[00:04.18]Lesson 41
[00:07.24]1.Dialogue
[00:10.89]Jane and Pippa have just returned form walking in the hills.
[00:16.46]Pippa's parents have been waiting for them.
[00:20.40]Good heavens!There you are!
[00:24.76]Is there anything the matter?
[00:28.03]We were getting very worried.
[00:31.37]There's no need to be worried.We're both fine.
[00:36.05]Look at your clothes!Where have you been?
[00:40.41]We've been anxious about you.
[00:44.77]We were expecting you back much earlier.
[00:49.53]We couldn't get across the river.
[00:53.47]The bridge has been washed away by the floods.
[00:58.20]So we had to find another way back.
[01:02.75]Then we had to walk across some very wet ground.
[01:08.49]That's how we got so wet and dirty.
[01:12.62]We had to climb over some rocks and it atarted to rain.
[01:18.29]Fortunately,we could see where we were going;
[01:22.65]it just took us a long time to get over the rocks.
[01:27.69]What's the matter with your foot,Jane?
[01:31.85]My shoe has been pressing against my foot,so it hurts a bit.
[01:38.22]It was getting very windy in the hills.
[01:42.66]Yes.We've just heard a warning on the radio that a hurricane is likely to come.
[01:49.64]That's why we were getting anxious about you.
[01:54.00]Lesson 42
[02:02.96]2.Reading comprehension
[02:08.00]Read the passage to find the answers to these questions:
[02:13.36]1.Why did the hurricane cause so much damage?
[02:19.23]2.Who helped to get things back to normal after the hurricane?
[02:25.58]THE HURRICANE(1)
[02:30.02]On Friday 16th October,1987,a hurricane struck the southeast of England.
[02:38.35]Between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m.
[02:43.11]the hurricane crossed the southeast corner of England
[02:48.46]with winds of up to 160 kph.
[02:53.82]Nineteen people lost their lives.
[02:58.86]If the hurricane had happened during the day-time,
[03:03.72]there would have been many more deaths.
[03:07.79]England usually has plenty of rain every month of the year.
[03:13.96]And Scotland sometimes has very strong winds, especially in winter.
[03:20.44]However,that night was the worst one in history.
[03:26.39]It had been raining heavily for two days and the ground was very wet.
[03:32.64]Besides,it was autumn and therefore the trees still had their leaves on.
[03:38.59]For these reasons,the strong winds pushed over the trees very easily.
[03:45.25]In the morning people woke up
[03:49.69]and found the world outside their houses completely changed.
[03:55.44]Fifteen million trees had been blown down by the high winds,
[04:01.50]blocking roads, paths and railway lines.
[04:06.78]Electricity lines as well as telephone poles
[04:12.13]were brought down by falling trees or branches.
[04:16.78]Many towns and villages had their water supply cut off
[04:21.54]because there was no electricity.
[04:25.09]The people who had water offered baths to their neighbours.
[04:30.24]Many people had to use lamps,as there was no electricity.
[04:35.88]Many people had lucky escapes.
[04:40.24]One woman was lying in bed,awake,listening to the rushing winds.
[04:46.20]A tree fell onto her cottage and onto the other half of her bed.
[04:51.76]One family lived in a house with very tall trees all around.
[04:57.72]When the winds started to get strong,
[05:02.08]the family decided that it was not safe to remain in the house.
[05:07.44]They took plastic sheets and blankets into a field nearby
[05:13.60]and spent the rest of the night there.
[05:17.47]One tree fell onto the house
[05:21.23]and one of its branches broke the bed in which the daughter had been sleeping.
[05:26.69]It took weeks to clear all the roads
[05:31.23]and to mend all the broken electricity lines and telephone lines.
[05:37.01]The army was called in to cut through fallen trees
[05:41.68]and to help clear the roads and paths.
[05:46.12]Electricity and telephone workers from other parts of Britain
[05:50.48]travelled south to help repair the damage.
[05:55.16]They worked long hours for several weeks before everything returned to normal.
[06:01.64]Lesson 43
[06:10.89]1.Reading comprehension
[06:15.93]THE HURRICANG(2)
[06:20.40]A great many parks lost trees in the hurricane.
[06:25.44]Three famous parks in and around London had ovr 1,400 trees blown over.
[06:33.48]Kew Gardens is an old and famous research centre for plants in the London area.
[06:40.25]For centuries travellers have returned from abroad
[06:45.21]with seeds and young plants to add to the centre's collection.
[06:50.85]It has therefore a large number of old and unusual trees.
[06:56.81]Altogether the centre lost more than 1,000 trees in the hurricane.
[07:02.97]One tree which dated from 1761
[07:07.94]was blown over and many other valuable trees were lost.
[07:13.08]Later on the centre had a large number of new trees planted.
[07:18.65]Woods and forests in the southeast were completely destroyed.
[07:24.32]Millions of young trees have already been planted
[07:29.28]to take the place of those which were blown over.
[07:33.83]But it will be more than 100 years before the country begins once again
[07:39.70]to look as it did before.
[07:43.26]Surprisingly,the weather report on the evening before the storm
[07:49.11]said there would be strong winds,but not a hurricane.
[07:54.15]In fact,an expert who was studying the weather rang up the BBC
[08:00.03]to ask if a hurricane was on its way.
[08:04.15]The weatherman in his TV broadcast repeated this to millions of people
[08:10.68]and then said that there would be no hurricane.
[08:15.05]The next day he had a very red face. |