ENGLISH Reading - 10th form
TEXT
«Earthquake Rocks Los Angeles»
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On January 24th 1994 at 4:31 am, a massive earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale shook Los Angeles. 55 people were killed and tens of thousands made homeless. Many people survived because they weren’t sleeping, but were up, and able to hide in doorways (the safest place to be) or climb through windows, to escape being trapped under debris. After the quake, 14,000 people who had survived the shocks camped in parks or were given temporary accommodation. The twelve relief centers were packed full of people demanding help. While the Salvation Army handed out blankets and bottles of water, National Guardsmen were sent to guard homes to stop owners from going back into their houses to rescue belongings as the houses were still unstable.
Past earthquakes had given experts important information, so the rescue teams were able to use heat-sensitive search-cameras to help track down victims trapped under the rubble. Highly trained sniffer dogs hunted for bodies with their highly sensitive noses. Problems did arise during the earthquake due to the insufficient number of trained rescuers to look after the great number of casualties.
TEST
[Choose the best answer to the following questions based on what was said or implied in the passage.]
1. The text probably came from
A. a diary written by someone from California.
B. a book about the Salvation Army .
C. a newspaper article from another city.
D. a magazine article about where to go in an earthquake.
2. In this passage “accommodation” is another way of saying
A. a place to live.
B. a new job.
C. food and drinks.
D. an automobile.
3. Where is the safest place to be during an earthquake?
A. In the bathtub.
B. In the basement.
C. Under a table.
D. In a doorway.
4. A synonym of “debris” is
A. dirt.
B. rubble.
C. homes.
D. trees.
5. There were problems with the rescue effort because
A. there weren’t many sniffer dogs to help.
B. rescuers did not know exactly what to do.
C. there weren’t enough rescuers available.
D. there weren’t enough cameras to find victims.
