Listening exercise
BBC video: Fire winds ease over California
(New listening assignment to go with the new video
just posted by the BBC, on the same page as that for the original assignment.)
Watch the video "Battling the flames" on this page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7061181.stm
audio capture (local file)

Vocabulary:
to drive through
blackened landscape
once-affluent area
Rancho Bernado
outskirts
San Diego
visitors
luxury homes
to be engulfed
wall of flame
California
booming population
to see
upscale communities
to mushroom
to be covered in
scrub land
brush
areas
to be surrounded by
to provide
kindling (wood)
the indiscriminate nature of the flames
intact
to be gutted
firefighters
major problem
to have s.t. on one's hands
winds
to die down
East
to merge into one
officials
it could be several weeks before...
to be fully under control
President Bush
to tour
the stricken area
to be accompanied by
governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger
to declare (a place) a major disaster area
a move
to free up
federal funds
to see firsthand
there's no question
to suffer
terrible losses
behind me
first responder
to appreciate
courage
bravery
million plus
to be displaced by
to start to return
Susan Graham
to dig through the ruined remains
gutted home
insurance papers
there'd be = there would be
no home to return to
to engulf
patio
and that was it
evacuated residents
to queue
to take part in
official head count
the subject of
mandatory
evacuation order
Grant Brice
well aware
what awaited them
to lose everything
to start over again
richest
distinctly
First World
response
all that was missing was
weather
to everyone's relief
there were signs that
it may be "playing ball" ( = playing a game with, interacting with, cooperating with)

Listening comprehension questions:
1. List two other ways to say 'to be destroyed by fire'.
2. What is the reporter referring to when he says, "the indiscriminate nature of the flames"?
3. About how long do they think it will take to get the flames completely under control?
4. Why was it important that the region be declared a "disaster area"?
5. What does the phrase "a distinctly first-world response to this disaster" mean?
6. a. When and where did Hurricane Katrina hit, and how serious was the damage? b. How did the public feel about the US federal government's response to this disaster?
7. The loss of what kinds of things would you feel most acutely if your home were destroyed in a fire like the ones in California?
8. Have you, or has someone you know, ever experienced a house fire? Share your experience.

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