Storm in Europe

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www.anglophonie.fr
Storm in Europe
(NBC News – 2010)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/35632633#35632633
And weather is a huge problem tonight in Western Europe where a violent winter storm has killed
as many as fifty people, with Southern France especially hard hit.
NBC Stephanie Gosk has that story.
When the storm crashed ashore overnight, the ocean surged higher and faster than anyone predicted.
The sea swallowed the top of the sea wall and then the waves were coming up the road. It was pretty
frightening.
Four towns in France were consumed by water. Those lucky enough to get to their rooftops were airlifted
to safety, but dozens of people drowned, caught off guard by the worst storm to hit the region in over a
decade. France’s Prime Minister is calling it a national catastrophe.
Water wasn’t the only danger. Violent winds whipped as fast as one hundred miles per hour. Five
hundred thousand people are still without electricity tonight.
The deeper that area of low pressure, typically the stronger the winds will be and this was a very deep
strong low that pushed through France and is now pushing through the rest of Germany and Poland.
To the South, the storm that meteorologists are calling Xynthia claimed even more lives. Three people
were killed in Spain.
The peer has disappeared due to the high sea level. We nearly had a major disaster.
In neighboring Portugal, uprooted trees crushed cars. A ten-year-old girl was killed instantly by a flying
branch. And that country is still trying to deal with a crippling storm from last week.
Heavy rains in the island of Madeira unleashed mudslides that killed at least seventy-one people. Deadly
torrents of rocks and mud buried vulnerable villages. This latest extreme weather caps off an unusually
stormy and brutal winter for Western Europe, dashing hopes that a milder, gentler spring might make an
early appearance.
Stephanie Gosk, NBC News, London.
Vocabulary
0. a storm
1. huge
2. as many as
3. to be hard hit
4. to crash ashore
5. overnight
6. the ocean serged
7. to swallow
8. a sea wall
9. to be consumed by water
10. rooftop
11. to be airlifted to safety
12. to drown
une tempête
énorme
(ici) jusqu’à
être durement frappé
(la tempête) s’est abattue sur les côtes
pendant la nuit
(ici) déferler
avaler
digue
être inondé, englouti
toit
être transféré en lieu sûr par pont aérien
se noyer
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13. to be caught off-guard
14. to whip
15. the deeper… the stronger…
16. a low
17. to claim (lives)
18. a pier
19. in neighboring (or neighbouring / U.K)
être pris de court / par surprise
fouetter, souffler
plus cette zone de dépression est profonde,
plus les vents seront violents
une depression (atmosphèrique)
(ici) coûter la vie à
une jetée
le pays voisin (le Portugal)
20. uprooted trees
21. a crippling storm
22. heavy rains
23. to unleash
24. a mudslide
25. to bury (buried / buried)
26. to cap off
27. dashing hopes
28. a milder, gentler spring
des arbres déracinés
une tempête qui a paralysé le pays
fortes pluies
(ici) provoquer
une coulée de boue
enterrer
terminer
anéantir les espoirs
un printemps plus doux et moins violent??