Comprehension Test

Disaster!
Mary McIntosh

1 What do these words mean? Match a number from A with a letter from B.

A
1 earthquake c
2 hurricane e
3 volcano a
4 victim b
5 flood d

B
a a big mountain with a hole in the top; gas, fire and hot rocks sometimes come out of it
b a person who is hurt or killed in a disaster or accident
c a sudden strong shaking of the earth’s surface
d when a lot of water covers land that is usually dry
e a storm with very strong winds

20 marks

2 Where did it happen? Match a number from A with a letter from B.

A
1 The worst earthquake disaster of the twentieth century was in … d
2 The Asian tsunami started near … a
3 Hurricane Katrina caused floods in … e
4 A deadly gas killed many people in … c
5 The Exxon Valdez caused an oil spill in … b

B
a Sumatra.
b Alaska.
c Bhopal.
d Tangshan.
e New Orleans.

20 marks

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3 Which of these people . . .? Sunil Kumar Verna, Christa McAuliffe, Pliny the Younger, Tilly
Smith, Christopher Wren.
a . . . wrote about the Vesuvius disaster? …………………
b . . . warned people about the signs of the tsunami? …………………
c . . . planned a new cathedral after the Great Fire of London? …………………
d . . . travelled around the world to talk about the Bhopal disaster? …………………
e . . . was a teacher who went into space? …………………
1 Pliny the Younger
2 Tilly Smith
3 Christopher Wren
4 Sunil Kumar Verna
5 Christa McAuliffe

20 marks

4 When did it happen? Match a number from A with a letter from B.

A B
1 The Chernobyl reactor exploded in …d a 2003.
2 The plague came to Eyam village in …c b 1995.
3 The Columbia space shuttle exploded in c 1665.
…a d 1986.
4 Vesuvius erupted in …e e AD 79.
5 A terrible earthquake hit Kobe in …b

20 marks

5 Are these sentences true (T) or false (F)?

a F Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed on the same day.
b T The Kobe earthquake happened in January when the weather was very cold.
c T The Asian tsunami was caused by a huge earthquake under the ocean.
d F The city of New Orleans is just above sea level.
e F When the Great Fire of London started, King Charles I immediately left the city.
f F All the passengers on the Titanic were very rich.
g T An American company owned the factory in Bhopal.
h F After the Challenger disaster, the American government stopped their space
programme.

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 i T The Chernobyl disaster started when some scientists did an experiment.
j T The HIV / Aids tragedy is worse than the Black Death of the 1340s.

20 marks

Total marks

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 1 The worst earthquake disaster of the twentieth century was in …
(a) Sumatra.
(b) Alaska.
(c) Bhopal.
(d) Tangshan.

2 The Asian tsunami started near …

(a) Sumatra.
(b) Alaska.
(c) Bhopal.
(d) Tangshan.

3 Hurricane Katrina caused floods in …

(a) Alaska.
(b) Bhopal.
(c) Tangshan.
(d) New Orleans.

4 A deadly gas killed many people in …

(a) Alaska.
(b)Bhopal.
(c) Tangshan.
(d) New Orleans.

5 The Exxon Valdez caused an oil spill in …

(a) Alaska.
(b) Sumatra
(c) New Orleans.
(d) Bhopal.

Who travelled around the world to talk about the Bhopal disaster? …………………
(a)Pliny the Younger
(b) Tilly Smith
(c) Christopher Wren
(d) Sunil Kumar Verna

1 The Chernobyl reactor exploded in …

(a) 2003.
(b) 1995.
(c) 1665.
(d)1986.

An ____________ company owned the factory in Bhopal.

(a) American
(b) Australian
(c) European
(d) African

The Chernobyl disaster started when

(a) a work intentionally exploded cylinders
(b) there was a bomb blast
(c) the gas leaked due to fault in containers
(d) some scientists did an experiment.

Choose the best answer.

