The most powerfulearthquake in the past 40 years caused a tsunami that crashed into coastlinesacross Asia yesterday, killing more than 6,500 people in Indonesia, India,Thailand, Malaysia, and at least four other countries. Fishermen, tourists,hotels, homes, and cars were swept away by huge waves caused by the strongearthquake that reached a magnitude of 9.0. The undersea quake struck around7:00 a.m., Sunday off the west coastof Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. In that area alone, at least 1,870 people werekilled.


網(wǎng)友的斷句有問題，你可能是把 Sunday off 連在一塊看作固定搭配了，是吧！其實，這里的Sunday 與 off 是分屬兩個意群的，閱讀時可在 Sunday 后面稍作停頓——Sunday 與前面的 around7:00 a.m. 是一個意群，意思是“星期天早上七點”，off the west coast of... 是指“在……西岸附近”。

全段大意：昨天，40年來最為強烈的地震引發(fā)了沖擊亞洲沿海地帶的海嘯，導致印度尼西亞、印度、泰國、馬來西亞與至少其他四個國家6500多人死亡。漁民、游客、酒店、住房和汽車都被這次里氏9.0級的強震所引發(fā)的巨浪卷走。周日上午7點左右，印尼蘇門答臘島西海岸發(fā)生海底地震。僅在那個區(qū)域，就有至少1870人喪生。