarities and differences of English-Chinese geological disasters from the level of aesthetic features. It will analyze the differences from the micro and macro perspectives and seek to explore the differences in light of national reasons. Moreover, it will put readers first. On this note, we put forward strategies that are practical and accessible between English and Chinese translation in a bid to improve the quality of translation and make it more acceptable.

Subject Areas:

Linguistics

Keywords:

Aesthetic Linguistics, Reception Aesthetics, Contrastive Studies between English and Chinese, Geological Disasters, Translation

1. The Importance of Contrastive Analysis between English and Chinese in Translation

Comparison is an important way for human beings to understand the world and one of the basic methods of language research. Through comparison, we can find the differences between English and Chinese in macro and micro aspects. Aesthetic linguistics is a discipline that studies how the rules of beauty construct, and reception aesthetics holds the idea that the beauty of language is determined by the readers. To understand the differences between English and Chinese in the coverage of geological disasters, we can follow the rules of beauty and improve the quality of translation, so as to create popular works.

2. The Aesthetic Choice of Language

2.1. Definition and Research Tasks of Aesthetic Linguistics

In his book, Aesthetic Linguistics―Beauty of Language and Speech, Qian Guan-lian pointed out that “aesthetic linguistics is a discipline that studies the aesthetic attributes of language, daily speech activities and speech acts, as well as the characteristics and rules of both communicative and aesthetic activities. It is the intersection of aesthetics and linguistics.” Therefore, the research object of aesthetic linguistics is the aesthetic attribute of language, the beauty in daily spoken and written speech, the nodes and rules of people’s creation and appreciation of the beauty of speech, and the ugliness of speech (in order to change the ugliness into beauty). The two pillars of aesthetic linguistics are the features and laws of the beauty of speech and the aesthetic choice of language at all levels.

The task of aesthetic linguistics is to clarify how people build their own language system and how individuals build their own language according to the law of beauty. To be specific, it should reveal the universal thoughts of the spoken or written official language activities and speech acts, showing aesthetic values. It reveals the aesthetic choice consciousness and the law of aesthetic choice when constructs the language official system and various parts, and reveals the way and law of language as the carrier of national aesthetic idea. Finally, it should also demonstrate the way and law of forming a harmonious and unified relationship between the microcosm of language and the macrocosm of nature, and reveal people’s aesthetic interference in language (Guan-lian Qian, 2006, p. 3).

2.2. Aesthetic Linguistics and Reception Aesthetics

Aesthetic choice of language refers to the choice made by the language itself when it approaches the appropriateness infinitely in a group of language elements with slight differences, starting from the intention of beauty, in order to achieve the best effect in practical and aesthetic purposes. Aesthetic linguistics explores the law and attribute of beauty. Acceptance aesthetics was born in the 1960s. The publication of Jauss’s Literature History as a Challenge to Literary Theory marked the appearance of acceptance aesthetics as a literary theory. Reception aesthetics, a science of studying readers and reading reception, aims to establish a complete history of literature. In the process, Jauss gradually realized the central position of the reader, so he put forward the idea that in the triangle of the authors, works, and the public, the public is not a passive part, not only as a kind of reaction, on the contrary, it itself is of a dynamic history. The historical life of a literary work is inconceivable without the active participation of the recipient. The aesthetics of reception affirms the initiative of the reader, believing that “a literary work is jointly completed by the author and the reader” (Xiao-yan Liu, Xian-zhu Si, 2017). There are four core points of reception aesthetics: firstly, reception aesthetics emphasizes the absolute position of readers in literature. It holds that the quality of a work depends on the reader, whose position even exceeds that of the author, which makes people’s understanding of literary works not objective and absolute, but subjective and pluralistic. A literary work enriches and develops on the receiving chain from generation to generation, and its aesthetic value is proved in this process. Secondly, the aesthetics of reception affirms the role of readers in reinvention and reconstruction. Jauss believes that the value of a literary work is not endowed by the reader, but created by the reader. Without the aesthetic recreation of the reader, any literary work is at best a mixture of literal symbols and punctuation marks. Thirdly, reception aesthetics puts forward a dynamic perspective of expectation. Expectation horizon is the thinking orientation or present structure formed by readers’ literary reading experience when reading a literary work. The expectation horizon of the reader will change with the scope of cognition. Fourth, the aesthetics of reception holds that meaning comes from reading. Reading produces meaning and is a necessary condition for the birth of literary works.

