The Violence of Nature自然的暴行

Read about the Gulf Stream and check the meaning of the words.

閱讀關于墨西哥灣流的文章，查找下列單詞的意思。

current 水流

flow流動

latitude緯度 

The Gulf Stream is a warm ocean current which starts in the Gulf of Mexico and flows northeast across the Atlantic.

 It also travels past the east coast of the United States towards eastern Canada. 

It is one of the strongest currents anywhere in the world. 

Because of the Gulf Stream, The United Kingdom and other places in Europe are much warmer than parts of Canada on the same latitude.

墨西哥灣流是發(fā)源于墨西哥灣，穿過大西洋向東北流動的溫暖洋流。它還沿著美國東海岸向加拿大東部流動。它是世界上最強大的一股水流。因為有墨西哥灣流，英國和歐洲其他地方比處于同緯度的加拿大很多地區(qū)更暖和。 

What is a current?水流是什么？ 

A kind of electricity.一種電 

A movement of water.水的一種運動 

A kind of wind.一種風 

What kind of things flow?什么東西會流動？

Water.水

Time.時間

Money.錢

Read the passages on page 23 and answer these questions.

閱讀第23頁的文章，回答下列問題。 How strong are tornado winds?龍卷風有多強烈？

What can happen to furniture when a house is destroyed by a tornado?當一座房子被龍卷風摧毀了，家具會發(fā)生什么？

How many tornadoes are there in the US every year? 美國每年會有多少次龍卷風？

How many people died in the worst tornado of all time? 最嚴重的一次龍卷風中死了多少人？ 

What happens at sea during a hurricane? 刮颶風的時候，海上會發(fā)生什么？ 

When was the worst hurricane of all time? 最嚴重的一次颶風發(fā)生在什么時候？ 

Was the actor Charles Coghlan killed in it? 演員查爾斯 · 科格倫在颶風中被奪取生命了嗎？ 

What happened to him after the hurricane? 颶風之后，他發(fā)生了什么？ What Is a Tornado?龍卷風是什么？

A tornado is a rotating column of air from a thunderstorm to the ground.

 龍卷風是指一個從空中的雷暴延伸到地面而生成的旋轉(zhuǎn)氣柱。 

The most violent have winds of more than 400 kilometres per hour. 

最強的龍卷風風速超過400千米每小時 

Almost all of them occur in the US, in the area from Texas in the southeast to South Dakota in the north.

幾乎所有的龍卷風都發(fā)生在美國，從東南部的得克薩斯州到北部的達科他。 

Tornadoes can pick up cars, trains and even houses and put them down in the next street--or even in the next town. 

龍卷風可以卷起汽車、火車甚至是房子并把它們卷到旁邊的街道——甚至能卷到鄰近的城鎮(zhèn)。 

They can take the fur off the back of a cat and the feathers off a chicken. 

它們可以將貓背上的皮毛和雞身上的羽毛拔下來

 They can destroy houses, but leave the furniture inside exactly where it was. 

它們可以摧毀房子，卻把房內(nèi)的家具留在原處。 

On average, there are 800 tornadoes in the US each year, causing about 80 deaths and 1,500 injuries. 

美國平均每年會發(fā)生800次龍卷風，造成大約80人死亡，1500人受傷。 The worst tornado of all time occurred in 1925, affecting three US states: Missouri,Illinois and Indiana. 

最嚴重的一次龍卷風發(fā)生在1925年，影響了美國的三個州：密蘇里州、伊利諾伊州和印第安納州。 By the time it ended, more than 700 people had been killed and 2,700 had been injured. 

等到風停時，已有700多人死亡，2700多人受傷。 What Is a Hurricane?颶風是什么？ Hurricanes are strong tropical storms, and they usually occur in the southern Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

 颶風是強烈的熱帶風暴，它們通常發(fā)生在大西洋南部、加勒比海和墨西哥灣。 There are violent winds of 120 kilometres per hour or more, which cause huge waves, heavy rain and floods. 

猛烈的颶風以120千米每小時甚至更快的速度移動，引起巨大的波浪，大雨和洪水。 There are on average six Atlantic hurricanes each year and they usually affect the east coast of the US from Texas to Maine. 

平均每年會發(fā)生6次大西洋颶風，通常會影響美國東部海岸從得克薩斯州到緬因州。 The worst hurricane disaster of all time occurred on the 8th September 1900 in Galveston, Texas. 

最嚴重的颶風災害是1900年9月8日發(fā)生在得克薩斯州的加爾維斯頓， Winds of 200 kilometers per hour and five-metre high waves hit the city. 

颶風以200千米每小時的速度卷起5米高的波浪向城市襲來， The disaster killed 6,000 people in a population of 37,000 and destroyed 3,600 buildings. 

那次災害奪去了37000人口中的6000條人命，摧毀了3600棟建筑物。 An Extraordinary Event非比尋常的事件 This is a story about the 1900 Galveston hurricane.

這是一個關于1900年的加爾維斯頓颶風的故事。 Charles Coghlan was a nineteenth-century Irish actor who went to live in Canada. 

查爾斯·科格倫是19世紀一位居住在加拿大的愛爾蘭演員， He then moved to New York, where he became famous. By the late 1890s, he had moved to Galveston, where he died in 1899, a year before the hurricane struck. 

那時，他搬到紐約并在那里出了名，19世紀90年代后期，他搬到了加爾維斯頓，并于1899年，也就是颶風來襲的前一年去世。 The cemetery where Coghlan was buried was destroyed by the hurricane and Coghlan's coffin ended up in the sea. 

埋葬科格倫的公墓被颶風摧毀了，科格倫的棺材最后被卷入了大海。 Eight years later, the coffin was found by fishermen in the sea near his home on Prince Edward Island in the east of Canada. 

八年之后，科格倫的棺材在加拿大東部的愛德華王子島省被一位漁夫在離他家不遠的海里發(fā)現(xiàn)了。 The Gulf Stream had carried it 3,000 kilometres up the eastern US coast to Prince Edward Island. 

墨西哥灣流載著它漂了3000千米沿著美國東海岸漂到了愛德華王子島省。 Coghlan travelled back to Canada--after he had been buried in Texas! 被葬在得克薩斯州后，科格倫又漂回了加拿大。