Lesson 3

Natural Disasters

Look at the following pictures

and what are happening in the

pictures?

Look at the following pictures

and what are happening in the

pictures?

earthquakes

droughts

tsunami

floods

volcanic eruptions

hurricanes

forest fires

typhoon

landslides

What do you think causes

the disasters, people or

nature?

Discussion Discussion

unnatural

Read the text again and answer these

questions:

1. What is the attitude of the journalist

towards the future ?

Pessimistic.

2. Who are most likely to be the victims

of natural disasters?

Poor people.

3. Why are there now more hurricanes,

floods and droughts ?

Overpopulation and mismanagement

of the world’s resources.

4. Why are volcanoes and earthquakes

more dangerous now ?

Because half the world’s population

lives in cities within range of volcanic

eruptions and earthquakes.

5. What could be the biggest threat to

the planet in the future?

A volcanic eruption.

6. What effects might this threat have?

It might plunge the planet into

winter for years.

Fill in the blanks about the text.

In the last ___ years , there are more and

more disasters such as _____ , ________,

windstorms, earthquakes, ________,

volcanic _________and _____ fires all

over the world.

Why are so many disasters ? One of the

reasons is over- __________.

ten

floods droughtstyphoons

eruptions forest

population

__ addition, ______ change and the

spectre of global ________ caused by

the mismanagement of the world’s

resources can lead to the disasters or

make them worse.

In climate

warming

At present, volcanoes and earthquakes

are more _________ with the fast ______

of people . Earthquakes take the lives of

1.6 million

People in the last hundred years. What

is worse, the disaster professionals

predict that the things will get _____.

dangerous growth

worse

Language Points Language Points

Important phrases

1. on record

2. result in

3. wipe out

4. turn on

5. at the rate of

6. quantities of

7. for instance

记载下来的，有记录的产生。。。结果，导致 区别于 result from消除，毁灭

打开，攻击，袭击以…速度 at the speed of

大量 a quantity of

for example

8. within the range of

9. at risk

10. in some degree

11. plunge into

12. on top of …

在…范围内

有危险，冒险

在某种程度上说

使陷入，遭受。。。

in addition

• With 的复合结构 :

with +n./pron. + adj./ adv./prep

phrases /n /doing / done /to do

with + object + object complement

With 的复合结构在句子中可以做伴随状语 , 也可以做原因状语和后置定语

e.g. He walked along with his head down/

with his face red

He is waiting for you with a

magazine in his hand.

With you monitor in my class, I will

be in charge of the class easily.

With nothing to do, I will go to the

cinema .

With his work finished, he went back

home.

He lay there, with his eyes looking at the

sky.

Who lives in the room with the light on?

(1) 他站在那里 , 手被帮在一棵树上。 He stood there, with his hands tied to

a tree.

(2) 他头高昂着走了进来 .

He came in with his head high.

• wipe out:

(1) get rid of / remove: 清除 , 除去e.g. Wipe out these unhappy things

between you and her .

(2) destroy completely : 毁灭 , 消灭e.g. At last, the army led by Mao Zedong wiped out the enemies . A disease almost wiped out the population of the island.

• risk : vt./n. 冒险e.g. You are to take risks to get what

you want, but you must not risk

your life !

at risk

处于危险之中 , 作表语或者状语

at/ take/run the risk of

冒……的危险He saved my life at the risk of losing

his own.

They were ready to run/take the risk

of being taken prisoner by the

enemy.

risk it: 冒风险试试 I don’t dare to risk it, it’s too dangerous.

plunge: vt./vi.

投入 ( 某物 ) 使陷入 ; 突入 Don’t plunge your hand into cold

water.

What plunged the country into the

war?

• result in: have as a consequence

造成……的结果 , 导致e.g. It is their carelessness that resulted

in the accident.

• result from 是由。。。造成的

e.g. It all resulted from jealousy.

1. After the storm they had to ______.

2. Many people in the developing world

suffer from diseases because they are

______________.

3. Our team was knocked out in the

_________ of the competition.

rebuild

undernourished

semi-final

Exercise 6

Complete the sentences with words from the

above exercise in a suitable form.

4. The bomb was about to go off but the

experts managed to ______it .

5. I _____________ the question and

failed the exam .

6. I ________ yesterday and arrived an

hour late for class .

defuse

misunderstood

overslept

7. A lot of houses collapsed in the

earthquake because of ____________

construction .

8. Floods are not _______ these days;

they happen more and more often.

sub-standard

unusual