3. Literature Review on the Contrastive Study between English and Chinese

This part reviews the development of comparative studies of English-Chinese translation at home and abroad in chronological order.

The comparative study of English-Chinese translation has been existed more than 100 years in China. Domestic English-Chinese or Chinese-English language comparison research mainly can be divided into three periods. The first period was mainly from Ma Jianzhong’s MashiWentong [1] and Yan Fu’s English hangu to the end of 1940s. This period was the earliest to study Chinese grammar studies in a comparative method and aimed to build a systematic frame of Chinese grammar, so as to compare the differences between English and Chinese. Remarkable progress had been made during this period. Nevertheless, the main problem lied in copying western grammar and seeking the same rules deliberately. Many scholars advocated to establish the systematic Chinese grammar based on the characteristics of Chinese. Yang Zijian [2] and Li Ruihua [3] commented on the comparative study of the former sages, “although there was the problem of transplantation, it contained careful identification and unique creation, which has made great contributions to the establishment of Chinese linguistics and created the tradition of selecting the good and using it from western cultures”. In this period, Zhao Yuanren [4] , Li Jinxi [5] , Wang Li [6] and Lu Shuxiang [7] all made substantial achievements to the comparison studies between English and Chinese. The second period was from 1940 to 1976, the comparative studies of this period were almost limited to stagnation with few achievements due to a variety of reasons. The beginning of the third period was marked by the punishment of Comparative studies through grammar in 1977, written by Lu Shuxiang. In this period, comparative studies developed rapidly in China. According to statistics, 1374 papers on comparative studies between English and Chinese had been published by the end of June 2001, among which 1353 were published after 1977. During this period, the research mainly focused on the enhancement of subject awareness of the contrastive theory between English and Chinese. It shifted from macro research to micro research and deepened the development of micro research. In addition, it also tended to combine theory with practice. Domestic and foreign theories were introduced and subject awareness of Chinese was enhanced. The main representatives in this period were Liu Chongde [8] , Zhao Shikai [9] , Liu Miqing [10] and Yang Zijian.

At abroad, comparative linguistics [11] was regarded as a discipline in the 20th century. It mainly originated from Europe and the United States. Strictly speaking, comparative studies might date back to the late 19th century when Charles H. Grandgent made a comparison of English, German and French phonetics in 1894. In 1894, Wilhelm Viet compared German, English and French phonetics. At the beginning of the 20th century, Paul Passy compared major European languages, and Malthesin compared English and Czech in 1926. Zhao Yuanren [12] was the first person to truly compare English and Chinese in foreign countries. In 1933, he wrote an article comparing Chinese and English intonation. However, the first one to use the term “comparative linguistics” was Beniamin Lee Whorf [13] from the United States in 1941. Later, Robert Lado Charles D. Fries and Di Pietros all made contributions to comparative studies. After the second world war, the linguist Fries proposed the idea of comparative teaching in his book on Teaching English as a foreign Language (1945) [14] . In 1957, Lado published Linguistics across Cultures [15] based on Fries’s idea, which was regarded as a milestone in the study of language comparison. In the book, Lado put forward a series of specific analysis methods, including how to compare phonetic, grammatical, lexical, literal and cultural systems. In the same year, Charles D. Fries published Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language, which was also widely recognized as the same book as intercultural linguistics.

4. Discourse Analysis and Translation Strategies of Geological Disasters in English and Chinese

The aesthetic choice of language mainly includes the aesthetic choice of signs, channels, language variants, styles, communicative types, speech acts and texts. Based on the seven aspects above, this paper compares geological disasters texts in English and Chinese and puts forward three feasible strategies.

4.1. Appropriate Increase of Non-Verbal Expression

The non-verbal expression in news report includes pictures, videos and so on. Foreign journals in English usually use some non-verbal expressions when reporting, such as pictures and video, which are more intuitive. When reporting geological disasters, most of the corpus in English and Chinese collected by the author are accompanied by pictures. Therefore, non-verbal expression can be appropriately added in translation. For example, the first Chinese corpus contains pictures of firefighters fighting a fire in Liangshan, from which we can clearly see the burned wood with smoke pervading and firefighters are struggling to put out the fire. It is not difficult to imagine how big the fire is and how fast it is spreading. The second English corpus included pictures of flooded roads and villages and the disaster situation and surging trend of the flood showed incisively and vividly. The third Chinese corpus only demonstrates the location and longitude of the earthquake while the third English corpus attached to the earthquake disaster pictures and pictures of the people, their eyes and expression, which are very intuitive. When it comes to disasters occurring in the country, the country will add a lot of declarative language and specific details when reporting. While other countries report the event objectively, they cannot convey the sadness after the disaster. Therefore, when reporting geological disasters, appropriate increase of non-verbal expression can effectively convey information and achieve the effect of discourse beauty, which is more likely to be accepted by readers.

