英国：冰雨来袭 圣诞不宜出行

 　　Britons were urged Christmas Eve to stay home for the holiday to avoid freezing rain that made highways treacherous¹ and forced airlines to cancel flights.

　　The Automobile² Association warned of "treacherous black ice" in much of the country, the Daily Mail reported.

　　"If possible, stay at home for Christmas where you will be safe," the association said. "If you have planned to visit relatives or friends try to postpone³ Christmas for a day or two and celebrate it on Boxing Day or Dec. 27 when the weather is expected to improve."

　　The bad weather that has lingered for days has been blamed for at least 19 deaths. Thick fog, snow and black ice are expected to hit major roads again today.

　　The Christmas getaway is normally one of the busiest times of the year, but the millions hoping to hit the road today are being warned: You'd be dicing⁴ with death.

　　The bad weather affected⁵ every mode of transportation, with planes delayed or canceled, trains running late and some highways closed because of ice.

　　Families arriving at most major British airports are facing a desperate race against time to make alternative travel arrangements as the snow, sleet⁶ and fog grounded more than two dozen flights.

　　At St Pancras there were once again long queues of passengers trying to board a skeleton Eurostar service.

　　The company is expecting to run only about two-thirds of its normal services today and warned people without tickets to stay away.

1 treacherous   

adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的

参考例句：

• The surface water made the road treacherous for drivers.路面的积水对驾车者构成危险。
• The frozen snow was treacherous to walk on.在冻雪上行走有潜在危险。

2 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

3 postpone   

v.延期，推迟

参考例句：

• I shall postpone making a decision till I learn full particulars.在未获悉详情之前我得从缓作出决定。
• She decided to postpone the converastion for that evening.她决定当天晚上把谈话搁一搁。

4 dicing   

n.掷骰子，（皮革上的）菱形装饰v.将…切成小方块，切成丁（ dice的现在分词 ）

参考例句：

• We are dicing for drinks. 我们在掷骰子赌喝酒。 来自辞典例句
• A lady doesn't crawl around on the decks dicing with the crew. 高贵女士可不会和船员们在船的甲板上来回爬。 来自电影对白

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

6 sleet   

n.雨雪；v.下雨雪，下冰雹

参考例句：

• There was a great deal of sleet last night.昨夜雨夹雪下得真大。
• When winter comes,we get sleet and frost.冬天来到时我们这儿会有雨夹雪和霜冻。