Broken Glass Walkway Shatters Nerves in China

AS IT IS 2015-10-11 Broken Glass Walkway Shatters¹ Nerves in China

Imagine this. You are visiting a beautiful mountain somewhere in the countryside. Part of the trip takes you up a steep mountain cliff. At the top, visitors can step out on to a see-through walkway. The reinforced glass flooring hangs about 1,000 meters above sea level.

Sounds exciting, right?

But then, part of the flooring cracks. There is a loud noise, and some of the glass appears to break up.

That is what tourists experienced recently during a visit to Yuntai Mountain in China’s Henan province.

The glass skywalk had only been open for a few weeks. The Yuntai Mountain Geological² Park said there was no reason for worry and that the cracks had "no impact on safety.”

But online discussions about this incident show some people were of a different opinion.

Glass skywalks have become popular in many of China’s tourist areas. But critics say China has an issue with poor workmanship and poor crowd control.

People joked online that the setting up of these glass walkways and skyways are not transparent³. Others are saying that this is nothing to laugh about. One comment on the social media site Weibo said, “This is no joke. Tourism is taking your life in your own hands. No more of these glass walkways. Just too scary.” 

The New York Times reported that a story about the glass cracking appeared on the social media site Weibo. A tourist claimed that a piece of glass broke and people began shouting “it’s really broken, really broken.” This person then said people began running and pushing people in front of them.

The Yuntai Mountain officials said the cracks were not serious.

The officials said that to make sure people feel 100 percent safe, they have decided⁴ to close the walkway temporarily until repairs are made. 

Words in This Story

cliff – n. a very high, sharply⁵ rising area of rock or earth

crack – v. to break (something) so that there are lines in its surface but it is usually not separated into pieces : n. a thin line in the surface of something that is broken but not separated into pieces

tourist – n. a traveler; someone who travels somewhere for pleasure

transparent – adj. able to be seen through; honest and open; not secretive

1 shatters   

砸碎( shatter的第三人称单数 )； 大大扰乱； 毁坏； 使极为惊愕难过

参考例句：

• Something like that really shatters your confidence. 那样的事情会让人的信心严重受挫。
• His hands are unsteady and he drops the bottle, It'shatters. 他的手哆哆嗦嗦，酒瓶从手里掉了下来，摔成碎片。

2 geological   

adj.地质（学）的

参考例句：

• aeons of geological history 数以亿万年计的地质史
• The workers skirted the edge of the cliff on a geological survey. 工人们沿着崖壁作了一次地质勘察。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 sharply   

adj.锐利地，急速；adv.严厉地，鲜明地

参考例句：

• The plane dived sharply and rose again.飞机猛然俯冲而后又拉了起来。
• Demand for personal computers has risen sharply.对个人电脑的需求急剧增长。