4.2. Appropriate Addition of Emotional Expression Rather than Full Information Transmission

When reporting geological disasters, we first report the time, place and disaster range of the event, the number of casualties and the pictures of the disaster in English discourses. We usually report the time, place and disaster of the event in Chinese discourses, and then analyze the causes of the disaster and the countermeasures taken by relevant departments. English texts focus on the sad atmosphere and people’s painful feelings after the disaster, while Chinese texts focus on the post-disaster pain and relevant solutions and countermeasures. For example, in the second English corpus, the report uses the phrases “around the clock”, which is very visual. In addition, the neighbors whose house is flooded but they are unwilling to leave for fear that their home is robbed. Such psychological thought will resonate with the reader immediately, thus conveying an air of sadness and pain after the disaster and increasing the empathy from the readers. However, in the second Chinese corpus, it only reports the time, location and the consequences of the disaster, and the readers only know that a disaster has occurred in a certain place, but it cannot raise any feeling of empathy and sadness. Therefore, in the Chinese-English translation of geological disasters, emotional words should be appropriately added instead of all information transmission, so as to achieve a beautiful effect and make readers more receptive.

4.3. Choosing Acceptable and Visual Expressions in the Target Language

There are many differences between English and Chinese in the textual analysis of geological disasters. In order to achieve the beauty in news report between English and Chinese, we should know how the beauty constructs and how the differences are. Therefore, many popular works can be created from the perspective of aesthetic linguistics and reception aesthetics.

Phonetically speaking, English is often stressed to achieve the effect of beautiful pronunciation. In Chinese, Yin, Yang, Dun and Cuo (the four Chinese intonations) of tones are often used to reflect the beauty of pronunciation. For example, in the first article, the forest fire occurred in Liangshan. In English, stress is often used to emphasize the core parts, such as nouns, verbs and other content words, and articles, conjunctions and other unimportant function words are weakened.

In terms of vocabulary, English discourses tend to use nouns and adjectives in a static way. However, Chinese text uses many verbs and shows the characteristics of dynamic state. This is mainly related to the language differences between English and Chinese. Such as the corpus of the first English passage, the word “struggling” that mentioned in firefighters putting out the fire is very visualization. It is very visualization, which can embody the picture. The word “hit” was used in the fourth part of the text. It immediately showed the unpredictability of the earthquake and the harm of the earthquake incisively and vividly. Therefore, in the Chinese-English translation of geological disasters, we should use more visualized expressions to achieve aesthetic results.

Grammatically speaking, synthesis and derivation are often used in word formation in English texts. For example, “ill-informed and ill-timed” used in forest fires in the sixth English text, which are very vivid and three-dimensional, vividly demonstrating the unpredictability of forest fires. Chinese uses more derivatives. In English discourse, it often used attributive clause, passive voice, appositive and superlative degree. In Chinese, simple sentences are often used, which are explained in sequence according to the cause and effect of the event. Therefore, in English-Chinese translation, appropriate expressions should be selected according to the linguistic rules and syntactic features of the target language, so as to achieve the purpose of communication and make the language conform to the beauty of language and the reader-based beauty.

In terms of sentence pattern, English uses long and complex sentences, which are logical and clear. In Chinese, simple sentences are often used in order of time or cause and effect. Therefore, we should pay attention to the differences between English and Chinese sentence patterns in the translation of geological disaster discourses and many translation works, so as to achieve the effect of discourse beauty.

5. Conclusion

This paper first explains the importance of contrastive analysis between English and Chinese and summarizes the history of contrastive analysis, then compares the differences of English-Chinese geological disasters in seven aspects from the perspective of aesthetic linguistics and aesthetics reception. Therefore, the author puts forward three feasible translation strategies to eliminate the English-Chinese translation of Chinglish and Englichin, and aims to create translation works that are popular among readers. In the final analysis, it not only achieves the beauty of language but also enhances cultural communications among different countries.

