Urgent...English

1. They often armed WITH LITTLE MORE THAN buckets and hose pipes .

Here (armed) means (equipped) a tool to do something and the tools are buckets and hose pipes whice are related to water.Clearly, the situation is about someones trying to put out a fire with no efficient tools. Therefore, (WITH LITTLE MORE THAN) in this sentence means (not efficient) about the tools( buckets and hose pipes).

2. The fire has brought a no. of deaths OVER THE COURSE of 48 hours .

The verb here is has (done something) which is (brought a no. of deaths)=killed a number of people in a time interval of 48 hours and will keep doing it. So, (OVER THE COURSE) means (from when it happens until now).

3. For the average person , THAT'S A BIG STRETCH TO PAY OUT OF POCKET .

An average person has some money in his pocket but won't be to much, so the money will always stay at the bottom of the pocket. When you have stretch into a pocket to get the money out, that means you are taking a lot of money out from it. So,(THAT'S A BIG STRETCH TO PAY OUT OF POCKET) means (a lot of ) or ( too much).

1. Buckets and hose pipes are not weapons (arms). The situation is so hopeless and helpless that these are the only thing they can find as weapon. So "a little bit more" is like a bigger bucket, and how better is that?

2. "over the course" is describing the period or development of the fire. It takes 48 hours and a number of deaths.

3. It is difficult for the average people to afford.