China earthquake: death toll rises with thousands left homeless

The death toll from two earthquakes in China's western Gansu province has climbed to 89, with more than 500 people severely injured, after 1,200 buildings collapsed and tens of thousands more were badly damaged, the official Xinhua news agency said. The quakes hit eight towns in the remote and mountainous Minxian and Zhangxian counties, about 105 miles (170 kilometres) south-east of the provincial capital, Lanzhou, from 7.45am on Monday (12.45am BST), Xinhua said. "Many have been injured by collapsed houses," said a Minxian county doctor surnamed Du. "Many villagers have gone to local hospitals along the roads." More than 1,200 houses had collapsed and another 21,000 were severely damaged, Xinhua said. On Monday the government of the city of Dingxi, the worst-affected area, said more than 27,000 people were left homeless. Photos posted on Chinese social media showed roads on the sides of riverbanks had subsided and farmhouses reduced to piles of red bricks. There were also power cuts, and mobile phone and internet coverage was disrupted. Xinhua said about 3,000 police and rescue personnel had been sent to the quake-hit region, though landslides and flooding had hampered their efforts, and officials said they were concerned more rain could exacerbate the need for shelter. The US Geological Survey reported two earthquakes, the first at a 5.9 magnitude and a strong aftershock about an hour and a half later at a 5.6 magnitude. Xinhua said that by Monday evening 422 aftershocks had been recorded, with the strongest measuring 5.6 in magnitude, citing Chang Zhengguo, a spokesman for the Gansu provincial government. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/23/death-toll-rises-china-earthquake-gansu (July 13, 2013) Task 1 Read the text and answer the questions. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Where did the earthquake happen? How strong was it? Were there any casualties reported? Were there any property damages? Why were communication services in the area disrupted? What made the rescuers job difficult?

Task 2: Match the words in bold from the text with their definition. Some of these need to be written in their infinitive form 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. without a home .. to fall down suddenly .. a mass of rock and earth moving suddenly and quickly down a steep slope .. to prevent someone doing something easily .. a sudden movement of the Earth's surface which often follows an earthquake and which is less violent than the first main movement .. 6. the number of people who die because of a bad event .. 7. to prevent something from continuing as usual or as expected .

ACROSS 1. A ................ volcano became active again and is about to erupt. 6. Among the ..................... after the earthquake hit were many children. 7. The earthquake in Crete was so strong that it was.................as far away as Athens. 8. A system used to measure the strength of an earthquake is the .......................... scale. DOWN 1.

2 4 6 5

2. 3.

4. 5.

Our school carried out an emergency ................. so that we prepare in case of an earthquake. An extremely large wave EclipseCrossword.com caused by an earthquake. The place on the earth's surface where the effects of an earthquake are felt most strongly. Seismologists believe that most earthquakes occurs on ........... . The UK is an area with low .................... activity so earthquakes are rare.

TEACHERS NOTES AND KEY Pre- reading activities What comes to mind when you hear the word earthquake? Have you ever experienced an earthquake? What would you do if an earthquake struck right now? TASK 1 1. An earthquake and its aftershock happened in the province of Gensu, in China. 2. The first was a 5.9 magnitude and a strong aftershock about an hour and a half later at a 5.6 magnitude. 3. 89 people died, more than 500 got injured according to the text. 4. Buildings collapsed and the province infrastructure was destroyed (e.g roads subsided) 5. Due to power cuts after the earthquake neither internet access was possible nor mobile phone signal reception. 6. Landslides and floods have made their job really difficult. TASK 2 1) homeless, 2) collapse, 3) landslides, 4) hamper, 5) aftershock , 6) death toll , 7) disrupt
RESOURCES www.clkr.com http://mapsof.net/map/china-gansu-location-map#.Uis9cT_W3IV http://flamingtext.com/

D O R M A N T R
2 3

T
4

I
5

E S T I E S I S M I
8

F
6

S N A M I

L L

P I C E N T E

C A S U A U L
7

F E L

T S

R
EclipseCrossword.com

C H T E R

Created by Eleni Tsagari