Vocabulary

[Emanuelli]

Hello,
Please, could you help me understand the following words???

a) sun-soaked
b) lake-shore village
c) golf courses are sucking them dry
d) $4bn (What does "bn" stand for?
e) how to keep the crowds at bay
f) gridlock
g) go whale-watching

Thank you very much. I have already tried to understand them but I couldn't.

[mykwyner]

Sun-soaked...Something that is exposed to strong sunlight for long periods. A sun-soaked beach in Jamaica. A sun-soaked cruise around the Indian Ocean.

A lake-shore village is a village at the shore (on the edge of) a lake.

Sucking them dry usually means taking all of their money.

$4bn probably means 4 billion dollars (4,000,000,000)

To be kept at bay means to be kept at a distance, prevented from advancing.

Gridlock usually means a traffic jam where none of the cars is moving in any direction, also a metaphor for a situation where no progress is being made.

Whale-watching means just what it says. People go to parts of the world (usually by boat) where whales are common, and watch them.