托福阅读材料赏析：莫斯科烟雾死亡率.docxVIP

智课网TOEFL备考资料托福阅读材料赏析：莫斯科烟雾死亡率 分享到： Death rate doubles in Moscows smoke, heat 高温和森林大火带来的烟尘使俄罗斯首都莫斯科的居民饱受煎熬 Scorching heat and acrid smoke have nearly doubled death rates in Moscow, a city official said on Monday, as a shroud of smog from raging forest and peat fires beset Russias capital for a third week. Firefighters battled wildfires covering 1,740 square km (672 sq miles) -- bigger than the area of Greater London -- in what the state weather forecaster said was Russias worst heat wave for a millennium. The average death rate in the city during normal times is between 360 and 380 people per day. Today, we are around 700, Andrei Seltsovsky, Moscows health department chief, told a city government meeting. Russias worst drought in decades has spooked world grain markets, driving wheat prices up at the swiftest rate in more than 30 years and raising the specter of a food crisis. Seltsovsky said heat stroke was the main cause of the recent increase in deaths. He said ambulance dispatches in Moscow were up by about a quarter to 10,000 a day and problems linked to heart disease, bronchial asthma and strokes had increased. This is no secret, Seltsovsky said. Everyone thinks were making secrets out of it. Its 40 degrees (Celsius, or 104 Fahrenheit) on the street. Abroad, people drown like flies and no one asks questions. Moscow morgues and hospitals were overcrowded, funeral parlors were doing a brisk business in coffins, and a sign in one crematorium said it was fully booked and taking no new orders. Today we have 80 bodies. We store them anywhere we can because the refrigerators are full, an attendant at Hospital No. 62s morgue, designed to hold up to 35 corpses, told Reuters. Until Monday, neither federal nor Moscow authorities had announced data on deaths from heat and pollution, giving rise to suspicion of a Soviet-style cover-up in the face of criticism of the governments handling of the wildfire crisis. Officials say 52 people h