Living in the Valley

We had been living in our valley for sixteen months when we first realised the dangers that could exist in the surrounding hills and threaten our very survival. Until that time, we had felt safe and sheltered in our valley below the protecting hills.

Soon snow began to fall. Within a day it lay some 15 centimetres deep. It almost completely blocked out the lane and made the streamside path slippery and dangerous. But on the neighbouring heights the snow was much deeper and stayed for longer. Up there the wind was fierce. 【小题1】

And yet we knew that there was reason for us to worry. The snow and wind were certainly inconvenient but they did not really trouble us greatly. 【小题2】 It reminded us of what could have occurred if circumstances had been different if the flow of water from the hills had not, many years before, been controlled, held back by a series of dams.

In a short time the snow started to melt. Day after day, we watched clouds pile up high over the hills to the west Grey clouds extended over the valleys. 【小题3】 We had seen enough of the sky; now we began to watch the river, which every day was becoming fuller and wilder

The snow was gradually washed away as more and more rain streamed from the clouds, but high up in the hills the reservoir (水库) was filling and was fast approaching danger level. And then it happened—for the first time in years the reservoir overflowed. There in the heights it was like the Niagara Falls, as the water flowed over the edge of the dam and poured into the stream below.

【小题4】 Just a couple of metres from our hut the stream seemed wild beneath the bridge. It was far deeper than we’d ever seen it so near our home, angrily striking its banks. For three days we prayed that it would stay below its walk. Fortunately, our prayers were answered as the dam held and the waters began to withdraw.