河南固始縣信合外國語小學(xué) 高長宇 編譯

It is known that clouds are made of water, as water vapour always rises and gathers together.Sometimes they are made of tiny drops far apart and held up by wind.Other times they are made of big drops held up for a while by very strong upward winds inside the cloud.In this kind of cloud, the drops become too heavy to stay up, so they fall to Earth as rain.Or, if it’s cold enough, they fall to Earth as snow.

眾所周知，云是由水組成的，因?yàn)樗魵饪偸巧仙⒕奂谝黄?。有時(shí)它們是由相距遙遠(yuǎn)的微小水滴組成，并被風(fēng)吹起。其他時(shí)候，它們是由巨大的水滴組成的，這些水滴被云層內(nèi)非常強(qiáng)的向上風(fēng)支撐了一段時(shí)間。在這種云層中，水滴變得太重而無法支撐下去，因此它們以下雨的方式降落到地面上?；蛘?，如果天氣夠冷，它們會以降雪的方式落到地上。

Clouds are classified based on three factors, their shape, the altitude at which they occur, and whether they are producing precipitation.Clouds come in three basic shapes.Cumulus clouds,which are heaped and puffy.Stratus clouds, which are layered.And cirrus clouds, which are wispy.

云是根據(jù)三個(gè)因素分類的：它們的形狀、出現(xiàn)位置的海拔以及它們是否產(chǎn)生降水。云有三種基本形狀：積云，堆積而蓬松；層云，它是分層的；還有卷云，它們是細(xì)小的。

Clouds also occur in three altitude ranges.Specifically, high clouds, occur above 6,000 metres.Middle clouds which occur between 2,000 and 6,000 metres.Low clouds which occur below 2,000 metres.

云也出現(xiàn)在三個(gè)高度范圍內(nèi)。具體而言，高云出現(xiàn)在6,000米以上的空中，中云出現(xiàn)在2000到6000米之間的空中，低云出現(xiàn)在2,000米以下的空中。

Many people do not think that fog was a cloud, but it is.It is a cloud that touches the ground.Can you think of another kind of cloud?

許多人不認(rèn)為霧是云，但它是云。它是一朵接觸地面的云。你能想到另一種云嗎？

Notes:

water vapour 水蒸氣

gatherv.聚集

tinyadj.細(xì)小的

dropn.水滴

hold up支撐；托起

upwardadv.向上

stay up支撐

classifyv.劃分；分類

base on基于

factorn.因素

altituden.海拔

occurv.發(fā)生；出現(xiàn)

producev.產(chǎn)生

precipitationn.降水

basicadj.基本的

cumulus clouds 積云

heapedadj.堆積的

puffyadj.蓬松的

stratus clouds層云

layeredadj.分層的；有層次的

cirrus clouds 卷云

specificallyadv.具體而言

high clouds 高云

middle clouds中云

low clouds低云

fogn.霧