多功能英语阅读04 The Summer Storm（在线收听）

The summer weather this year has been even more unexpredictable than usual. Yesterday was no exception.

My day at work had not gone pariticularly well and I returned home in a bit of a mood. My parents are staying for a few

days and they were watching soccer on the TV with my son,so I decided that I should take myself away for a touch of

isolation therapy by reading a book in my bedroom.

I sat in an inflatable chair in my bedroom. It's big,but very, very comfortable. After about half an hour, it got dark

to read in the natural light, so I got up to turn on the main light. It was then that I noticed the flashes of distant

lightening.

Now, I really love thunderstorms, there is something about the danger of the lightening, the roar of the thunder

combining with the sounds of heavy rain. Most of all there is the smell of cold rain upon hot dry earth.

Long since broken of the habits of going outside to walk in the teeth of the storm, I moved my inflatable chair up onto

the bed, opened the windows and turned off the lights. In fact I didn't need to bother, a few moments later the power to

the whole neighborhood went off, plunging us all into darkness.

Climbing up onto my comfy chair, I positioned myself so that one bare foot poked out of each side of the open window.

Slowly the breeze through the open window increased and sent a wonderful cooling sensation over my bare feet and legs.

The storm got closer, heading straight towards my window.

Although only a matter of minutes after sunset, the dark clouds had plunged everything into night. The lack of any

streetlight only heightened my anticipation of the approaching storm.

Lightening split the clouds. Thick forked baldes of white light first went down to the earth and then a fraction of a

second later headed back up into the heavy cloud. The cloud itself lit up and flickered for a few seconds like a faulty

tube. The tension built for ten seconds and then the noise of the thunder drifted to my ears.

The storms got closer.

The lightening strikes seemed to augment in frequency. The thunder changed too. No longer a lazy growl, it slowly became

so loud and powerful that I swore that I could feet shock waves rustling through my house.

The lightening and the thunder slowly became synchronized. When I was a child I counted the seconds between the flashes

and the roars. Wher it was barely a querter of a mile from the house, the hairs on my legs started to quiver and stand

up, excited by the static electricity in the air and my growing excitement.

Then it started to rain. Huge drops of cold rain started to fall. It looked like a gray sheet was being pulled across

the land and sounded like the approach of a wildly clapping audience, appreciative of the strom. The first big drops of

rain hit my feet. The wonderful fresh smell of dry earth being baptized by cold rain reached my nose.

Lightening and thunder were now as one. The lightening so bright that my eyes took a few seconds to adjust back to the

gloom. The thunder was now so loudly that it was almost as much felt as heard. I sat back and relished the greatest free

show that nature can provide. Just when I thought the storm had passed,ir provided a brief encore. A lightening flash

that forked and snaked from left to right to light up the sky like a roadmap was accompanied by a thunderclap that

seemed to rattle the window.

All at once the show ended. The lightening now at my back provided only flashes of light. The thunder returned to its

growling beginnings. At once the rain stopped as quickly as it began. The electricity company restored the power and

raised the houselight as a final signal that the show had ended.

Once I was sure that there was no second encore, I rose to get a towel to dry both the chair and myself. My mother was

standing in the doorway, openmouthed.

All I said was,"Mum, I'm not weired, don't worry!"