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Dong Mei, a respectable, responsible and resourceful scholar, who has provided me with valuable guidance. This paper is a final paper under Dr. Dong Mei’s guidance in her class―The Contrastive Analysis between English and Chinese. I shall also extend my thanks to another supervisor, Pr. Yuan Sen, for all his kindness and help. At last, I would also like to thank all my classmates and teachers who have helped me to provide the corpus and develop the fundamental and essential academic competence.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Cite this paper

Yuan, S. and Huang, C.-Q. (2019) The Contrastive Analysis and Translation Studies between English and Chinese under the Theory of Aesthetic Linguistics and Reception Aesthetics. Open Access Library Journal, 6: e5708. https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1105708

References

Appendix 1: The Corpus of English and Chinese Geological Disaster News

2. 近期洪涝灾害致使云南6.5万人受灾

印尼海啸死亡人数升至429人搜救工作正在进行

12月25日，救援人员在印尼万丹省清理遭海啸破坏的建筑。印度尼西亚抗灾署25日通报说，印尼西部巽他海峡22日晚发生的海啸已造成429人遇难，另有超过1.6万人撤离。搜救工作正在紧张进行。新华社记者张可任摄。

新华社雅加达12月25日电(郑世波)印度尼西亚抗灾署25日通报说，印尼西部巽他海峡22日晚发生的海啸已造成429人遇难，另有超过1.6万人撤离。搜救工作正在紧张进行。

印尼抗灾署发言人苏托波在新闻发布会上说，截至当地时间25日13时，海啸共造成429人死亡、1485人受伤、154人失踪，另有1.6万人撤离。此外还有882栋房屋、73座酒店和60间餐馆遭严重破坏，434艘船只被损毁。万丹省板底兰县是受灾最严重的地区，共有290人死亡、1143人受伤、77人失踪。

12月25日，印尼万丹省丹戎勒松度假村遭海啸袭击后一片狼藉。印度尼西亚抗灾署25日通报说，印尼西部巽他海峡22日晚发生的海啸已造成429人遇难，另有超过1.6万人撤离。搜救工作正在紧张进行。新华社记者张可任摄。

苏托波表示，缺乏海啸预警系统是本次灾难伤亡巨大的重要原因，海啸突袭时，游客和当地百姓没有时间撤离。目前搜寻幸存者和运送遇难者遗体是当前的优先工作。2000多名军警、搜救人员、志愿者正在陆地和海上展开紧急搜寻。部分灾区急需更多重型机械以及饮用水、食品、帐篷、毛毯等生活必需品。

中国驻印尼大使馆25日发布声明说，使馆高度重视有关台湾同胞在此次海啸中受困的报道，已第一时间向印尼外交部领事司表达关切，要求对方核实情况，全力搜救受困台湾同胞。据了解，目前受困台胞正在当地医院接受治疗。使馆将继续关注、及时提供必要协助。

印尼气象、气候和地球物理局局长卡尔纳瓦蒂24日证实，本次海啸是由巽他海峡中的喀拉喀托火山喷发而间接引发的。这座火山22日晚间剧烈喷发，随后引发水下火山山体滑坡，释放了约等同于3.4级地震的能量。崩塌的山体推动海水形成海啸，并在约20分钟后抵达海岸。此外，当晚海水涨潮也增加了海啸的破坏力。

12月25日，印尼万丹省丹戎勒松度假村遭海啸袭击后一片狼藉。印度尼西亚抗灾署25日通报说，印尼西部巽他海峡22日晚发生的海啸已造成429人遇难，另有超过1.6万人撤离。搜救工作正在紧张进行。新华社记者 张可任摄。

巽他海峡当地时间22日21时27分发生海啸，万丹省的板底兰县、西冷县和楠榜省部分海岸地区受灾。印尼气象、气候和地球物理局23日表示，由于本次海啸并非地震引发，当局没有发布海啸预警。该机构还说，巽他海峡附近海域26日前将有大风和暴雨天气，有可能引发海水涨潮，提醒民众暂停在附近海滩上的一切活动并立即撤离。

喀拉喀托火山位于印尼爪哇岛和苏门答腊岛之间的巽他海峡中，是活火山，目前处于活跃期。

印尼地处环太平洋地震带，经常发生地震和海啸。今年9月底，中苏拉威西省栋加拉县发生7.4级地震，地震和引发的海啸造成2000多人死亡。

6. California wildfires kill 25 and destroy entire town

The death toll in wildfires raging across California rose to at least 25 over the weekend as three sprawling blazes burnt homes and property, forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed an entire town.

