精读是个很重要的英语学习方法。我们把文本分解找到亮点和难点，进行识记和运用。下面这篇文章是AFP在Dec.19, 2016的对中国雾霾的报道。从中可以学到不少知识。本文分三部分，第一部分：报道全文，第二部分：亮点分析，第三部分：作文练习
这是报道全文。
Beijing - Hospital visits spiked, roads were closed and flights cancelled on Monday as China choked under a vast cloud of toxic smog, with forecasters warning worse was yet to come.
At least 23 cities in the world's most populous nation have issued red alerts for air pollution since Friday, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
A host of emergency measures have been implemented to protect the public's health from the smog, which is smothering almost a ninth of the entire country.
On Monday evening - the fourth day of the alert which is scheduled to end on Wednesday - Beijing's air quality was better than feared, with PM 2.5 levels hovering around 200, according to data maintained by the US embassy.
The ministry of environmental protection claimed anti-pollution measures, such as temporary factory closures and taking half of cars off the roads, accounted for the better-than-expected numbers, Xinhua reported late on Sunday.
But the figure remained eight times the World Health Organisation's daily recommended maximum exposure level to the microscopic particles that carry major health risks.
And the relatively low number was just a temporary reprieve, Beijing's meteorological authority told AFP, adding that the worst haze would hit the city on Monday night and linger until Tuesday.
In neighbouring Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, PM 2.5 levels stood as high as 701 at noon, with levels of larger PM 10 particles even higher.
Flights, highways
In the port city of Tianjin, where readings for PM 2.5 climbed over 400 early in the morning, more than 131 flights were cancelled and around 75 delayed on Monday morning, according to Xinhua.
Highways in the city were also closed, it said.
Several large hospitals in Tianjin saw a surge in the number of patients with respiratory diseases such as asthma, according to the People's Daily.
A red alert, issued when severe smog is expected to last more than 72 hours, is the highest of Beijing's four-tiered, colour-coded warning system.
In December last year the capital issued its first ever red alert since the adoption of an emergency response programme for air pollution in 2013, despite frequent bouts of serious smog.
Most of China's smog is blamed on the burning of coal for electricity and heating, which spikes when demand peaks in winter.
The issue is a source of enduring public anger in China, where fast economic growth in recent decades has come at the cost of widespread environmental degradation.
Chinese censors, who tightly control online commentary, were busily removing remarks about the smog from the twitter-like Weibo social media platform, according to the web site Freeweibo.com, which tracks posts deleted from the service.
One of them showed a headline from a March 1999 copy of the Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily newspaper pledging to "absolutely not let polluted air enter the new century".
二、以下是对其精读分析
1.China chokes under heavy smog with worse ahead.
Choke: vt. vi. to be unable to breathe because the passage to your lung is blocked or you cannot get enough air; to make sb unable to breathe.(使)窒息，哽噎
vt. vi. to be unable to speak normally especially because of strong emotion; to make sb too emotional to speak normally.使说不出话来，哽咽
vt. to block a passage, space, ect that a movement is difficult.阻碍，塞满
很明显此处choke是第一个意思。翻译为：中国正窒息在重度雾霾下，未来还有更为严重的。
with worse/better ahead是个很好的句式，我们可以练习使用。It's a great year for her with better ahead.
2. A pedestrian crosses a smog-shrouded street in Lianyungang, eastern China's Jiangsu province on December 19, 2016 (AFP Photo/)
shroud: n. a cloth which is used for wrapping a dead body. 裹尸布
v. to wrap a dead body in a cloth
to cover or conceal sth. or sb.隐藏，覆盖
练习造句：A smog-shrouded Chinese city cancelled airline flights due to poor visibility.
3. Hospital visits spiked, roads were closed and flights cancelled Monday as China choked under a vast cloud of toxic smog, with forecasters warning worse was yet to come.
with sth yet to come和标题中with sth ahead同义，在以后的写作中可以练习使用。
4. The relatively low number was just a temporary reprieve.
reprieve: n.
1) an official order stopping a punishment, especially for a prisoner who is condemned to death刑罚终止令；（尤指）死刑缓刑令
2) a delay before sth bad happens延缓；缓解
在本句中，reprieve使用的引申义2）延缓。
5. Several large hospitals in Tianjin saw a surge in the number of patients with respiratory diseases such as asthma, according to the People's Daily.
这句中saw是个很好的用法，不仅是人可以做see的主语，物也可以，意为见证。
三、作文练习
可以使用choke, shroud, reprieve, see, with... yet to come/ahead或其变体写一段200词的小文章，任何异想天开的故事或意义明确的论述文。
