澳大利亚山火肆虐 | 外媒新闻中有哪些关于火灾的精妙英文表达？
澳洲山火已燃烧数月有余，the worst is yet to come...
细数过去这些年，震惊世界的大火比如巴黎圣母院大火、巴西博物馆大火还有亚马逊森林大火……给整个世界和人类文明都带来的巨大的损失。
今天和大家分享一些在描写此次澳洲山火的新闻中的好用表达，可用于翻译、英文写作中。
描写烟雾
smoke still hung thick over somewhere
外媒例句
Smoke still hung thick over the south-east of the country on Wednesday evening, even as weather conditions offered a reprieve to take stock of the destruction.
表示某地依然浓烟滚滚，hung的原型是hang，不及物动词，表示悬挂。thick是形容词作状语，体现烟的浓度之大。接下来就要到春节了，家家户户放鞭炮，城市上空烟雾弥漫：Smoke hung in the air above the city.
再比如经济学人早年有一篇关于印度雾霾的报道，里面有句话是这样的：
As winds died, the air chilled, smoke from the burning of rice stubble in surrounding farmland drifted in and the city's thick traffic resumed, the index failed to go down again.
风不吹了，天也冷了，附近农场里燃烧稻梗产生的烟雾飘到城市里，城里又恢复了往日的车水马龙，（空气污染）指数便居高不下了。
smoke drifted in烟飘入……
描写火势
ferocity, ferocious
外媒例句
The ferocity of the fires meant many people were unable to find out basic information until New Year’s Day.
山火摧毁了电子通讯设备，导致信息传递不出去……
ferocity，名词，形容词是ferocious，凶猛的，猛烈的。
在巴黎圣母院大火 | 如何用英语形容熊熊火势？哪些小词可表达“控制火势” 中，我们也提到了这个词：
Thousands of Parisians watched in horror from behind police cordons as a ferociousblaze devastated Notre Dame Cathedral on Monday night, destroying its spire and a large part of the roof.（The Guardian）
还有horrible, devastating, enormous都可以直接用来修饰fire, blaze, flames，体现火灾的可怖。
其他可以描写火势之盛的词还有比如：
rage
外媒例句
While fires rage across the continent, conditions have been especially perilous in Australia’s New South Wales, home to the city of Sydney.
rage [I] if a fire or illness rages, it spreads fast and is hard to control〔火灾或疾病〕迅速蔓延，快速扩散
The fire raged for twelve hours and fifteen people died. 大火肆虐了12个小时，造成15人死亡。
A great cholera epidemic raged across Europe in 1831. 1831 年欧洲各地霍乱肆虐。
rage可以表示火灾或疾病迅速蔓延。
类似的用于搭配火或者爆炸的动词还可以用rip through 裂开，破开；突进，横撞直闯，比如：
A total of 83 homes were damaged in a powerful explosion that ripped through an apartment building in Baotou，Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region，killing five and injuring dozens on 25. 25日，内蒙古包头一幢住宅楼发生爆炸，83户居民房屋受损，导致5人死亡，数十人受伤。
fire ripped through her bungalow. 大火迅速吞没了她的平房。
through还可以与动词sweep搭配，用于描写火势，比如之前美国加州森林大火的新闻：
One of 18 wildfires sweeping through California, among the worst in the state's history, is generating such heat that it created its own weather.
sweeping through California，现在分词做后置定语，修饰one (wildfire)。sweep原意是“横扫”，sweep through California，席卷加州的大火。
另外，这句话中涉及到such + adj. + that从句，太……以致于……，这场大火产生的热量导致当地都形成了某种局部天气。
除了create its own weather，我们还可以用somewhere on fire/smouldering/sweltering 来体现火灾当地所处的状态。比如NBC的这个新闻标题：
Australia on fire, literally, and so are its climate politics
on fire有两个意思。着火，这是字面意思，也就是标题里的literally，Australia on fire，澳大利亚着火了。on fire还有一个引申义，表示在兴头上，非常激动，its climate politics on fire，注意这个politics搭配的谓语动词是are复数，说明politics此处是可数名词复数，个人政见的意思，政客就气候问题展开激辩，大概是这样的意思。
More than 100 bushfires are raging in Australia as the continent swelters under record heat.
swelter不及物动词，热得难受。
smoulder也是不及物动词，闷烧，比如之前经济学人一篇关于全球气候变暖的文章，第一句上来就是：
Earth is smouldering. 地球在闷烧。
整个澳洲也在闷烧：Australia is smouldering.
还有其他小词也可以用来形容火灾。比如去年华盛顿邮报在报道巴西博物馆火灾时用的这个词：
But the fire probably consumed countless other pieces of Brazil's patrimony（祖传的财产，遗产）.
consume此处特指被大火烧毁、吞噬。
与consume一词有异曲同工之妙的还有gut：
原意是指掏出内脏，有引申义：毁坏〔建筑物〕的内部，比如The building was completely gutted by fire. 大楼被火烧空了。取这个意思时多用被动态，而且特别指被火烧毁：
There have been no injuries reported after an enormous fire gutted Rio de Janeiro's National Museum on Sunday, but the toll was still immense.
“灭火”的相关表达
battle
外媒例句
Firefighters are still battling at least 12 emergency-level blazes across New South Wales after a day of "catastrophic" fire risk in heavily populated parts of the state.（CNN）
battle这个词适用范围很广，斗争，搏斗。宾语也可以是病魔，比如：
He battled cancer for four years. 他同癌症斗争了四年。
也可以不带宾语，表示“挣扎”，比如：
I had to battle hard just to stay afloat. 我得用力挣扎才能勉强浮住。
这句新闻中，宾语是blazes，即灭火。
此外还有：
put out fire
extinguish the fire
keep/bring the fire under control
subdue
都可以表示灭火、控制火势。比如关于巴黎圣母院大火的新闻中这句话：
A fire that devastated Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of Paris was brought under control by firefighters in the early hours of Tuesday morning, though officials warned there were still residual fires to put out.
还有巴西博物馆大火的新闻：
But while the flames have been subdued, they stoked Brazilians' ire.就在大火已被扑灭的时候，巴西人们的怒火却被点燃了。
总结一下，这篇文章的要点有：
用于描写火势旺盛：
smoke still hung thick over somewhere;
ferocity, ferocious;
rage across, rip through, sweep through;
consume, gut.
用于描写着火地点所处的严峻高温状态：
on fire;
smouldering;
sweltering;
(fire, blaze, etc.) generate such heat that it created its own weather.
用于表示灭火的动词：
battle;
put out fire;
extinguish fire;
keep/bring fire under control;
subdue.
