Module 4　Sandstorms in Asia

　　沙尘暴是指强风将地面上的大量沙尘卷入空中，使空气特别浑浊，水平能见度低于100米的天气现象。在古今中外的历史上有哪些严重或恐怖的沙尘暴呢？

　　A short history of sandstorms

　　How often do you think about sandstorms? Maybe not very often.But here we are going to see a few famous sandstorms out of many throughout history.

　　Australia, September 22nd, 2009

　　This one was cruel because it made Australia look like another planet in an entire week.It looked like that the photos documenting the sandstorm were edited by someone who was severely color blind.The entire southern continent was painted orange­red, but people still tried to go about their day as if 5 million tons of dust hadn't blown through their respiratory system.

　　Pakistan, July 4th, 2007

　　On this day, a sandstorm swept through the nation and shocked everyone with its hazy blinding sheets of sand.Everyone thought it'd be over within a day.However, it poured for several days，displacing homes and flooding people to death.Temperatures ranged from 131 F during the day to 30 F at night and about 200 people died because of this sandstorm.

　　North America, 1930-1935

Farmers were very disappointed about this one.During the 1930s, North American regions from New Mexico to Saskatchewan underwent serious sandstorms before World WarⅡ.This was known as "The Dust Bowl" and it struck right around the time of the Great Depression.If you ask your elderly friends about it, they'll probably have something interesting to say.Let me give you an idea of how exhausting and annoying the sandstorm was: winds reached up to 60 mph, and it