1 The volcano Vesuvius is south-east of the city of _____.
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 (a) Turin
(b) Milan
(c) Rome
(d) Naples

2 In 1995, there was a terrible earthquake in the Japanese city of _____.

(a) Kobe
(b) Kyoto
(c) Tokyo
(d) Nagoya
3 The Asian tsunami started 160 kilometres west of the island of _____.

(a) Borneo
(b) Madagascar
(c) Sumatra
(d) Sri Lanka

4 People in the city of New Orleans live _____ below sea level.
(a) one metre
(b) two metres
(c) ten metres
(d) twenty metres
5 The Great Fire of London started in a shop which sold _____.
(a) cheese
(b) meat
(c) fish
(d) bread
6 The Titanic was sailing towards _____.
(a) New York
(b) New Orleans
(c) Miami
(d) Southampton

7 Bhopal is in the middle of _____.

(a) Indonesia
(b) India
(c) Sri Lanka
(d) Bangladesh

8 The world heard about the Chernobyl disaster from the country of _____.
(a) Germany
(b) Denmark
(c) Sweden
(d) Norway

9 Eyam is a _____ in the north of England.

(a) small village
(b) large town
(c) big city
(d) long river

10 HIV/Aids is a serious problem in the part of Africa which is _____ of the Sahara.
(a) north
(b) south
(c) east
(d) west

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 20 marks
who wrote a detailed diary about the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.
(a) Pliny the Elder
(b) Pliny the Younger
(c) Virgil
(d) Homer

12 In the tsunami an Indonesian man called Erwin helped to save _____ from a
river.
(a) a young girl
(b) a young boy
(c) an old woman
(d) an old man

13 Tilly Smith knew the signs of the tsunami because she had learned about it
_____.
(a) from a friend
(b) at home
(c) at school
(d) at university

14 For many days _____ led the fight to stop the Great Fire of London.
(a) Thomas Farynor
(b) Samuel Pepys
(c) Sir Thomas Bludworth
(d) King Charles

15 On the night of the Titanic disaster Captain Smith _____.

(a) went to a dinner party
(b) read in the library
(c) played the piano
(d) looked for icebergs

16 Sunil Kumar Verma travelled all over the world to give talks about the _____.
(a) Asian tsunami
(b) Chernobyl disaster
(c) Bhopal disaster
(d) Exxon Valdez disaster

17 Christa McAuliffe was chosen from 11,000 _____ to go into space.

(a) doctors
(b) teachers
(c) scientists
(d) astronauts

18 Captain Jeff Hazelwood of the Exxon Valdez had a history of _____ problems.
(a) money
(b) health
(c) eating
(d) drinking

19 After Chernobyl, Hanna Kozlova took her _____Viktor to France for an operation.
(a) father
(b) grandfather
(c) son
(d) brother

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 20 In 1665, George Vicars died from the plague after he was bitten by a _____.
(a) flea
(b) rat
(c) dog
(d) horse

21 In AD 79, _____ people lived in Pompeii.

(a) 200
(b) 2,000
(c) 20,000
(d) 200,000

22 The first Tangshan earthquake measured _____ on the Richter scale.

(a) 2.8
(b) 4.8
(c) 6.2
(d) 8.2

23 After Hurricane Katrina _____ per cent of New Orleans was under water.
(a) sixty
(b) seventy
(c) eighty
(d) ninety

24 The ship the Carpathia saved _____ people after the Titanic disaster.
(a) 268
(b) 705
(c) 1,550
(d) 2,202

25 On the morning after the Bhopal disaster, 20,000 people went to the _____.
(a) hospital
(b) train station
(c) chemical factory
(d) airport

26 In January 2003, the space shuttle Columbia took off on its _____ flight.
(a) first
(b) second
(c) tenth
(d) twenty-eighth

