-
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Hi, I'm Carl A zuz, news out of South America leading off today's show. Hugo Chavez, the long time leader of Venezuela has died. Chavez was born in Venezuela in 1954, in 1998, he was elected president, the youngest one in Venezuela's history. He was reelected in 2000, 2006 and 2012, Chavez was controversial, he spoke2 out against the United States and other countries. Even fighting cancer in recent years, traveling to Cuba for medical treatments. Venezuela' svice president announced the death of Hugo Chavez yesterday afternoon.
Next up today, we're turning to WallStreet, a new record set yesterday by the Dow Jones industrial average. The Dow, not the entire stock market, it's a group of 30 major stocks, but it gives an idea of how the entire stock market is doing. Here is a look at the last several years, in 2007, the Dow started dropping, it bottomed down in 2009,then it started going back up. Yesterday when the stock market closed, the Doww as at a new all time high. The Dow was one factor that experts used to figure out how the entire country's economy is doing. The Dow is doing well, the economy is still struggling, what's the deal?
One possible explanation is that investors3 don't have a lot of opportunities to make money in other way. So the stock market is kind of the best game in town.
At the start of this week, we reported on a sinkhole that formed underneath4 a house in Florida. Workers have finished tearing down that house and now we can see the actual hole. That's it, about 20 feet wide,more than 50 feet deep. This opened up underneath a bedroom and swallowed one man up. In that's same report in Monday's show, we talked about how and why a lot of sinkholes show up in Florida.This one formed on Monday just three miles away from the first sinkhole. It'snot as big, 12 feet across, four to five feet deep; it's between two houses, so it didn't casue any damage.
David Mattingly had the chance to go in side a sinkhole, this is what found.
A massive sinkhole, carved out of solid limestone5 by drops of water, so this is what a sinkhole looks like from the inside.
From the inside, yes, before you fill it up with the sand and dirt.
And if someone were living right on top of this, they'd be at risk.
Yes.
Geologist6 Jerry Black says Sunshine state home owners might be surprise to find out just how common these are.
Rain waters going to turn into ground water and that's what's naturally acidic, that's the device that dissolves the limestone. And will help create this cavities.
What is unusual about this sinkhole? It's easy to get inside, called the "Devil's Den1", it's opened to tourists for viewing and diving. And dive instructor7 Prince Johnson takes me under for a look. I find that this seemingly placid8 pool of water is anything but.
The waters has gone down consider ably because of the aquifer9, and but it is also risen, when we've had hurricanes and tropical storms, it has risen another 45 feet.
45 feet?
45 feet, so the water is constantly going up and down?
Depending on drought and hurricane.
Down here, it's easy to see how fluctuating groundwater has silently wreak10 havoc11, I pass by limestone boulders12, as big as cars, sitting on the bottom, and these same forces are still at work,compounded by the demand for fresh water. Perhaps most striking to me, how appearances of these sinkholes are so misleading? A single beam of sunlight reveals the cavern13 is even bigger below the waterline, with tunnels and passageways carved deep into the darkness. But most disturbing could be the view from up top. The round open is deceptively small, little indication of the cavern that's just beneath my feet.
Until a hole like this opens up, there is really no warning, is there?
Correct, it is that random14 and that sudden,and it could happen obvbiously overnight or at any time.
It can and it does, with thousands of sinkholes opening up in Florida every year.
David Mattingly, CNN, Florida.
点击收听单词发音
1 den | |
n.兽穴;秘密地方;安静的小房间,私室 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 investors | |
n.投资者,出资者( investor的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 underneath | |
adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 limestone | |
n.石灰石 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 geologist | |
n.地质学家 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 instructor | |
n.指导者,教员,教练 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 placid | |
adj.安静的,平和的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 aquifer | |
n.含水土层 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 wreak | |
v.发泄;报复 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 havoc | |
n.大破坏,浩劫,大混乱,大杂乱 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 boulders | |
n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 );巨砾;(受水或天气侵蚀而成的)巨石;漂砾 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 cavern | |
n.洞穴,大山洞 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 random | |
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
参考例句: |
|
|