Pontoon bridges built in flooded E China county to ensure proceeding of Gaokao

Severe flooding(洪水 hóngshuǐ) caused by heavy rain(雨 yǔ) in east China's Anhui Province has disrupted two parts of the Gaokao(高考), China's national college entrance examination, on Tuesday.

People's armed forces from local authorities are seen building one of the pontoon bridges in Shexian County, east China's Anhui Province on Tuesday night. [Photo: China National Radio]

To guarantee(保证 bǎozhèng) the exams can proceed on Wednesday, local authorities built pontoon bridges overnight to ensure students could safely reach the exam venues(考场 kǎochǎng) on time.

Two emergency pontoon bridges,125 meters and 300 meters long, respectively, were built outside two local middle schools by over 40 members of the armed forces to offer(提供 tígōng) emergency routes(紧急通道 jǐnjí tōngdào) for examinees(考生 kǎoshēng) as the traffic was blocked by flooding.

To ensure smooth traffic, local authorities also deployed staff and emergency boats besides the bridges to provide support for examinees in need.

Emergency pontoon bridges were built overnight outside two local middle schools to ensure students to reach the Gaokao exam venues on time. [Photo: China National Radio]

According to media reports, affected by the continuous downpour and severe flooding, only about 500 out of around 2,000 examinees in the county reached exam venues on time, some of them by boat.

And the sections for Chinese language(语文 yǔwén) and math(数学 shùxué), which was originally scheduled on Tuesday, have been rescheduled to Thursday (July 9) while tests on other subjects(科目 kēmù), including English(英语 yīngyǔ), will take place as scheduled on Wednesday.

People's armed forces from local authorities are seen building one of the two pontoon bridges overnight in Shexian County, east China's Anhui Province, July 7, 2020. [Photo: China National Radio]

For the first time, the exam, which usually takes place in June across the country, was delayed(推迟 tuīchí) for a month this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around 10.7 million examinees will sit for the exam, which is the highest number since the country resumed the exam in 1977, according to the Ministry of Education.

School subjects vocabulary 科目:

[yǔwén]语文 Chinese language

[shēngwù]生物 biology

[huàxué]化学 chemistry

[yīngyǔ]英语 English

[dìlǐ]地理 geography

[lìshǐ]历史 history

[shùxué]数学 math

[yīnyuè]音乐 music

[tǐyù]体育 PE

[wùlǐ]物理 physics

[xīnlǐ xué]心理学 psychology

[yuèdú]阅读 reading

[kēxué]科学 science

[xiězuò]写作 writing