The state is battling major fires at both ends. In northern California, the Camp Fire in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada has become the most destructive fire and the third deadliest in the state’s history.

At least 23 people have died, according to the Butte County sheriff’s office, many in the town of Paradise, which has born the heaviest damage in a fire that has consumed more than 100,000 acres. More than 6700 buildings have been burnt and the state has spent more than $8.1 m fighting the blaze, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection told the Associated Press.

Hundreds of miles south, two people have died in the Woolsey Fire near Los Angeles, according to the LA County sheriff’s office. That fire, along with the Hill Fire in nearby Ventura County, has burned more than 80,000 acres and led to the closure of Highway 101, a major route along the coast.

More than 200,000 Californians have been forced to evacuate their homes, according to AP, including Hollywood celebrities fleeing the mansions of Malibu and residents of Thousand Oaks, the site of a deadly mass shooting last week.

The frequency and intensity of California’s wildfires have increased in recent years, spurred by drought and higher temperatures―A pattern emerging elsewhere in the world as climate change acts as an “accelerant”, according to scientists. California has seen the two largest fires in its history in the past 12 months.

State officials warned that high winds on Sunday and Monday would fuel the blazes, making containment efforts difficult and potentially helping the damage spread.

Gavin Newsom, California’s lieutenant-governor, has declared a state of emergency in the affected counties and requested a federal declaration of emergency that would provide financial assistance from Washington.

President Donald Trump approved the federal aid, but also lashed out at the state over its forest management policies and threatened to cut off funding.

“There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!” the president tweeted on Saturday.

He later sent additional tweets expressing sympathy with victims of the fires and firefighters.

The head of California’s firefighters union hit back, calling Mr Trump’s threat to curb federal funds a “shameful attack”.

“The president’s message attacking California and threatening to withhold aid to the victims of the cataclysmic fires is Ill-informed, ill-timed and demeaning to those who are suffering as well as the men and women on the front lines,” said Brian Rice, president of California Professional Firefighters.

“The president’s assertion that California’s forest management policies are to blame for catastrophic wildfire is dangerously wrong. Wildfires are sparked and spread not only in forested areas but in populated areas and open fields fueled by parched vegetation, high winds, low humidity and geography,” he said.

美国加州北部发生森林大火三个县进入紧急状态

新华社旧金山10月9日电(记者吴晓凌，高山)美国加利福尼亚州旧金山湾区北部多地当地时间8日下午发生森林大火，至9日上午已造成大量房屋被烧毁，上千人撤离，多条公路被关闭。加利福尼亚州州长布朗9日宣布，加州北部三个县进入紧急状态。

据美国媒体报道，8日深夜至9日上午，大火借助风势蔓延。加利福尼亚州纳帕县和索诺马县的火情最为严重，圣罗莎市北部一地的过火面积超过1万公顷。火灾造成大量房屋被烧毁，上千名居民和游客连夜从住所撤离，两家医院被迫疏散人员，火场附近多条公路被关闭。

加利福尼亚州州长布朗9日宣布，因大火蔓延，加州北部纳帕、索诺马和尤巴三个县进入紧急状态。加利福尼亚州消防部门表示正全力组织灭火。根据美国国家气象局的预报，旧金山湾区9日风力将减弱，有利于火情控制。

美国加州发生山林大火，8万余人被迫撤离。

当地时间2016年8月16日，美国南加州圣贝纳迪诺郡爆发山林大火，消防员正在奋力扑救。(图片来源：视觉中国)。

中国日报网8月18日电(信莲)8月16日，美国南加州圣贝纳迪诺郡爆发山林大火，到17日，这场被命名为蓝刻(Blue Cut)的山火已延烧了超过120平方千米，8万余人被紧急疏散。此外，还有约3.45万栋建筑物遭火势威胁。8月16日，加利福尼亚州州长杰里布朗宣布该州进入紧急状态。

虽然已有超过1300名消防员参与了灭火行动，但目前这场大火的形势已难以控制。圣贝纳迪诺郡消防局局长表示，大火烧毁了许多房屋，来自35,000户的82,000人被强制撤离，许多人在回到家时，可能会发现家园已经被全部烧毁。圣贝纳迪诺郡消防队员瓦卡斯基说：“在我40年的救火生涯中，从来没有见过如此严重的大火”。

