1 . Six relatives crowded in a small air pocket, day after day. A hopeless teenager grew so thirsty that he drank his own urine (尿液). Two frightened sisters were comforted by a pop song as they waited for rescuers to free them.
These earthquake survivors were among more than a dozen people pulled out of the rubble (瓦砾) alive Friday after spending over four days trapped in extremely cold darkness following the disaster that struck Turkey(土耳其) and Syria(叙利亚). The disaster has already killed more people than Japan’s Fukushima earthquake and tsunami, with many more bodies yet to be recovered and counted.
Relatives wept and chanted as rescuers pulled 17-year-old Adnan Muhammed from a basement (地下室) in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the quake’s epicenter (震中). He had been trapped for 94 hours. For one of the rescuers, Adnan ‘s survival hit home hard: “I have a son just like you,” she told him after giving him a warm hug. “l swear to you, I have not slept for four days... I was trying to get you out.”
The building was only 600 feet from the Mediterranean Sea (地中海) and narrowly avoided being flooded when the serious earthquake sent water pouring into the city center. A trapped woman told her would-be rescuers that she had given up hope of being found and prayed to be put to sleep because she was so cold.
Even though experts say trapped people can live for a week or more, the chances of finding more survivors were quickly waning. Death is closing everywhere: deadhouse and graveyard were unbearable, and bodies wrapped in blankets and tarps (防水油布) in the streets of some cities.
Temperatures remained below freezing and many people have no shelter. The Turkish government has distributed millions of hot meals, as well as tents and blankets, but was still struggling to reach many people in need.
The U.N. refugee agency estimated that as many as 5.3 million people have been left homeless in Syria. Reporters said Friday that the agency is focusing on providing reliefs.
Syrian President Bashar Assad and his wife visited survivors in the Aleppo University Hospital. It was the leader’s first public appearance in an affected area of the country since the disaster.
Turkey’s disaster-management agency said more than 20,200 people had been confirmed killed and more than 80,000 injured.
More than 3,500 have been confirmed killed in Syria, bringing the total number of dead to nearly 24000. Some12,000 buildings in Turkey have either collapsed or stood serious damage. Turkey’s vice president (副总统), Fuat Oktay said more than 1 million people were being housed in temporary shelters.
1. According to the article, recently there were disastrous earthquakes happened in ________.| A．America | B．Japan | C．Turkey and Syria | D．the Mediterranean Sea |
| A．The earthquakes have already caused lots of buildings to collapse and people homeless. |
| B．All survivors have been rescued already. |
| C．The earthquakes did not bring much impact on the disaster area. |
| D．Reliefs were supplied in time. |
| A．rising | B．balancing | C．decreasing | D．approaching |
| A．Syrian government organized rescuers to help. |
| B．Syrian government is focusing on providing reliefs. |
| C．The Turkish government has distributed meals and provided temporary shelters. |
| D．Turkey’s top politicians visited survivors and rescuers. |
2 . For parents in the Pacific Northwest, one constant fear is how safe their children will be at school if an earthquake strikes. Now, children at one school in the Stanwood-Camano School District in Washington State will get a warning ahead of time to take cover before the most sharp shaking begins.
Stanwood Elementary School is the first in the state to be able to send warnings over the loudspeaker before a large earthquake. The school has connected to the ShakeAlert early warning system, which is a system that gathers data from seismometers (地震仪) that can detect the earliest seismic (地震的) waves of an earthquake, sending warnings before the more powerful shaking hits.
Bill Steele, director of communications and outreach for the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington, said the amount of warning students will get depends on where the earthquake happens.
“If it’s an earthquake on the Southern Whidbey Island Fault, it may only be a couple of seconds’ warning,” Steele said. “But if it’s an earthquake, say, on the Seattle Fault or the Cascadia Subduction Zone, you could have warning o f20 or more seconds.”
Students across the state of Washington will practice earthquake safety this Thursday. Stanwood Elementary will explain how it uses the public-address system to tell students to “drop, cover and hold on” after it receives a ShakeAlert.
The main idea is to protect your head and get down so that you don’t get knocked over by the earthquake, and ride it through, Steele said. And then afterwards, teachers will decide whether they wish to make an orderly escape or not.”
At least eight other school districts are exploring connecting to the ShakeAlert system, Steele said. The earthquake warnings are not available to the general public yet. Steele says the aim is to have that ready by October next year.
1. What do we know about the ShakeAlert system?| A．It prevents a potential earthquake. |
| B．It displays data from seismometers. |
| C．It sends warnings before an earthquake. |
| D．It detects the earliest signs of earthquakes. |
| A．ShakeAlert system. |
| B．Loudspeakers. |
| C．School management. |
| D．Official guidance. |
| A．Covering each other. |
| B．Find an exit to escape. |
| C．Try to protect their heads. |
| D．Drop their personal objects. |
| A．Its wide use. |
| B．its advantages. |
| C．Its exploration. |
| D．Its future research. |
