Unit4EarthquakesReading课件（人教版必修1）.pptVIP

Unit 4 Earthquakes;Earthquakes;Tangshan, Hebei July 28th, 1976 ;Paragraph 1; Strange things were happening in the countryside in northeast Hebei. 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 gas came out of the cracks. In the farm-yards, the chickens and even the pigs were too nervous to eat. Mice ran out of the fields looking for places to hide. Fish jumped out of bowls and ponds. At about 3:00 am on July 28, 1976, people saw bright lights in the sky. The sound of planes could be heard outside Tangshan even when no planes were in the sky. In the city, the water pipes in some buildings cracked and burst. But the one million people of the city, who thought little of these events, went to bed as usual that night. ; At 3:42 am everything began to shake. It seemed that the world was at an end! Eleven kilometers directly below the city the greatest earthquakes of the 20th century began. It was heard in Beijing, which is one hundred kilometers away. One - third of the nation felt it. A huge crack that was eight kilometers long and thirty meters wide cut across houses, roads and canals. Steam burst from holes in the ground. Hard hills of rock became rivers of dirt. In fifteen terrible seconds a large city lay in ruins. Two-thirds of the people died or were injured during the earthquake. Thousands of families were killed and many children were left without parents. The number of people who were killed or injured reached more than 400,000. ; But how could the survivors believe it was natural? Everywhere they looked nearly everything was destroyed. All of the city’s hospitals, 75% of its factories and buildings and 90% of its homes were gone. Bricks covered the ground like red autumn leaves. No wind, however, could blow the