这场山火在当地时间8月16日早上10点30分左右起火，地点在位于洛杉矶东部96千米的卡洪山道附近，截止到17日上午，山火已经延烧了超过120平方千米，并仍在继续蔓延。连接拉斯维加斯与洛杉矶的主要干道“15号州际公路”的部分路段也因此被迫关闭。

美国林务局发言人指出，受到强风与高温的影响，这次的火势蔓延特别快。当地官员则表示，目前仍在调查起火原因，具体将有多少房屋受损还难以估计。

美国国家气象局发出的红色警报称，强风、高温和低湿度意味着火势可能会继续蔓延，而该警报要到18日晚才能解除。美国国家气象局还指出，8月16日山火发生地点温度直逼38摄氏度，而湿度仅有5%。

加州州长杰里布朗8月16日晚宣布该州进入紧急状态，紧急状态的目的旨在动员加州所有的政府机构，以对抗火情，但目前山火仍在迅速蔓延。

此外，北加州8月13日也爆发山火，火势持续蔓延，摧毁了超过175栋房屋，造成千余人被迫撤离。

7. Super typhoon hits China after leaving 25 dead in Philippines

Super typhoon Mangkhut hit the Chinese mainland on Sunday after leaving at least 25 people dead in the Philippines. The storm gained strength over the South China Sea after striking the Philippines on Saturday, with winds rising to 200 km per hour and water surging as much as 3.5 m in Hong Kong.

Francis Tolentino, an adviser to President Rodrigo Duterte, told the FT in a telephone interview that most of the deaths were landslide-rated, and took place in remote, isolated areas. One person died while chopping off branches from trees damaged in the storm, he said.

“In the direct path of the typhoon, there were zero casualties,” Mr Tolentino said. However, he said, casualties had been caused by landslides “in mountainous areas, due to erosion and water saturation”.

Mr Tolentino said authorities were searching for another 11 missing people.

The Philippine news website Rappler said at least 30 people had died, citing reports from police and local authorities.

The typhoon made landfall in China late Sunday morning, forcing an almost complete shutdown of several mega-cities, including Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai. Most flights in and out of Hong Kong and nearby Shenzhen were cancelled on Sunday.

In a historic first, Macau’s famed casinos were ordered to close on Saturday night and remain shut until city authorities give the all-clear.

The Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said early on Sunday that 250,000 people in that country had been affected by the storm.

It said more than 250 domestic and international flights had been grounded due to bad weather and 141 areas in the affected regions had experienced power outages. It said nearly 800 boats and more than 4200 passengers in different parts of the Philippines had been stranded by the storm.

Mr Duterte expressed condolences for families of the victims of the storm, and held a press briefing alongside Amee Marcos, the daughter of the late dictator and governor of the province of Ilocos Norte, one of the provinces hit by the typhoon.

Ricardo Jalad, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Council, said on Saturday that two first responders had died in a landslide. However, the NDRRC retracted the claim on Sunday, saying there were “no actual victims of landslide” in the case, as previously claimed.

The Philippine meteorological agency Pagasa said the storm, which the US Navy earlier this week classified as a super typhoon, had weakened slightly on Saturday as it moved in a west northwesterly direction.

Thousands of people were evacuated from areas in the mostly agricultural north-west of the Philippines this week ahead of the typhoon, which Filipinos had worried might wreak damage on the scale of Typhoon Haiyan, the country’s deadliest storm on record, which killed at least 6000 people in 2013.

菲律宾台风遇难者总数升至66人

新华社马尼拉9月17日电(记者郑昕 袁梦晨)菲律宾警方17日发布消息，台风“山竹”在菲律宾造成的死亡人数已上升到66人，另有52人失踪。

据菲警方的统计，菲北部的吕宋岛山脉区有54名遇难者。另外，在伊罗戈区、卡加延省和马尼拉市也有居民遇难。大部分遇难者是死于“山竹”引发的山体滑坡和洪水。

台风“山竹”15日凌晨在吕宋岛东北部的卡加延省登陆后，横扫北部地区，并于当晚离开菲律宾。据报道，截至17日，仍有近20万人居住在各地约1900个避难中心里。目前，菲北部已有7个省市宣布进入灾难状态。

菲律宾农业部17日说，据初步统计，“山竹”造成的农业损失已达到140亿比索(约合2.59亿美元)，受灾程度是201３年超强台风“海燕”以来最严重的。

据菲律宾能源部门的最新统计，目前灾区仍有多个省份供电中断，预计完全恢复受灾地区的供电还需一个月时间。

作为全球台风灾害最为频发的国家之一，菲律宾每年平均遭遇约20次台风侵袭。2013年超强台风“海燕”曾重创菲律宾，造成6000多人死亡、1700多人失踪、数百万人受灾。

8. Death toll rises to 88 as floods hit Japan

At least 88 people have been killed and millions forced to evacuate their homes after floods swept through western Japan.

