高等学校研究生英语系列教材(听说教程)(上)Unit6.pptVIP

Ice-storm Numbers Tell Chilling Tale In January 1998, three successive storms dropped more than 4 inches of freezing rain in areas of New England and southern Canada. About 100,000 people had to take refuge in shelters, while the Red Cross raised more than $10 million to help the victims. The ice brought down more than 1,000 power transmission towers and 30,000 wooden utility poles. Nearly 1,7 million customers lost their electricity, in some areas for weeks. More than one-third of all farmland in the region was affected. Nearly 5.3 million sugar-maple trees were in the path of the storm, and it make 30 to 40 years for maple syrup production to return to normal. The hardest hit were dairy farmers, as nearly one-quarter of Canada’s cows were subjected to the storm. The ones that survived may never reach their previous level of production. Furthermore, 2.5 million gallons of milk, valued at more than $5 million, had to be dumped because there was no electricity. T: I’m Tony Brown from the local newspaper. Now, what was the purpose of the first modern zoos? A: Well, those zoos were A2) the only places people could really see wild animals. T: And today that’s changed, right? A: Well, on the one hand, zoos are still the places for people to see live wild animals up close. B1)Seeing an animal touches people, especially young people. Most zoos today have great educational exhibits. On the other hand, now we can watch TV programs about animals living in the wild. T: Do you think zoos are good places for wild animals to live in? A: Well, in some cases, yes. You see, B2) we can build better cages, or enclosures, for the animals. In the bear’s enclosure, for example, we recreate the forest with different kinds of plants, tree trunks, rocks, and waterfalls. T: Do you think the animal feel as if it were right at home? A: No, probably not, but we try to