听播客学英语 138 迈克尔鱼和大风暴

 　　Today, we revise some vocabulary about the weather, particularly about the wind, and we remember the big storm that hit England exactly 20 years ago.

　　When you feel the air moving, or you see the leaves on the trees moving, we say in English that “the wind blows” or “the wind is blowing”. And if the air is moving a lot, we say that the wind is blowing hard, or the wind is blowing strongly.

　　If the wind is quite gentle, we can call it a “breeze”. But if the wind blows very strongly, we call it a “gale¹” And a “storm” is even stronger than a gale; and a “hurricane” is even stronger than a storm!

　　There is a scale of wind speeds called the Beaufort scale. A very light wind is force 1 or 2; and a very violent wind is force 9 or 10; and so on. Weather forecasts in English often use the Beaufort scale to say how hard the wind will blow, particularly weather forecasts for ships at sea.

　　Twenty years ago yesterday, 15 October 1987, people in Britain switched on their TV sets to watch the evening news and weather forecast. The weather forecaster was Michael Fish. Mr Fish is retired² now, but for many years he was Britain’s favourite TV weather forecaster. He was famous for his brightly coloured ties and jackets. While he was telling us about the weather that evening, he said that a woman had telephoned the BBC to ask whether it was true that a hurricane was going to strike England that night. Well, said Michael Fish, he could assure³ us that no hurricane was on its way.

　　And – yes, you guessed right – that night the wind over southern England increased. Soon it became a gale, then a storm and finally a hurricane. It was in fact the most violent storm to hit England since 1703. It caused a huge amount of damage. All over the south of England, trees blew down, cars were overturned⁴ and walls collapsed⁵. Eighteen people were killed by the storm that night, and over 15 million trees were uprooted⁶. People woke up in the morning to find that the roof had blown off their house, or that their car was crushed⁷ underneath⁸ a tree, or even that a tree had fallen into their kitchen. Roads were blocked, schools were closed and there was no electricity. Many people were unable to get to work for several days.

　　Of course, people quickly repaired the damage. Even in the woods and the gardens, where so many trees were destroyed, new trees have grown. But poor Michael Fish has never been allowed to forget what he said on the weather forecast. It was not his fault, of course. The computer at the Meteorological Office (which is Britain’s national weather forecasting service) forecast a big storm, but thought that it would pass further south, over France. Today the Met Office has much better computers and better information from satellites. It is confident that it would not make the same mistake again. I hope they are right. Our climate is changing. Extreme weather events, like floods or violent storms, are likely to become more common in future. We will be able to cope⁹ only if we get good information about the weather.

1 gale   

n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等）

参考例句：

• We got our roof blown off in the gale last night.昨夜的大风把我们的房顶给掀掉了。
• According to the weather forecast,there will be a gale tomorrow.据气象台预报，明天有大风。

2 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

3 assure   

vt.使确信；向…保证，使有保证

参考例句：

• The only ladder to assure success is to work hard.确保成功的惟一途径是刻苦努力。
• I assure you that she can be trusted to do the job.我担保她能做好这项工作。

4 overturned   

adj. 倒转的 动词overturn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The car skidded and overturned. 汽车打滑翻倒了。
• When a bird's nest is overturned, no egg can remain intact. 覆巢之下无完卵。

5 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

6 uprooted   

v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的过去式和过去分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园

参考例句：

• Many people were uprooted from their homes by the flood. 水灾令许多人背井离乡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The hurricane blew with such force that trees were uprooted. 飓风强烈地刮着，树都被连根拔起了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 crushed   

a.压碎的，倒碎的

参考例句：

• The car was completely crushed under the truck. 小轿车被卡车压得完全变形了。
• The box was crushed when the car ran over it. 汽车辗过箱子时把它给压碎了。

8 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

9 cope   

v.(with)竞争，对抗；对付，妥善处理

参考例句：

• He had a lot of work,but he was able to cope.他的活虽多，但还能应付得来。
• They have to cope with a mountain of problems.他们得应付成堆的问题。