The British usually expect one or two snowfalls each year but the amount of snow rarely affects everyday life. However, this week Britain has had the worst snow it has seen in around 18 years. Some places had more than 30cm in a day.

The bad weather caused severe disruption. More than 3000 schools had to close as teachers and pupils were unable to get to school.

School children weren鈥檛 too unhappy about it though as they headed out to play in the snow, building snowmen, having snowball fights, sledging and some even snowboarding and skiing.

In London, bus services were withdrawn for a day and tubes and trains were cancelled. Major motorways in the country had to close.

Many people were unable to get to work and it is thought the cost of this lost labour is around 拢1 billion (10 billion yuan) to businesses and the economy.

Anyone wanting to leave the country had problems too. Runways were closed at all the UK鈥檚 major airports because of the amount of snow. Hundreds of flights were cancelled leaving some passengers stranded at airports.

So why is the UK so ill-prepared for snow? The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, explained that there aren鈥檛 enough snow-ploughs and gritters and it doesn鈥檛 make sense to buy such equipment when it snows so infrequently.

The south-east of England was the hardest hit at the beginning of the week but the snow is now moving northwards where the chaos continues.

More ice and snow is forecast throughout the week and the advice from travel and weather organisations is to stay indoors unless you really need to venture out!

• amount [ə´maunt]   n.总数；数量 v.合计   (初中英语单词)
• rarely [´reəli]   ad.难得；非凡地   (初中英语单词)
• severe [si´viə]   a.严厉的；苛刻的   (初中英语单词)
• unable [ʌn´eibəl]   a.不能的；无能为力的   (初中英语单词)
• unhappy [ʌn´hæpi]   a.不幸的；不快乐的   (初中英语单词)
• economy [i´kɔnəmi]   n.经济；机制；组织   (初中英语单词)
• equipment [i´kwipmənt]   n.装备，设备   (初中英语单词)
• beginning [bi´giniŋ]   n.开始，开端；起源   (初中英语单词)
• venture [´ventʃə]   n.投机 v.冒险；敢于   (初中英语单词)
• everyday [´evridei]   a.每日的，日常的   (高中英语单词)
• billion [´biljən]   num.万亿   (高中英语单词)
• indoors [,in´dɔ:z]   ad.在屋里   (高中英语单词)
• withdrawn [wið´drɔ:n]   withdraw过去分词   (英语四级单词)
• wanting [´wɔntiŋ, wɑ:n-]   a.短缺的；不足的   (英语六级单词)
• forecast [´fɔ:kɑ:st]   vt.&n.预测；预报   (英语六级单词)