新视野大学英语视听说教程第四册 Unit 3 MODEL3 This is the island that disappeared
Susan: Just look at that sky. Aren’t the twilight colors beautiful?
John: Um. Even heard of the famous sunsets that followed the Krakatoa volcano eruption?
Susan: Do you mean the Pacific island that blew up in the eighteen hundreds?
John: Yeah. Deep red sunsets appeared on the horizon for the three years after the explosion.
Susan: They were caused by the fine dust that spread through the earth’s atmosphere.
John: People 5,000 kilometers away from Krakatoa reported hearing the enormous blast.
Susan: And ashes even fell on Singapore, more than 500 kilometers to the north.
John: As I remember, two thirds of the island simply disappeared, blown to bits.
Susan: And then giant sea waves followed, killing more than 40,000 people who lived there.
John: Apparently the biggest of those waves traveled 4,000 kilometers in just 12 hours.
Susan: I don’t think there’s ever been another natural disaster quite like it, do you?
John: A mountain called Vesuvius erupted, burying the nearby town of Pompeii in ashes; but that was in a smaller scale.
