夏令营：

澳大利亚的熊熊山火  fires in new south wales
 

dear kim,
    it’s very hot and windy in sydney today. in fact, it has been hot and windy for about a week. this is very bad weather because of the danger of bush fires.
    this year we have a lot of fires around sydney and in new south wales. every night on the news there are stories of more houses being burnt down in the suburbs(郊区) around sydney. this year we can see the smoke and smell the burnt trees and grass from our house. i don’t like the smell.
    there are over one hundred fires, and there are thousands of firefighters trying to put them out. firefighters（消防队员） from all over australia have come to help. some even come from new zealand. they are all very brave. i can see how high the flames （火焰）are on the television news. the firemen look very hot and tired.
    my friend michael lives in one of the suburbs that are threatened by the fires, and seventeen houses have been burnt down there. i can’t call him because all the telephone lines have been burned down, too.
    we feel sorry for the people whose houses have been burnt down. they have lost everything they had. the worst thing to lose is photographs and other things that they can’t replace. you can always buy new furniture or go to live somewhere else, but you can’t get replacements for the photos that were destroyed(毁坏的).
 
if our house were threatened by fire, the first thing i would put in the car before we left would be the computer, because it has copies of all the things i have written. mom says the most important things to take are the photo albums(相册). dad says the most important things to save are the documents that have to do with the bank and owning the house.
    we all hope it will rain soon so that the fires will be put out.
    bye for now. write soon.