In fifteen terrible seconds a large city lay     1    . The suffering of the people was     2    . Two-thirds of them died or were     3     during the earthquake. Thousands of families were killed and many children were left without parents.

The sound of planes could be heard     1     the city of Tangshan even when no planes were in the sky. In the city, the water pipes in some buildings     2     and burst. But the one million people of the city, who thought     3     of these events, were asleep as usual.

Later that afternoon, another big quake which was almost as strong as the first one shook Tangshan. Some of the     1     workers and doctors were     2     under the ruins. More buildings fell down. Water, food, and     3     were hard to get. People began to wonder how long the     4     would last.