Lily的Scalers Talk第八轮新概念朗读持续力训练Da

Lesson25-1 The Cutty Sark

One of the most famous sailing ships of the nineteenth century, the Cutty Sark, can still be seen at Greenwich. She stands on dry land and is visited by thousands of people each year. She serves as an impressive reminder of the great ships of past.

Before they were replaced by steamships, sailing vessels like the Cutty Sark were used to carry tea from China and wool from Australia. The Cutty Sark was one the fastest sailing ships that has ever been built. The only other ship to match her was the Thermopylae. Both these ships set out from Shanghai on June 18th, 1872 on an exciting race to England. This race, which went on for exactly four exactly four months, was the last of its kind. It marked the end of the great tradition of ships with sails and the beginning of a new era.

The first of the two ships to reach Java after the race had begun was the Thermopylae, but on the Indian Ocean, the Cutty Sark took lead. It seemed certain that she would be the first ship home, but during the race she had a lot of bad luck.

impressive [ɪmˈpresɪv] 给人深刻印象的

steamship  蒸汽轮船

vessel [ˈvesl] 轮船、大木船

era [ˈɪrə] 时期、时代

take the lead  领先 ，  lose the lead  失去领先地位

这一课的生词比较少，句型也不难，通篇读下来不太费力气。一会儿再路上再多听几遍。