1. When it really opens, probably in October, the 31-mile Channel Tunnel (the Chunnel, for short) will be 15 months behind schedule and $7 billion over a budget set in 1987.
    当隧道正式开放时(可能是在10月)，这条长31英里的英吉利海峡隧道（以下简称隧道）的开通将比预期推迟15个月，耗资将比1987年的预算多出70亿美元。

2. The world had to wait almost another 100 years for the Channel Tunnel.
    世界不得不再等将近100年才看到海峡隧道竣工。

3. Though in those days, travelling was not as easy as it is today, steam boats carried thousands of visitors across the Channel from Europe.
    尽管在当时旅行不像现在这么容易，但汽船还是把成千上万的参观者从欧洲大陆送过了英吉利海峡。

4. The heavy raids began in the middle of August, and Nazi bombs started to fall along England's Channel Coast.
    猛烈的空袭是在8月中旬开始的，纳粹的炸弹开始落在英吉利海峡的海岸线上。

5. They had the English Channel as a barrier against the Nazi ground forces, and they had the Royal Air Force(RAF) to battle the Nazis in the sky.
    他们有着英吉利海峡这道抵挡纳粹地面部队的天然屏障，还有皇家空军在空中与纳粹作战。

6. Time across the channel: 35 minutes compared to 90 minutes by sea.
    穿过隧道的时间为35分钟——而在海面航行需90分钟。

7. The idea of linking England to the European mainland by tunneling beneath the channel goes back to 1802 when an engineer suggested it to Napoleon.
    用海峡隧道将英国和欧洲大陆连接起来的想法最早可以追溯到1802年，当时是一名工程师向拿破仑提出这一建议的。

8. Queen Elizabeth and French President Francois Mitterrand will ride a train downward into the $15 billion Channel Tunnel today, crossing the English Channel by land for the first time since it was a marsh 8,000 years ago.
    今天，伊丽莎白女王和法国总统弗朗索瓦·密特朗将乘火车进入造价达150亿美元的海峡隧道，首次由陆地穿越8,000年前曾是一片沼泽地的英吉利海峡。

9. He had travelled only seven miles across the Channel when his engine failed and he was forced to land on the sea.
    但他只在海峡上空飞行7英里，引擎就发生了故障，他只好降落在海面上。

10. He said that it would be possible to build a platform in the centre of the Channel.
    他说，可以在隧道中央建造一座平台，