新西兰英语 586 Storm hits North Island

 　　Strong winds and heavy rain have caused problems in many places in the North Island and the upper part of the South Island. About 16,000 homes in South Taranaki and Wanganui have no electricity as power poles and lines fell. 600 power lines are down. Some trees fell on roofs or across roads. Shop windows fell out. Roofs flew off some houses.

　　Wellington also had strong winds of about 120 km¹ per hour. One fire fighter was injured² when she was trying to remove a tree from a roof and a branch fell on her.

　　Some airports were closed. The Cook Strait³ ferries⁴ did not operate. Posties did not deliver mail today in many places because it was too dangerous to be outside.

　　The bad weather has now moved to eastern parts of the North Island.

　　Vocabulary

　　flew – past tense of fly

　　ferries – ships which travel between the North and South Islands, across Cook Strait. This usually takes about 3 and a half hours if the weather is good.

　　operate – go, travel

　　posties – they deliver mail to houses, usually by bicycle

1 km   

n.(=kilometre) 公里，千米

参考例句：

• Our speed averaged out at 50 km an hour.我们的平均速度是每小时50公里。
• The car does ten km. to the litre.这辆汽车每升汽油跑10公里。

2 injured   

adj.受伤的

参考例句：

• Our best defender is injured and won't be able to play today.我们最佳的防守员受伤了，今天不能参加比赛。
• The injured men have been dug out of the snow.受伤人员从雪中被挖了出来。

3 strait   

n.海峡，困难；adj.困难的，窘迫的，狭窄的

参考例句：

• The sea narrows into a strait.海变窄形成海峡。
• The ship passed through the strait between two islands.船从两岛之间的海峡穿过。

4 ferries   

n.渡船( ferry的名词复数 )；渡口；摆渡；飞机渡运v.运送( ferry的第三人称单数 )；（乘渡船）渡过（河等）；渡运飞机；摆渡，用（渡）船渡，（船）来往行驶

参考例句：

• Ferries ply across a narrow strait to the island. 渡船定时穿越狭窄的海峡驶向海岛。
• They had only a few Siebel ferries. 他们只有为数不多的“斯比尔”渡轮。 来自辞典例句