`[BBC随身英语] Heavy Snow Hits the UK 大雪袭英国`

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Heavy Snow Hits the UK 大雪袭英国

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In London, bus services were withdrawn for a day and tubes and trains were cancelled.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!

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GLOSSARY 词汇表

snowfalls

降雪；下雪

snowmen

雪人

sledging

（坐）雪橇

tubes

伦敦地铁

?1 billion

10亿英镑

stranded

搁浅；被困

mayor

市长

gritters

撒沙机

infrequently

不经常的

forecast

（天气）预报

severe disruption

严重干扰

snowball fights

打雪仗

withdrawn

撤回；停运

motorways

高速公路

runways

跑道

ill-prepared

措手不及

snow-ploughs

铲雪机

it doesn't make sense

不划算的

the hardest hit

受袭最重的

to venture out

冒险出门



本文章来源： bbcchina.com.cn



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