27 The Exxon Valdez was the worst _____ disaster in American history.
(a) human
(b) environmental
(c) nuclear
(d) fire

28 At the Chernobyl reactor, the radiation rose to 30,000 roentgen in one _____.
(a) minute
(b) hour
(c) day
(d) week

29 In 1666, _____ of the population of England died of the plague.

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 (a) one quarter
(b) one third
(c) half
(d) three-quarters

30 In 2007, _____ million people around the world were living with HIV.
(a) four
(b) fourteen
(c) twenty-four
(d) forty

31 the grey powder that remains after a fire

(a) earth
(b) ash
(c) mud
(d) sand

32 when a lot of water covers land that is usually dry

(a) flood
(b) earthquake
(c) eruption
(d) plague

33 very large
(a) hard
(b) heavy
(c) high
(d) huge

34 a deep hole in the ground from which people get water

(a) beach
(b) river
(c) well
(d) port

35 to save somebody from danger

(a) protect
(b) rescue
(c) suffer
(d) panic

36 to go down under the water; a ship does this when it has a hole in the side
(a) sink
(b) fall
(c) drop
(d) spread

37 a very large piece of ice in the sea

(a) ocean
(b) island
(c) iceberg
(d) oil spill

38 a very sad event or situation which often involves death

(a) celebration
(b) tragedy

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 (c) experiment
(d) operation

39 a very small insect that can jump; it bites animals and people
(a) flea
(b) frog
(c) rat
(d) bird

40 a big mountain with a hole in the top where fire and gas sometimes come out
(a) reactor
(b) power station
(c) hill
(d) volcano

41 After the second eruption of Vesuvius, Herculaneum was covered by _____.

(a) water
(b) hot fire and gases
(c) hot ash and mud
(d) big stones and trees

42 In Qinglong, government workers organised _____ and saved 200,000 people

from the earthquake.
(a) buses
(b) cars
(c) hospitals
(d) tents

43 After the 1995 Japanese earthquake _____ spread quickly everywhere.

(a) fire
(b) water
(c) disease
(d) gas

44 When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans many people moved to the _____.
(a) university
(b) station
(c) Superdome
(d) airport

45 After the Great Fire, the city of London was _____.

(a) darker and more dangerous
(b) cleaner and healthier
(c) smaller and poorer
(d) bigger and richer

46 The Titanic was found under the sea in _____ by Dr Robert Ballard.
(a) 1945
(b) 1965
(c) 1985
(d) 2005

47 The deadly gas escaped from the Bhopal factory _____.

(a) at lunchtime
(b) in the afternoon
(c) in the early evening

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 (d) at night

48 The bodies of the Challenger crew were found in _____.

(a) the Atlantic Ocean
(b) the Pacific Ocean
(c) Florida
(d) Texas

49 The Exxon Valdez had a hole in its side because it hit _____.
(a) an iceberg
(b) some rocks
(c) an island
(d) another ship

50 World HIV / Aids Day is celebrated every year on 1 _____.

(a) September
(b) October
(c) November
(d) December

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Disaster!
1 1 c
2 e
3 a
4 b
5 d

2 1 d
2 a
3 e
4 c
5 b

3 1 Pliny the Younger

2 Tilly Smith
3 Christopher Wren
4 Sunil Kumar Verna
5 Christa McAuliffe

4 1 d
2 c
3 a
4 e
5 b

5 a F f F
b T g T
c T h F
d F i T
e F j T

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Disaster!
Places
1 d
2 a
3 c
4 b
5 d
6 a
7 b
8 c
9 a
10 b

People
11 b
12 a
13 c
14 d
15 a
16 c
17 b
18 d
19 c
20 a

Facts
21 c
22 d
23 c
24 b
25 a
26 d
27 b
28 b
29 a
30 d

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Vocabulary
31 b
32 a
33 d
34 c
35 b
36 a
37 c
38 b
39 a
40 d

Events
41 c
42 d
43 a
44 c
45 b
46 c
47 d
48 a
49 b
50 d

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