Fifty-eight people were still missing on Monday morning, according to state broadcaster NHK, after the death toll rose at an alarming pace over the weekend.

More than 8 m people had been ordered or urged to evacuate their homes and authorities had dispatched some 54,000 staff from the military, coast guard, police and fire departments to assist with the rescue effort, according to Japanese media.

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) had issued its highest level of warning for several prefectures, with some areas reporting three times the average rainfall for July.

中文有视频，日本暴雨灾害造成的影响仍在继续

新华社东京7月13日电(记者王可佳 姜俏梅)本月5日起发生的日本暴雨灾害目前已造成203人死亡，数十人下落不明，多地交通瘫痪、自来水供应中断，灾害造成的影响仍在继续。

据共同社报道，搜救工作仍在持续，但高温天气及灾区的恶劣环境阻碍了救援进度。13日下午，广岛县吴市因存在泥石流等灾害风险再度发出预警，当地救援一度中断。

另据媒体报道，交通瘫痪也使多地救援进度及物资运输受阻。受灾地区多地的公路、铁路被洪水和泥石流冲毁，其中广岛县、山口县等地部分铁路路段预计需要至少一个月才能恢复。

另据厚生劳动省统计，截至13日，广岛县、冈山县、爱媛县的部分地区自来水供应仍没有恢复，约20.7万户居民受到影响。

日本气象厅13日预计，包括灾区在内的日本多地近期可能持续35摄氏度以上的高温天气，气温上升可能导致大气不稳定，易出现雷雨天气，呼吁民众警惕新一轮洪水、山体滑坡等灾害。

日本政府13日表示将加大对灾区的财政支持力度。日本总务大臣野田圣子说，政府将最大程度帮助灾民早日恢复生活。

9. Heavy flooding kills more than 1000 in South Asia

More than 1000 people are believed to have been killed in severe flooding that has swept the South Asian subcontinent, from the business hub of Mumbai to the Himalayan nation of Nepal. In Mumbai on Tuesday, train services ground to a halt as cars and pedestrians pushed through waist-deepwater, while flooding forced the partial evacuation of the city’s largest public hospital.

The city’s worst flooding since2005 was the latest phase of a natural calamity that has gathered pace over the past fortnight, with heavy monsoon rains affecting much of South Asia. More than 500 people were killed in the impoverished eastern Indian state of Bihar, its government said this week. Bihar’s agrarian economy has been hit severely by water damage to crops and thousands of people have been forced to abandon their homes. “People didn’t have much time to get out,” said Hanna Butler at the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRCRC), who has been studying the damage in Bihar. “More traditional homes have been wiped out and concrete homes have also been ripped from their foundations.”A further 247 died in flooding that began last month in the western state of Gujarat, the heartland of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to state officials. The government of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, estimates that 103 more died in flooding there. The spread of the crisis to Mumbai, home to more than 12m people and many of India’s leading businesses, follows warnings about the city authorities’ failure to invest in water infrastructure.

In a city built largely on reclaimed land, there are insufficient buffer zones to allow for rising river levels, according to Godfrey Pimenta, a lawyer and environmental activist. The problem is exacerbated by pollution that clogs the city’s waterways, raising the risk of flooding. With recent flooding in Texas drawing the world’s attention, aid groups have appealed to potential donors in rich nations not to overlook the crisis in South Asia. In Nepal, more than 150 people died, according to media reports citing a home ministry statement. In Bangladesh, the IFRCRC estimated that more than 140 people were killed, with almost 700,000 houses damaged or destroyed.

南亚暴雨成灾造成900多人丧生。

新华网北京7月26日电综合本社驻有关国家记者报道：印度、孟加拉国、尼泊尔和不丹等南亚国家近日来暴雨成灾，截至26日已造成900多人死亡，4000多万人被困或无家可归。

在印度，洪水造成的死亡人数达到535人，另有1200万人无家可归。尽管印度东北部灾情有所缓解，但一些地区救援物资却迟迟不能送达，使灾民生活出现困难。

孟加拉国共有285人死亡或失踪，3000万人被暴雨所困，全国三分之二的地区受灾。该国首都达卡有一半城区被淹，12万多人被迫移居临时搭建的避难场所，船只已取代人力车成为主要交通工具，城市排水系统早已瘫痪。由于缺乏干净的饮用水，痢疾已经开始在一些灾区流行。孟加拉国政府为此已派出3500支巡回医疗队赶赴全国各灾区防治传染病。

尼泊尔和不丹也发生了不同程度的洪涝灾害，分别造成86人和3人死亡。

10. Mexico hit by 8.2 magnitude quake

Mexico has been hit by its biggest earthquake in nearly a century, triggering tsunami warnings across much of Central America’s western coast.

