英语听力精选进阶版 6155（在线收听）

Bad Weather Causes Chaos 坏天气导致混乱

The British usually expect one or two snowfalls each year but the amount of snow rarely affects everyday life. However, this week Britain has had the worst snow it has seen in around 18 years. Some places had more than 30cm in a day.

The bad weather caused severe disruption. More than 3000 schools had to close as teachers and pupils were unable to get to school.

School children weren’t too unhappy about it though as they headed out to play in the snow, building snowmen, having snowball fights, sledging and some even snowboarding and skiing.

In London, bus services were withdrawn for a day and tubes and trains were cancelled. Major motorways in the country had to close.

Many people were unable to get to work and it is thought the cost of this lost labour is around ￡1 billion (10 billion yuan) to businesses and the economy.

Anyone wanting to leave the country had problems too. Runways were closed at all the UK’s major airports because of the amount of snow. Hundreds of flights were cancelled leaving some passengers stranded at airports.

So why is the UK so ill-prepared for snow? The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, explained that there aren’t enough snow-ploughs and gritters and it doesn’t make sense to buy such equipment when it snows so infrequently.

The south-east of England was the hardest hit at the beginning of the week but the snow is now moving northwards where the chaos continues.

More ice and snow is forecast throughout the week and the advice from travel and weather organisations is to stay indoors unless you really need to venture out!

GLOSSARY 词汇表

snowfalls 降雪；下雪

severe disruption 严重干扰

snowmen 雪人

snowball fights 打雪仗

sledging （坐）雪橇

withdrawn 撤回；停运

tubes 伦敦地铁

motorways 高速公路

￡1 billion 10亿英镑

runways 跑道 

stranded 搁浅；被困

ill-prepared 措手不及

mayor 市长

snow-ploughs 铲雪机 

gritters 撒沙机

it doesn't make sense 不划算的

infrequently 不经常的

the hardest hit 受袭最重的

forecast （天气）预报

to venture out 冒险出门