为了不被洪水冲走,有的人紧紧地抱着树干长达数个钟头。

Some people clung to tree branches for several hours to avoid being washed away by the floodwaters.

Source: Tatoeba

Sentence Composition

1 为了 wèile for; for the purpose of; in order to
2
  1. no; not so
  2. (bound form) not; un-
=3 bèi
  1. quilt
  2. to cover (with)
  3. (literary) to suffer (a misfortune)
  4. used to indicate passive voice (placed before the doer of the action like "by" in English passive-voice sentences, or, if the doer is not mentioned, before the verb)
  5. (since c. 2009) (sarcastic or jocular) used to indicate that the following word should be regarded as being in air quotes (as in 被旅游 bèilu:yóu to "go on a trip")
=3
  1. (obsolete on its own in Standard Chinese) alternative form of (“to cover oneself; to scatter”)
  2. alternative form of (“to cover oneself; to scatter”)
=3
  1. alternative form of (bǐ, “that”)
  2. alternative form of (bì, “wig”)
=3 alternative form of
4 洪水 hóngshuǐ deluge; flood
5 冲走 chōngzǒu to flush away
6 有的 yǒude
  1. (there are) some (who are...)
  2. some (exist)
7 rén person; people

classifiers: ,

8 紧紧 jǐnjǐn
  1. closely
  2. tightly
=9 de
  1. -ly
  2. structural particle: used before a verb or adjective, linking it to preceding modifying adverbial adjunct
=9
  1. earth
  2. ground
  3. field
  4. place
  5. land

classifier:

10 bào
  1. to hold
  2. to carry (in one's arms)
  3. to hug
  4. to embrace
  5. to surround
  6. to cherish
  7. (coll.) (of clothes) to fit nicely
=11 zhāo
  1. a move in chess (Taiwan pr. zhuó)
  2. trick; tactic
  3. (dialect) okay; all right
  4. (dialect) to put in; to add
=11 zháo
  1. to touch
  2. to come in contact with
  3. to feel
  4. to be affected by
  5. to catch fire
  6. to burn
  7. (coll.) to fall asleep
  8. (after a verb) hitting the mark
  9. succeeding in
=11 zhe aspect particle indicating action in progress or ongoing state
=11 zhuó
  1. to wear (clothes)
  2. to contact
  3. to use
  4. to apply
12 树干 shùgàn tree trunk
13 长达 cháng
  1. to extend as long as
  2. to lengthen out to
=14 shǔ
  1. to count
  2. to count as; to regard as
  3. to enumerate; to list
=14 shù
  1. number; figure
  2. several; a few
=14 shuò (literary) frequently; repeatedly
=15 used in 自个儿 r
=15
  1. (classifier used before a noun that has no specific classifier)
  2. (bound form) individual
=15 variant of
16 钟头 zhōngtóu (coll.) hour