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1、 2022年职称英语考试综合类课堂笔记三十1How a Terrible Battle helped to Change EuropeNinety years ago on a sunny morning in Northern France, something happened that changed Britain and Europe for ever. At half past seven on the morning of July 1, 1916, whistles blew and thousands of British soldiers left their positi
2、ons to attack their German enemies. By the end of the day, 20,000 of them were dead, and another 30,000 wounded or missing. The Battle of the Somme, _1_ it is called, lasted for six months1, When it ended, 125,000 British soldiers were dead. They had gained five kilometers of ground.This was one of
3、a series of great battles during the WWI. The attack on the Somme was staged to relieve _2_ on the French, who were engaged in a great battle of their own at a place called Verdun. By the time the battle ended, over a million French and German troops had been killed.About 17 million people were kill
4、ed in WWI. There have been wars with greater numbers of dead. But there has never been one _3_ most of the dead were concentrated in such a small area. On the Somme battlefield, two men died for every metre of space,Local farmers working in the land still _4_ the bodies of those who died in that bat
5、tle. The dead of all nations were buried in a series of giant graveyards along the line of the border _5_ France and Belgium. Relatives and descendants of those who died still visit these graveyards today. What the French call the “tourism of death” _6_ an important contribution to the local economy
6、.It took a second great conflict before Europe was to turn _7_ war itself. Twenty-eight years after the Somme battle, a liberating army of British. American and Canadian troops took back _8_ from another German invasion. More than 500,000 people were killed. New _9_ were built.Two great conflicts ac
7、ross two generations helped to change the European mind about war. Germany, once the most warlike country in Europe, is now probably more in _10_ of peace than any other. One major cause of war in Europe was rivalry between France and GermanyThe European Union was specifically formed to end that _11
8、_According to US commentator William Pfaff, “Europeans are interested in a slow development of civilized and to1erant international relations,_12_ on problems while avoiding catastrophes along me wayThey have themselves only recently _13_ from the catastrophes of the WWI and WWII,when tens of millio
9、ns of people were destroyed They dont want _14_”The last British veteran of the somme battle died in 2022,aged 108And the WWI is passing out of memory and into history2But for anyone who wants to understand how Europeans _15_,it is still important to know a little about the terrible events of July 1,1916