Famous Days for Students of English

04-12-1952

It is the beginning of December 1952. There is a Christmas feeling in London. Fog also starts to come to London.

Fog is normal in London. But the fog which comes to London at the beginning of December is different. It is darker and stronger than the fog before.

There are reasons for this fog. 9 million people live in London. They use coal to heat their houses. This coal makes a lot of smoke.

Also, London starts to use a lot of diesel buses. Temperatures go down to zero. There is no wind.

On December 4, 1952, the fog is so dark that people can see only 2 meters. Drivers go very slowly. The air is full of dangerous things. People in the streets must hide their faces.

On the third day, it’s possible to see only half a meter. Cars stop completely. Only the underground is working. People who go out can’t see their own feet. Cinemas and theatres are closed because the fog starts to go inside the buildings.

After 5 days, the wind comes. When the air is clear again, people learn that the fog killed 4,000 people. They were usually children and older people who had problems with breathing.

These 5 days are the worst non-war catastrophe in the history of Great Britain.

Difficult words: fog (clouds that sit on the ground), reason (why something happens), coal (a hard black mineral which people use to make heat), diesel (a type of fuel that makes smoke when you burn it), killed (kill in the past), breathing (the process when you take air in and out of your body), worst (worse than other things), catastrophe (a terrible event).