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人与自然——灾难防范
背景导入：破坏性地震是严重威胁人类安全的、恐怖的自然灾害。据统计，2008年汶川地震死亡人数近10万人，1976年的唐山地震死亡人数近24万人。
As we know, earthquakes can bring people much fear. There are some places that have few or no earthquakes. Most places in the world, however, have them regularly①. Countries that have a lot of earthquakes are usually quite mountainous②.
The most talked about earthquake in the United States was in San Francisco in 1906. Over 700 people died in it. The strongest one in North America was in 1964. It happened in Alaska.
Strong earthquakes are not always the ones that kill the most people. In 1755, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded was felt in Portugal. Around 2，000 people died.
In 1923, a very strong earthquake hit Tokyo, Yokohama area of Japan. A hundred and forty thousand people died. Most of them died in fires which followed the earthquake.
One of the worst earthquakes ever was in China in 2008. It killed a large number of people.The worst earthquake ever reported was also in China, in which 830，000 people were killed or injured. This earthquake happened in 1556.
Earthquakes worry③ people a lot. The reason is that we often do not know when they are coming. People cannot prepare for④ earthquakes.
【词汇积累】
①regularly adv.有规律地，定期地
②mountainous adj.多山的
③worry vt.使……担心
④prepare for为……准备
