TSUNAMI HITS ASIA: OVER 6,500 DEAD

The most powerful earthquake in the past 40 years caused a tsunami that crashed into coastlines across Asia yesterday,     1     (kill) more than 6,500 people in Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and at least four other countries. Fishermen, tourists, hotels, homes, and cars     2     (sweep) away by huge waves     3     (cause) by the strong earthquake     4     reached a magnitude of 9.0. The undersea quake struck around 7:00 a.m., Sunday off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. In that area alone, at least 1,870 people were killed.

In Sri Lanka, some 1,600 kilometres west of the quake centre, the number of deaths stood     5     2,498, and one million more were affected by the tsunami, government officials said. Indian officials said as many as 1,900 had been killed along the southern coast. Another 254 were found dead in Thailand and 54 in three other countries. In southern Thailand, 1,900 people were hurt and many more were missing, local officials said. “I was having breakfast with my three children when water started filling my home. We had to leave everything and run to     6     (safe),” said Chandra Theeravit,     7     local Thai woman.

Thousands of people are still missing, and the number of deaths is expected     8     (grow) even     9     (high) over the next few days. Foreign aid is being organized for the tsunami-hit countries.     10    , dangerous conditions and damaged roads will make it difficult to deliver food and supplies.

Last Friday a storm hit two villages,     1    (destroy) fourteen houses. Seven other houses were so     2    (bad) damaged that their owners had to leave them, and fifteen others had broken windows. One person was killed, and nine were badly injured and taken to the hospital. A number of other people received small     3    (injure). Altogether over two hundred people were left     4    (home)as a result of the storm.

A farmer said the storm began early in the morning and     5    (last) over an hour. He was cooking in the kitchen with his wife and children     6     they heard a loud noise. A few minutes later, their house fell down on top of them.

They managed to climb out, but then he saw that one of his children was     7    (miss). He went back inside and found him safe but very     8    (frighten).

A woman said that her husband had just left for work when she noticed that her house was shaking. She rushed outside right away with her children.

    9     was no time for her to take anything. A few minutes later, the roof came down. Soldiers went to the area to help the people     10     trouble.

Fewer than one in seven people can     1     ( correct) identify common washing symbols while a     2     (three) of people admit they never check instruction labels (标签). Some seven in ten say they ever had machine-washed clothes that should     3     (go) to the dry cleaners because they failed to look at the labels.

The ignorance about     4     clothes should be cleaned can cost families thousands of pounds, according to a sample test of householders by a school uniform supplier.

Men are the worst offenders with more than three quarters always using the same program on a washing machine regardless of the instructions. Almost half of     5     (woman) used just three programs.     6     is said that the lack of understanding over symbols is destroying thousands of pounds worth of clothing     7     (treat) improperly.

While almost eight     8     ten people believe it is important to check the labels on their clothes, less than half look at them when     9     (buy) new clothes. Some nine out of ten said they were unaware that some clothing should never be put in the drier.

The labels are there to show how clothes should be treated. This     10     (help) information can save time and ensure clothes to last longer.

The coronavirus outbreak has now infected more than 334,000 across 189 countries according     1    the World Health Organization, with over 14,600     2    (die) linked to it.

Japan and the International Olympic Committee last Tuesday agreed     3     (postpone) the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games for a year because of the pandemic. On the same day, 59 new cases     4    (report) in Japan, taking the total to 1199. And Tokyo saw 17 new cases, the biggest rise in infection numbers since the outbreak     5     (begin).

Canada and Australia have already said they would not be sending teams to Tokyo if the Games went ahead as     6    (schedule) this year, while Britain said     7     was likely to follow suit after meeting with sporting body representatives on Tuesday.

The unprecedented delay will be     8    major blow to host Japan and is certain to have a cascade of economic, political and social ramifications (后果).

“It is possible that     9    (depend) on developments needs us to take strong measures such as a so-called lockdown of the city,” Koike said. “Therefore, I want to ask all of the people of Tokyo for your     10     (far) cooperation.”

Swimmers enjoy cold swims

Many people enjoy swimming in icy cold water. An open-air swimming pool,     1     (know) as a lido, in Bedfordshire, England, proved very popular this winter. The Woburn Lido is usually open from May to September,     2     this year it stayed open to swimmers throughout the autumn and winter months too.

Until the lockdown for England was announced on 4 January, outdoor pools were allowed to remain open. “Demand has taken us by surprise,” said Murray Heining, a volunteer at the Woburn Lido. Over Christmas and New Year, the lido had to offer extra openings to keep up with the demand from     3     (swimmer).

Cold-water swimming has grown in popularity in the UK over the past few years. A survey found that 7.5 million people in England had swum in outdoor pools, as well as lakes, rivers and the sea, in 2018. In some areas, such as the river Wharfe in Yorkshire, this new trend has made environmental groups think more about     4     the water is cleared of pollution and clean enough for bathers.

Some people make it a regular practice;     5     just enjoy a refreshing dip on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year’s Day. Every year around the UK, people     6     (photograph) plunging into icy water, often in fancy dress, and the recent festive period was no exception,     7     freezing temperatures.

The Outdoor Swimming Society classifies temperatures below 6℃ as “Baltic” and from 6-11℃ as “freezing”. They advise people     8     (get) in the water gradually, so as not to shock the body. Likewise, they recommend warming up gradually, and not     9     (rush) the process by leaping into a hot bath when you get out. Instead, they suggest layering up and drinking something warm.

It wasn’t just the water that was cold—many people experienced a white Christmas; snow fell in several counties including Yorkshire and Suffolk. Paul Davies, the UK Met Office’s chief meteorologist (气象学家), a scientist     10     job is to study the weather, said the forecast indicates “the likelihood of the cold conditions experienced recently continuing through January”.