高级听力 Unit 8 Part 4

讲述一个经济学家在亚洲考察，遇到洪水的情形。

An Economist Made a Two-week Trip to Southern Asia

M: Dr Emily Brown is an economist from York University. She specializes in the study of cereal production in tropical areas and spends a great deal of time abroad. Recent she went on two-week trip to study the grain trade in third-world country in southern Asia, where she experienced a flood disaster at first hand, Dr Brown, tell us what happened.

F: Well, when I was met at the airport, I was given a very tight timetable which involve travel to the provinces, all over the country in fact, although we started off in the capital. After about three or four days, my very good local guide and we’d be able to go on our first trip to the East because the main city was waist-deep in water and the ferries that crossed the big rivers were unable to cross. So, we decided to go the South instead. Now I’m rather glad that I never got there because the day after that, the main rail link was cut off and lines were dangling limply into a really swollen river, which kept on rising.

M: How did it affect you, I mean, were you marooned?

F: I was very lucky to be staying with a British family in the capital but the house where I was living was quite seriously affected. The first day the water rose about half a metre, and the children paddled in it. Worms fled from it but were finally drowned and then eaten by big black ants which invaded the house.

M: Were you able to get around? Did you have to take a boat?

F: No, I waded, walked around actually. Without any shoes! At first I was told that I was a fool because of snakes and, of course a lot of the deaths there have been because of snakes bites. But we were quite a long way from the rice-fields where the snakes abound, so I bargained on the fact that there wouldn’t be too many.

M: You were, as you say, staying in a rich area of the capital, did you see what was happening in the poorer area?

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