英语听力精选进阶版 9603（在线收听）

Hi there, I'm Leah from the BBC World News for Schools. It's Thursday the 14th of April. 

Coming up. 

?Drought in Cuba 

?BP criticised. 

?And the world's biggest water fight 

First up. Cuba is facing its worst drought in half a century. More than a-hundred-thousand people in the capital, Havana, are having to rely on water trucks for essential supplies for drinking, cooking and washing. As well as the problems of water reserves drying up, the government says up to seventy per cent of the pipes which supply the capital are leaking and are in need of urgent repair. 

Next. BP is having its yearly meeting today in London. It's the first one since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and it's expected that people will use the event to demonstrate against the company. It's almost a year to the day since eleven workers were killed when a drilling rig exploded, releasing millions of barrels of oil. Fishermen like Byron Encalade are saying the accident is still having a devastating effect on their lives. 

CLIP: We are out of work. We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. Our oysterbeds are dead. The claims process basically failed us. Where is this money? The fishermen in my community haven't got it. We're at ground zero. I mean we have some serious problems here. 

Some people are worried about the long term affects on sea life in the area. But Richard Miller, who used to work for BP as a geologist, says he thinks nature is good at clearing up oil. 

CLIP: Personally I'm on the optimistic side. As a geologist I tend to regard leaking oil as quite a natural phenomenon --- clearly not at this scale. This was disastrous, but oil does leak each and every year and always has done. And nature does have ways of clearing it up, which are sometimes rather better than we can do ourselves. 

Next up. Children in the UK are getting bigger! 3D scanners have measured more than 2,500 kids and found the average 11-year-old girl is 2 cm taller and 8 cms wider than 30 years ago - with boys now 4 cms taller, 7 cms wider at the waist and nearly 8 cm wider at the chest. The aim of the survey was to help make clothes that fit children better. Doctors may also change the way they decide if kids are overweight or not. 

Footie next and Tottenham Hotspur crashed out of the Champions League, losing 1-0 in their quarter-final second leg to Real Madrid. A mistake by goalkeeper Gomez gifted Christiano Ronaldo the only goal of the game. The Spanish team won 5-0 overall. Real Madrid will now play Barcelona in the semi-finals, one of four meetings between the two sides in 17 days! 

Yesterday we asked for the nickname given to Manchester United. And the answer is The Red Devils. 

Today's question is about Real Madrid - what's the name of the stadium where they play? We'll give you the answer tomorrow. 

And last up to the biggest water pistol fight in the world. Thailand has set a new World Record when 3,477 people drenched each other in a 10-minute shootout as part of a water festival. They do it during their traditional New Year celebrations that last 3 days. The previous largest water fight world record was set in Spain in 2007. 

OK, that's all from the World News for Schools team. We're back tomorrow.