Step by Step 3000. Book Two.

Unit 9. News (1). Disasters.

Part 1. Warming up.

A. Keywords. earthquake, hit, killed, estimated, Richter Scale, shaken, measuring, struck, epicentered, magnitude.

Vocabulary. Richter Scale, massive, epicenter, magnitude, trigger, tsunami.

Assam, Agadir, Morocco, Guatemala, Armenia, Spitak, Caspian Sea, Acen, Sumatra.

You're going to hear some of the major earthquakes in history.

Listen carefully, and write down the numbers as rapidly as you can.

1. On November 1st, 1755, a strong earthquake hit Lisbon, Portugal.

It killed about 60,000 people, and was estimated to be 8.75 on the Richter Scale.

2. On April 18th to 19th, 1906, San Francisco was shaken by an earthquake, which killed 452 people.

It was estimated to be 8.3 on the Richter Scale.

3. A strong earthquake hit Gansu Province, China, on December 16th, 1920.

It killed 100,000 people and was estimated to be 8.6 on the Richter Scale.

4. On March 2nd, 1933, Japan was hit by an earthquake, which was estimated to be 8.9 on the Richter Scale.

It killed 2,990 people.

5. A strong earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter Scale occurred in Assam, India on August 15th, 1950.

It killed 1,530 people.

6. About 12,000 people were killed when an earthquake hit Agadir, Morocco, on February 29th, 1960.

It measured 5.8 on Richter Scale.

7. On September 1st, 1962, Northwestern Iran was hit by an earthquake, which measured 7.1 on the Richter Scale.

About 12,230 people were reported to be killed.

8. Guatemala experienced an earthquake on February 4th, 1975.

The earthquake measured 7.5 on the Richter Scale and killed a total number of 22,778 people.

9. A massive earthquake that struck Armenia on December 7th, 1988 at 11:41 am, measuring 6.8 on the Richter Scale.

It was epicentered in Spitak and took at least 25,000 lives.

10. On June 21st, 1990, an earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale struck northwestern Iran.

It destroyed cities and villages in Caspian Sea Area and at least 50,000 people got killed.

11. On December 26th, 2004, an earthquake with magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter Scale struck the coast of Aceh Province on the northern Indonesian Island of Sumatra,

and triggered a tsunami that left nearly 300,000 people dead or missing across Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and India.

12. At 14:28 on May 12th, 2008, an earthquake which registered at 8.0 on Richter magnitude scale occurred in Sichuan Province of China.

Official figures as of July 21st, 2008 state that 69,197 are confirmed to dead, with 18,341 listed as missing.

B. Keywords. avalanche, mudslide, earthquake, cyclone, hurricanes, tornado, typhoon, drought, flood, forest fire.

Vocabulary. strain, crust, knot, whirl, breadth, prolong.

Here are the definitions of some disaster names.

Listen carefully, fill in the blanks with what you hear and study the definitions carefully.

An avalanche is a large amount of ice, snow, earth, rock or other materials sliding swiftly down the side of a mountain or falling down a cliff.

A mudslide is a slow moving mudflow that moves down a gradual slope.

An earthquake is the sudden release of strain energy in the earth's crust, resulting in waves of shaking that radiate outwards from earthquake source.

A cyclone is a storm or system of winds that rotates around a center of low atmospheric pressure, advances at a speed of about 30 to 50 kilometers an hour and often brings heavy rain.

Hurricanes are tropical cyclones with winds that exceed 64 knots or 74 miles per hour, and circulated about their centers in the western Atlantic Ocean.

A tornado is a violent, destructive whirling wind, usually accompanied with severe thunder, lightning and torrents of rain, and commonly of short duration and small breadth.

A typhoon is a type of violent tropical storm with strong circular winds that exceed 74 miles per hour.

It especially happens in the Pacific Ocean.

A drought is a period of dryness, especially when prolonged that causes extensive damage to crops or prevents their successful growth.

A flood is a rising and overflowing of a body of water, especially onto normally dry land.

A forest fire is a wildfire or uncontrolled fire, that is burning in forest, grass or other areas of vegetation.

C. keywords. bomb explosion, ocean storm, crash, snow, hijacker, nuclear reaction, train accident, sunken nuclear submarine, heavy rains, storm, earthquake, fires.

Vocabulary. ski, submarine, flare-up, Bahrain, the Gulf Airlines, Air France.

Now listen to some news leads, focus your attention on who, what, when, where and the numbers in each lead and write down

what you hear in the given spaces.

Algeria: a bomb explosion in Algiers has injured several people in a market area.

Another severe ocean storm is moving towards the Pacific coast of Mexico.

Bahrain: International experts have begun an official investigation into the cause of a crash of a passenger plane in the Persian Gulf.

All 143 people on the Gulf Airlines plane died in the crash Wednesday.

Europe: Austrians have honored the 38 people killed by snow at ski areas this past weekend.

France: The hijackers of an Air France passenger plane has released his remaining hostages and surrendered to police.

Japanese officials say the nuclear reaction at a center northeast of Tokyo has stopped. But it is not clear if the danger has passed.

Rescue workers are continuing to search for victims of a train accident in Northern Punjap State.

At least 189 people were killed in the accident Thursday. More than 250 people were injured.

Russian and Norwegian divers continue working to recover bodies from the sunken Russian nuclear submarine Kursk.

South Africa: At least 12 people have been killed after heavy rains fell in the north.

The rain destroyed homes and bridges. Reporters say some roads become rivers of flood waters.

The second deadly storm in three days is moving across parts of western Europe.

The storm caused transportation delays and forces some airports to close.

The two storms have killed more than 115 people.

The number of people killed in Sunday's earthquake is northeastern Turkey has now risen to more than 1,200 and is expected to go even higher.

At least 50 villages have been destroyed.

Firemen say the fires burning to the north of Sydney are now under control,

but they warned that the changes in the weather might lead to new flare-ups.