Take Away English-Rainy Britain 阴雨的英国

Umbrellas are useful when it rains!

Britain is famous around the world for its rainy weather, but many parts of the country this June are experiencing much more rain than they have ever seen before.

Torrential downpours have caused rivers to burst their banks, roads have been closed and many people have been evacuated¹ from their homes because of the floods.

The worst hit area seems to be the north of England. There have even been fatalities² as people got stuck in the rain or were washed away by the floodwaters.

Flood warnings have been issued in many parts of the UK and it is said that over a month's worth of rain has fallen in just the last couple of days.

The rain has also caused chaos³ at some of Britain's famous June events. The Glastonbury festival is a four-day-long outdoor music festival and while it is traditionally quite rainy and muddy there, this year was particularly bad.

Everyone was wearing wellies and there have been many pictures in the newspapers of people covered from head to toe in mud. It rained throughout the festival and with more than 170,000 revellers walking around and camping on the grounds, it didn't take long for the site to turn into a mud bath.

June also sees the start of the Wimbledon tennis tournament. The start of play on the first day was delayed by half an hour or so because of the rain and had to be halted⁴ again mid-afternoon for a couple of hours. There are no floods in the London region⁵ though, just frequent showers.

So while the British would like to have glorious⁶ sunshine during the summer months, the rain continues to fall in most areas. People in Britain are used to having unpredictable weather – cold rainy summer days and warmer winter months. However this amount of rain and devastation⁷ is even more unexpected⁸.

People can only hope that the rain will stop soon and the sun will come out, so they can eventually start to enjoy a nicer summer.

GLOSSARY 词汇表
torrential downpours 暴雨；倾盆大雨 evacuated 疏散 worst hit 首打击最严重的 washed away 被冲走 a month's worth 够用(值)一个月的 muddy 泥泞的 revellers 喜欢凑热闹的人 delayed 被拖延 frequent showers 经常性的阵雨 unpredictable 难预测的	to burst their banks 决堤 floods 洪水 fatalities 死亡(事故) issued 发布 chaos 混乱 wellies 惠灵顿长靴 a mud bath 泥澡 halted 停顿；停止 glorious sunshine 灿烂的阳光 devastation 毁灭性的破坏

 

1 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

2 fatalities   

n.恶性事故( fatality的名词复数 )；死亡；致命性；命运

参考例句：

• Several people were injured, but there were no fatalities. 有几个人受伤，但没有人死亡。
• The accident resulted in fatalities. 那宗意外道致多人死亡。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

4 halted   

v.（使）停下来( halt的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The terrorists have halted their bloody campaign of violence. 恐怖分子已经停止了他们凶残的暴力活动。
• She walked towards him and then halted. 她向他走去，然后停下。

5 region   

n.地区，地带，区域；范围，幅度

参考例句：

• The students went to study the geology of that region.学生们去研究那个地区的地质情况。
• It is unusual to see snow in this region.这个地区难得见到雪。

6 glorious   

adj.美丽的，辉煌的；荣耀的

参考例句：

• It is a glorious thing to die for the people.为人民而死，虽死犹荣！
• We had a glorious time at the seaside.我们在海边度过了愉快的时光。

7 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 unexpected   

adj.想不到的，意外的

参考例句：

• I always keep some good wine in for unexpected guests.我总保存些好酒，用来招待不速之客。
• His promotion was unexpected.他的升迁出人意料。