The Great Quake
Today, in most industrialized countries in the world, buildings are designed to withstand various, unexpected natural disasters. Safety measures are installed in modern-day designs to help contain the spread of fire, and design engineers make sure newer structures are deliberately planned to hold against the violent shifting of the earth during an unexpected earthquake. However, such deliberate design and planning was not the case during the early 1900s. On April 18, 1906, in the morning hours of the day, the citizens of San Francisco, California, were witnesses to an earthquake so monumental the tremors were felt as far north as Oregon. Neither the city nor its people were prepared for what would happen next: the devastation of their city. The actual earthquake only lasted two minutes. Of course, the violent tremors must have seemed much longer to the actual eyewitnesses, but the fires that came after the earthquake lasted for nearly three days. The enormous loss from the disaster included the lives of at least five hundred people, and an estimated three thousand acres of the city were destroyed. This disaster is often called simply the “Great Quake” because of the vast destruction that occurred.
1. Why do you think the author included the first paragraph in this reading passage?
a. to provide a visual image for the reader
b. to give factual information about the Dust Bowl
c. to describe what it would be like to be blind
d. to give a strong conclusion to the text
2. Compare the word flux as it is used in the third paragraph to the examples below. Choose the sentence that uses the word flux in a similar way.
a. All of the computers were not working because the entire system was in a flux.
b. The flux of tourists to the area caused overcrowding at every train station.
c. Because of the flux in her temperature, the doctor worried about her recovery.
d. She felt a flux of emotions when she was around her former boyfriend.
3. What is one inference the reader can make about the Dust Bowl of the 1930s?
a. With better soil management, much of the Dust Bowl could have been prevented.
b. Lack of rain was the only cause of the Dust Bowl.
c. The Great Plains should be prepared to face another disaster similar to what occurred in the 1930s.
d. The Great Depression was the key cause of the dust storms that ravaged the Great Plains.
4. Which sentence would be a good concluding sentence for the first paragraph?
a. Don’t ever stop thinking about it.
b. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was an environmental and natural disaster that caused unimaginable tragedy.
c. Earthquakes, tornadoes, and hurricanes are all natural disasters that can occur in the United States.
d. Having a farm on the Great Plains was the dream of many immigrants.
5. Which statement is not a fact about the Dust Bowl?
a. The Dust Bowl was the worst natural disaster of all time.
b. The Dust Bowl occurred in the Great Plains.
c. Many farmers of the Great Plains moved West.
d. Lack of rain was one cause of the Dust Bowl.
