What piece of bad luck prevented the Cutty Sark from winning the race ?

One of the most famous sailing ships of the nineteenth century, can still be seen at Greenwich. She stands on dry land and is visited by thousands of people each year.

She serves as an impressive reminder of the great ships of the past. Before they were replaced by steamships, sailing vessels like the Cutty Sark were used to carry tea from China and wool from Australia.

The Cutty Sark was one of the fastest sailing ships that has ever been built. The only other ship to match her was the Thermopylae.? Both these ships set out fromShanghai on June 18th, 1872 on an exciting race to England. This race, which went on for exactly four months, was the last of its kind. It marked the end of the great tradition of ships with sails and the beginning of a new era.

The first of the two ships to reach Java after the race had begun was the Thermopylae, but on the Indian Ocean, the Cutty Sark too the lead. It seemed certain that she would be the first ship home, but during the race she had a lot of bad luck. In August, she was struck by a very heavy storm during which her rudder was torn away. The Cutty Sark rolled from side to side and it become impossible to steer her. A temporary rudder was made on board from spare planks and it was fitted with great difficulty. This greatly reduced the speed of the ship, for there was a danger that if she travelled too quickly, this rudder would be torn away as well. Beacause of this, the Cutty Sark lost her lead. After crossing the Equator, the captain called in at a port to have a new rudder fitted, but by now the Thermopylae was over five hundred miles ahead. Thogh the new rudder was fitted at tremendous speed, it was impossible for the Cutty Sark to win. She arrived in England a week after the Thermopylae. Even this was remarkable, considering that she had had so many delays. There is no doubt that if she had not lost her rudder she would have won the race easily.

（in order to achive certain purpose):

1. Since we did not have anything better, the sofa would serve as a bed.

2. The fine will serve as a warning to the careless drivers.

3. The monument serves as a reminder of a tragedy that must never be repeated.

(agj. great and admirable)

He is a very impressive public speaker.

Their collection of modern painting is very impressive.

( be taken placed by )

The factory replaced most of its workers with robots.

（be used to do / for doing sth)

The pot is used to cook/ for cooking eggs.

(be as good as, equall)

It would be difficult to match the service this airline gives its customers.

( like that; of its kind)

This is the best wine of its kind.

The car was the first of its kind.

( represent; symbolize)

His second album marks a major advance in recording techniques.

( ships with sails= sailing ships)

era; age; epoch : a special period of time in history with marked feature.

the Victorian/ Nixon/ post-war era

（ have a lot of bad luck/ have a piece/ stroke of (bad) luck)

⑨(occurrence)?一次

??a?stroke?of bad/good luck?背運/好運

??by a stroke?of?fortune幸運地

strike

/str??k/ (past tense,?past participle?struck)

The whole world was struck by the disease.

A powerful earthquake struck the island early this morning.

( continually)

她挨家挨戶地詢問，有誰見到了她的兒子？

She went from house to house asking if anyone had seen her son.

錯誤隨時都有可能發(fā)生。（不時，時而）

Everything goes wrong from time to time.

（ additional）spare time

Have you got any spare change?

( gather)

He knows the way, so he is walking ahead( of us).

You should learn to plan ahead.

( at a very high/ low/ top/ full speed)

tremendous pressure/ achievement

Condsidering + n./that/who/ what/ how

Condsidering the weather, we got here quite quickly.

考慮到天氣的影響，我們到這兒已經(jīng)算快的了。

Her figure was wonderful considering how much chocolate she has eaten.

one of the fastest

the only other ~ to match her

The first of the two

be the first ship home

took the lead

lost her lead

ahead

after

won/ lose the race

傾向性： 用虛擬語氣表達了 his special favour of ~

There is no doubt that .... 對過去已經(jīng)發(fā)生了的事件的一種愿望

It seemed certain that ......