The size of the quake off its south-west coast near its border with Guatemala varied in initial estimates but President Enrique Peña Nieto said it had a magnitude of 8.2.

The quake was felt powerfully in Mexico City, where the golden Angel of Independence―one of the city’s most emblematic landmarks―swayed precariously along with lampposts.

The warning of a potential tsunami threat was issued by the US Tsunami Warning System and covers Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica.

Mr Peña Nieto said that the quake had been “intense, prolonged and very strong”, and noted 42 aftershocks had been registered and more were likely.

“This is the strongest earthquake we have registered in at least the last 100 years,” the president said in a message from the National Disasater Prevention Centre. He confirmed five people had been reported dead but said it was too early to quantify damage.

墨西哥南部发生8.2级强震，至少32人身亡

新华社北京9月8日电综合新华社驻墨西哥城、马那瓜记者报道：墨西哥南部海域7日晚发生8.2级地震，遇难人数已升至32人。中国驻墨西哥使馆8日证实，目前尚未收到有中国公民在地震中伤亡的报告。

此次地震发生在当地时间7日午夜时分，首都墨西哥城与邻国危地马拉有较强震感。据墨西哥国家地震中心最新消息，地震震中位于恰帕斯州托纳拉西南137公里的太平洋海域，震级为8.2级，震源深度19公里。截至当地时间8日7时15分，墨西哥已监测到185次余震，其中最强一次震级为6.1级。

墨西哥总统培尼亚说，此次地震是本世纪墨西哥发生的最大地震。

墨南部的瓦哈卡州位于震中附近，受灾情况最为严重。据该州州长亚历杭德罗・穆拉特介绍，瓦哈卡州已有23人在地震中死亡，分别来自该州5个城市。在瓦哈卡州首府瓦哈卡机场工作的奥雷利亚诺回忆说，地震发生时震感很强，他现在仍心有余悸，“真希望一切都会尽快好起来”。

在恰帕斯州、塔瓦斯科州，已有9人在地震中身亡。恰帕斯州旅游城市圣克里斯托瓦尔的市政厅和一些教堂震后都出现裂缝，市郊一些贫困人群聚居的街区多为木房，建筑结构脆弱，受灾情况仍在统计之中。

在圣克里斯托瓦尔经营餐馆的华人李史战说，地震发生时，他感到强烈晃动，就和家人立即跑向户外。“我住在新区，建筑和道路基本没有损坏，地震后曾出现20分钟的停电，手机没有信号。”他说，当地政府通过电视台呼吁人们注意安全，有人开车到马路边或空旷的地方，不敢回家。

距震中约1000公里的墨西哥城也震感明显，市民纷纷涌到街上。8日凌晨的气温仅14摄氏度，一些匆忙离家的人赤着脚，裹着睡衣。有志愿者在街头分发御寒毛毯和热饮。人们相互拥抱、安慰。不少人不停打电话、发信息，急切询问亲友的安危。还有民众将手机拍摄的视频上传至社交媒体。视频显示，地震发生时，市区内立交桥上的路灯明显晃动，市中心的独立纪念碑也出现摇晃。

据墨西哥官方相关部门统计，地震造成的断电可能波及至少100万人。目前，墨西哥军队已开始在部分受地震影响的地区巡逻。墨西哥至少11个州的学校8日关闭，进行安全检查。

美国太平洋海啸预警中心说，震后在墨西哥萨利纳克鲁斯海岸监测到高1米的海浪，其他几个地点也监测到较低海浪。

另据危地马拉国家减灾中心消息，危地马拉全境震感明显。截至目前，危地马拉尚无人员在地震中死亡的报告。

1985年9月19日，墨西哥曾发生8.1级地震，导致近万人死亡，墨西哥城受损严重，市中心30%的建筑物变成废墟。(参与记者：吴昊、许雷、王玉珏、崔元磊)。