高中英语必修1unit4课文.pdf

《高中英语必修1unit4课文.pdf》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《高中英语必修1unit4课文.pdf（4页珍藏版）》请在淘文阁 - 分享文档赚钱的网站上搜索。

1、-教育精选-Unit 4 EarthquakesReadingA NIGHT THE EARTH DIDNT SLEEPStrange things were happening in the countryside of northeastHebei.For three days the water in the village wells rose and fell,rose and fell.Farmers noticed that the well walls had deep cracks in them.A smelly gascame out of the cracks.In t

2、he farmyards,the chickens and even the pigswere too nervous to eat.Mice ran out of the fields looking for places to hide.Fish jumped out of their bowls and ponds.At about 3:00 am on July 28,1976,some people saw bright lightsin the sky.The sound of planes could be heard outside the city of Tangshanev

3、en when no planes were in the sky.In the city,the water pipes in somebuildings cracked and burst，but the one million people of the city,whothought little of these events,were asleep as usual that night.At 3:42 am everything began to shake.It seemed as if the world was at anend!Eleven kilometers dire

4、ctly below the city the greatest earthquake of the20th century had begun.It was felt in Beijing,which is more than two可编辑-教育精选-hundred kilometers away.One-third of the nation felt it.A huge crack thatwas eight kilometers long and thirty meters wide cut across houses,roadsand canals.Steam burst from

5、holes in the ground.Hard hills of rock becamerivers of dirt.In fifteen terrible seconds a large city lay in ruins.Thesuffering of the people was extreme.Two-thirds of them died or were leftwithout parents.The number of people who were killed or injured reachedmore than 400,000.But how could the surv

6、ivors believe it was natural?Everywhere they lookednearly everything was destroyed.All of the citys hospitals,75%of its factoriesand buildings and 90%of its homes were gone.Bricks covered the groundlike red autumn leaves.No wind,however,could blow them away.Two damsfell and most of the bridges also

7、fell or were not safe for travelling.Therailway tracks were now useless pieces of steel.Tens of thousands of cowswould never give milk again.Half a million oigs and millions of chickenswere dead.Sand now filled the wells instead of water.People wereshocked.Then,later that afternoon,another big quake

8、 which was almost asstrong as the first one shook Tangshan.Some of the rescue workers anddoctorsweretrappedundertheruins.Morebuildingsfelldown.Water,food,and electricity were hard to get.people begab to wonderhow long the disaster would last.可编辑-教育精选-All hope was not lost.Soon after the quakes,the a

9、rmy sent 150,000 soldiersto Tangshan to help the rescue workers.Hundreds of thousands of peoplewere helped.The army organized teams to dig out those who were trappedand to bury the dead.To the north of the city,most of the 10,000 minerswere rescued from the coal mines there.Workers built shelters fo

10、r survivorswhose homes had been destroyed.Fresh water was taken to the city butrain,truck and plane.Slowly,the city began to breathe again.Office of the City GovernmentTangshan,HebeiChinaJuly5,2007Dear_,Congratulations!We are pleased to tell you that you have won the highschool speaking competition

11、about new Tangshan.Your speech was heardby a group of five judges,all of whom agreed that it was the best one thisyear.Your parents and your school should be very proud of you!可编辑-教育精选-Next month the city will open a new park to honour those who died in theterrible disaster.The park will also honour those who helped the survivors.Our office would like to have you speak to the park vistors on July 28 at11:00 am.As you know,this is the day the quake happened thirty-_yearsago.We invite you to bring your family and friends on that special day.Sincerely,Zhang Sha可编辑