2014届高三英语二轮专题复习提高训练：阅读理解22.docVIP

2014届高三英语二轮专题复习提高训练：阅读理解22 1.This was the year the Earth struck back. Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 - the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism (恐怖主义) attacks in the past 40 years combined. “It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves,” said Craig Fugate, who heads the US Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010. “The term ‘100-year event’ really lost its meaning this year.” And we have ourselves to blame (责备) most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say. Even though many disasters seem accidental, the hand of man made this a particularly deadly, costly, extreme and strange year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes. Poor construction (建设) and development practices make earthquakes more deadly than they need be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable buildings in crowded cities. That means that when the ground shakes, the river breaches (决口), or the tropical cyclone (热带气旋) hits, more people die. The January earthquake that killed well more than 220,000 people in Haiti is a perfect example. Port-au-Prince has nearly three times as many people, many of them living in poverty , and more poorly built shanties (棚户区) as it did 25 years ago. The same quake hit Port-au-Prince in 1985 instead of 2010, total deaths would have probably been in the 80,000 range, said Richard Olson, director of disaster risk reduction at Florida International U Climate scientists say Earth’s climate also is changing thanks to man-made global warming, bringing extreme weather, such as heat waves and flooding. The large amount of extreme weather is a clear sign of man-made global warming that climate scientists have long warned about. They calculate that the killer Russian heat wave - setting a national record of