Moderate Earthquake Strikes England

    A moderate earthquake struck parts of southeastEnglandon 28 April 2007, toppling chimneys from houses and rousing residents from their beds. Several thousand people were left without power 1 in Kent County 2. One woman suffered minor head and neck injuries.

    “It felt as if the whole house was being slid across like a fim-fair ride, 3” said the woman. The British Geological Survey said the 4.3-magnitude quake 4 struck at 8:19 a.m. and was centered under the English Channel 5, about 8.5 miles south ofDover 6 and near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel 7.

    Witnesses said cracks appeared in walls and chimneys collapsed across the county. Residents said the tremor had lasted for about 10 to 15 seconds.

    “I was lying in bed and it felt as if someone had just got up from bed next to me,” said Hendrick van Eck, 27, of Canterbury 8 about 60 miles southeast of London. “I then heard the sound of cracking, and it was getting heavier and heavier 9. It felt as if someone was at the end of my bed hopping up and down. ”

    There are thousands of moderate quakes on this scale around the world each year, but they are rare inBritain. The April 28 quake was the strongest inBritainsince 2002 when a 4.8-magnitude quake struck the centralEnglandcity ofBirmingham 10.

    The country’s strongest earthquake took place in theNorth Seain 1931, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale 11. British Geologicisd Survey scientist Roger Musson said the quake took place on 28 April in an area that had seen several of the biggest earthquakes ever to strike Britain, including one in 1580 that caused damage in London and was felt in France. 12 Musson predicted that it was only a matter of time 13 before another earthquake struck this part ofEngland. However, people should not be scared too much by this prediction, Musson said, as the modern earthquake warning system ofBritainshould be able to detect a forthcoming quake and announce it several hours before it takes place. This would allow time for people to evacuate and reduce damage to the minimum.

 

词汇：

moderate /"mɔdərit/ adj．中等的

topple /"tɔpl/ v．倾倒，震倒

tremor /"tremə(r)/n．震动

fun-fair n．公共露天游乐场

forthcoming /fɔ:θ"kʌmiŋ/ adj．即将来临的

geological /dʒiə"lɔdʒikəl/ adj．地质的

magnitude /"mægnitju:d/ n．值，强度量

rouse /rauz/ v．唤醒

hop /hop/ v．齐足跳起

scale /skeil/ n．震级

evacuate /i"vækjueit/ v．疏散

   

注释：

1.    power：电力

2.    Kent County：肯特郡［位于英格兰东南部］

3.    It felt as if the whole house was being slid across like a fun-fair ride．它（地震）给人的感觉是整幢房子就像游乐场的滑行机一样在滑动。ride是游乐场供人玩乐的乘坐式的活动装置。as if是“好像……一样；仿佛”，例如：He treated me as if I were his son．他待我如同对待他的儿子一样。

4.    the 4.3-magnitude quake：里氏4.3级地震

5.    English Channel：英吉利海峡

6.    Dover：多佛尔［英格兰东南部港口城市］

7.    Channel Tunnel：海峡隧道。Channel Tunnel（常简称为Chunnel）是连接英法两国的海峡隧道。

8.    Canterbury：坎特伯雷［英格兰东南部城市，中世纪时曾是zōng jiāo 朝圣圣地］

9.    it was getting heavier and heavier：爆裂声越来越响

10.  Birmingham：伯明翰［英格兰中部城市］

11.  the Richter scale：里氏震级表。美国地震学家Charles Francis Richter (1900-1985)于1935年制定了地震震级表。

12.  British Geological Survey scientist Roger Musson said the quake took place on 28 April in an area that had seen several of the biggest earthquakes ever to strike Britain, including one in 1580 that caused damage in London and was felt in France．英国地质勘测所的科学家Roger Musson说，4月28日发生地震的地区曾经遭受过几起英国最大的地震，其中的一次发生在1580年，那次地震蹂躏了伦敦，并波及法国。

13.  a matter of time：时间问题。又如：It"s not a matter of money．这个不是钱的问题。

It was reported that one lady had got her head and neck injured, but not seriously.

