节目资讯
刊物:旅游精选
日期:2010-06-23
难易度:High
关键字:deadly, deter, catch somebody off guard, evacuation, proximity
(Music).
Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us here today at Studio Classroom
Worldwide.
My name is Steve.
This month’s Studio Classroom travel destination is Italy.
And, for a little change of pace, we’re not going shopping, neither will we
discuss the local cuisine.
We are taking a giant leap back into the past and exploring a city frozen in
time - Pompeii.
Pompeii was, of course, one of the victims of a volcanic eruption almost two
thousand years ago.
The volcano’s name is Vesuvius, and it’s erupted a lot since that day it
destroyed Pompeii.
So, what about today? Is Vesuvius capable of destroying a city again?
Let’s open our magazines to page 42 and find out.
(Music).
Mount Vesuvius.
Vesuvius today.
The mountain erupted almost once every century from A.D. 79 until around
A.D.1037.
Then it went into a quiet stage for the next 600 years until 1631, when the
volcano once again roared to life and killed 4,000 residents.
It has remained quiet since 1944, the year of its last eruption.
Today 5 million people live in close proximity to Mount a Vesuvius, mainland
Europe’s only active volcano.
This makes it the world’s deadliest volcano because of the great potential for
loss of life in the event of another eruption.
Hi, friends, and wellcome. I’m Chelsea.
And I’m Chip. And thanks for joining us for our third and final day in this
month’s TRAVEL article.
We’ve been talking about Mount Vesuvius, which, if you’ve been with us for the
last few days, you know it’s a volcano.
Specifically, a volcanic mountain in Italy, and it destroyed the ancient city of
Pompeii.
And, the last two days,
we’ve been learning a lot about the history of that eruption when Mount Vesuvius
erupted and threw up columns of ash and smoke and cinder,
and showered the town, which actually helped preserve this ancient city and it
froze it in time.
Right. These archaeologists found amazing discoveries many years after the
eruption took place.
Well, we’ve been talking a lot about the history of this event and Mount
Vesuvius, but now we want to look at Mount Vesuvius today.
Our text begins by telling us that the mountain erupted almost once every
century, all the way from A.D. 79 until around A.D. 1037.
So, that’s about once every one hundred years for several years there.
And then it went into a quiet stage for the next 600 years.
OK So, it sounds like this moutain kind of went into a quiet stage.
So, it was kind of sleeping or resting for the next 600 years until 1631, when
the volcano once again roared to life, killing 4,000 residents.
So here, actually we see that that word roar, and when you roarr, you’re making
a very, very loud sound.
Sometimes, we talk about a lion roaring, that’s the sound that a lion makes.
So here, if the volcano was roaring to life, it is virtually exploding and it’s
making a very loud sound, killing 4,000 residents.
And, I imagine what they experienced in 1631 was maybe similar to what they
experienced back in A.D. 79 when we got Pliny the Younger’s account,
his eyewitness account of what happened then.
And as you see, the next time around in 1631, the volcanic eruption was just as
dangerous and devastating as it was in A.D. 79.
This time killing 4,000 residents, which is 1,000 more than it killed in A.D.
79.
So, this is a very dangerous, a very active volcano.
But, good news, it has remained quiet since 1944, the year of its last eruption.
Now, Chelsea,
I think it’s interesting that our article doesn’t mention a death toll, or it
doesn’t tell us how many people die the year of its last eruption in 1944.
And I would assume that that’s probably because people were better prepared for
the eruption.
Perhaps technology had advanced, which gave people the chance to be better
warned, and they were able to get out of the area when it erupted.
That’s probably absolutely true.
Technology has come so far today that people are now able to better prepare and
to remain safe during natural disasters.
Now, today 5 million people live in close proximity to Mount Vesuvius, mainland
Europe’s only active volcano.
And if people live in close proximity, that means they are the state of being
near a place.
I might say that my house is in close proximity to my office building, that
means that it is close.
So, Chip, we have 5 million people who are living right in close proximity to
this dangerous and active volcano.
Right. And this is Europe’s... mainland Europe’s only active volcano.
So, it’s not just that this volcano is dead and it will not erupt again, this is
an active volcano.
So it probably will explode or erupt in the future, which this... this fact
makes this the world’s deadliest volcano, Chelsea.
Right, it does. Because of the great potential for loss of life in the event of
another eruption.
There are 5 million people’s lifes at stake, and so it makes it the deadliest
volcano.
Now, if something is deadly, it is likely to cause death, it is, uh, likely to
cause people to die.
And if it is the deadliest, it will cause more deaths than any other volcano.
And so, we know that 5 million people live in this area, which makes it
dangerous, and it makes it the deadliest in case of the event of another
eruption.
Well, we’re going to take a break right now. But before we do, let’s go to Ken
and Ashley in the Chat Room.
Hey, Ashley. Are you still reading the news on the Web?
Yeah, but there’s nothing really exciting going on.
So, what’s the latest on that volcanic eruption?
Let’s see...
Hmm... Oh, the eruption has stopped, and so far there’re no casualties.
Oh, that’s good.
Hey, Ken. Are you still reading about Mount Vesuvius?
Yep, still am.
Does your article say when the volcano was most active?
Yeah, it says here: The mountain erupted almost once every centuries from A.D.
79 until around A.D. 1037.
Hey, Ashley. What does A.D. stand for?
It’s short for after death, right? After the death of Jesus?
Ah, be careful, Ken. Lots of people make that mistake.
A.D. does not mean after death.
If it did, there would be a 33 year gap between one B.C. and Jesus’ death - 33
years later.
Oh, so what does it stand for?
A.D. is the abbreviation for the Latin term ”Anno Domini,” which means ”in the
year of our Lord.”.
So, A.D. actually marks the birth of Jesus.
What about the time before Jesus was born?
We would use B.C., which stands for before Christ.
I see. So, one is Latin, and the other is English.
Right. When the A.D. system was introduced, people were only interested in dates
after Christ,
only much later, when history became more organized and acceptable as a subject
of study, did the need arise for earlier dates.
By then, English had become a dominant language and Latin was out.
Hmm... how interesting.
Also, we need to be careful how we use the two abbreviations: A.D. should go in
front of the year, and B.C. should go after the year.
So, we’re now in A.D. 2010.
You’ve got it. Well, I should go shelve some books.
OK.
(Chinese).