. Useful expressions:

1. catch fire

Suddenly a pan of oil catches fire.

(be) on fire

The pan's on fire.

2. look out = be careful; watch out 用于祈使句。

Look out! There's a car coming.

3. in that case 假若那樣的話(huà)；在那種情況下

In that case, you wouldn't have a pan on fire.

4. sound v. to give signal by making sound

Break the glass to sound the fire alarm.

*The music sounded terrible.

5. belong to = be own by

The fire also destroyed cars which belong to(=was owned by)people who

worked in it.

6. put out

Office workers tried to put out the fire.

7. be/get close to = be/get near to sb/sth

that firefighters could not get close to the building.

8. lose one's life

Over 220 people lost their lives in the fire.

B. Sentence patterns:

1. were/was doing when ( in the past tense) 正在 … 這時(shí)

Over 500 people were working in the building when the fire broke out.

2. it is/was + adj. + for sb to do

It was impossible for people on the floors above to escape.