A:Right B:Wrong C:Not mentioned

She felt suitably humble just as she ______ when he had first taken a good look at her city self, hair waved and golden, nails red and pointed.

A:had B:had had C:would have had D:has had

She felt suitably humble just as she _____ when he had first taken a good look at herself, hair waved and golden, nails red and pointed.

A:had B:had had C:would have had D:has had

______ I went to the hospital to see Jack, who had ______ had an operation.

A:Just now; just now Just now; just B:Just; just C:Just; Just now

______ I went to the hospital to see Jack, who had ______ had an operation.

A:Just now; just now B:Just now; just C:Just; just D:Just; Just now

For chronically ill patients, giving up the hope that they will get better may actually lead to more happiness, U.S. researchers suggest.
"Hope is an important part of happiness, but there’s a dark side of hope. Sometimes, if hope makes people put off getting on with their life, it can get in the way of happiness," Dr. Peter A. Ubel from the University of Michigan Health System said in a university news release.
He and his colleagues studied patients who’d just had a colostomy (结肠造口术), which means their colons (结肠) were removed and they had to have howe1 (肠) movements in a pouch (小袋) outside the body. At the time of the surgery, some patients were told the procedure was reversible and they’d have a second operation in a few months to reconnect their bowels. Other patients were told the colostomy was permanent.
The patients were followed for six months, and the researchers found that those without hope of regaining normal bowel function were happier than those with reversible colostomies.
"We think they were happier because they got on with their life. They realized the cards they were dealt, and recognized that they had no choice but to play with those cards," Ubel said. "The other group was waiting for their colostomy to be reversed. They contrasted their current life with the life they hoped to lead, and didn’t make the best of their current situation. "
The study, published in the November edition of Health Psychology, also may explain why people whose spouse dies often recover better emotionally over time than those who get divorced, the researchers said.
That’s because people whose husband or wife dies have closure (结束), while those who get divorced may still have hope for some chance of making up, they explained.

What had happened to the patients under study（　）

A:They had just survived an accident. B:They had just had an operation. C:They had just injured their colons. D:They had just made some pouches.

? ?Holding on to hope may not make patients happier as they deal with chronic illness or diseases, according to a new study by University of Michigan Health System researchers.
? ?"Hope is an important part of happiness," said Peter A Ubel M. D, director of the U-M Center for Behavioral and Decision Sciences in Medicine and one of the authors of the happily hopeless study, "but there’s a dark side of hope. Sometimes, if hope makes people put off getting on with their life, it can get in the way of happiness. "
? ?The results showed that people do not adapt well to situations if they are believed to be short-term. Ubel and his co-authors both from U-M and Carnegie Mellon University studied patients who had new colostomies: their colons were removed and they had to have bowel movements in a pouch that lies outside their body.
? ?At the time they received their colostomy, some patients were told that the colostomy was reversible that they would undergo a second operation to reconnect their bowels after several months. Others were told that the colostomy was permanent and that they would never have normal bowel function again. The second group, the one without hope, reported being happier over the next six months than those with reversible colostomies.
? ?"We think they were happier because they got on with their lives. They realized the cards they were dealt, and recognized that they had no choice but to play with those cards, " says Ubel, who is also a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine.
? ?"The other group was waiting for their colostomy to be reversed," he added. "They contrasted their current life with the life they hoped to lead, and didn’t make the best of their current situation. "
? ?"Hopeful messages may not be in the best interests of the patient and may interfere with the patient’s emotional adaptation," Ubel says. "I don’t think we should take hope away. But I think we have to be careful about building up people’s hope so much that they put off living their lives. /

What had happened to the patients under study?

A:They had just survived an accident. B:They had just had an operation. C:They had just injured their colons. D:They had just made some pouches.

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What had happened to the patients under study?

A:They had just survived an accident. B:They had just had an operation. C:They had just injured their colons. D:They had just made some pouches.