At about 3:00 am on July 28, 1976, a destructive earthquake 【小题1】 (shake) Tangshan, causing great suffering. The earthquake 【小题2】 (feel) even in Beijing, which is a long way away. In the 【小题3】 (frighten) 15 seconds, the whole city was gone, leaving people homeless and children 【小题4】 parents. Everywhere you looked, buildings fell down. Water, food and electricity were hard 【小题5】 (get). Soon after the quake, 【小题6】 (thousand) of soldiers were sent to dig out those 【小题7】 (trap) under ruins and bury 【小题8】 dead. Construction workers built shelters for the sufferers 【小题9】 homes were in ruins. Luckily for the 【小题10】 (survive), with flood of help from all over the country, the city began to breathe again.

As the effects of global warming, rising sea level and natural disasters become more serious 【小题1】 before, and some local communities are taking action. Among them is one community in Florida 【小题2】 local people and government officials are proving 【小题3】 (success) in protecting coastal cities from the danger of rising sea level.

The community has studied how much the sea level will rise and has suggested ways to address the problem. It has persuaded the state government 【小题4】 (ban) new development on land near the coastline and has recommended building sand dunes (沙丘) along beaches. Kristin Jacobs, one of the group’s 【小题5】 (founder), decided to take action in 2008 after it became 【小题6】 (gradual) clear that her state’s water authorities couldn’t agree on joint action.

While some Florida government officials doubt whether the climate 【小题7】 (become) hotter or colder, the people 【小题8】 (live) in these locations are certain of the need to protect their communities.

At present, coming up with ways to fight against the effects of climate change on a tight budget 【小题9】 (be) a pressing concern. Only time will tell whether these coastal communities will succeed in 【小题10】 end.

Puerto Rico (CNN) — The US government says it 【小题1】(commit) to helping Puerto Rico but is faced with challenging circumstances, including some roads that are narrow, muddied and impassable for large aid-delivery vehicles. There also are pre-existing problems with power and water systems. Puerto Rico is “an island sitting in the middle of an ocean … a very big ocean,” as President Donald Trump said on September 26, 【小题2】(make) Hurricane Maria more distant than two other recent storms that hit the US mainland, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Much of the island feels 【小题3】 it were hit by a storm yesterday, not one month ago. Mountains are covered in branchless trees, 【小题4】(stick) in the dirt like the walking sticks of giants. Power lines are tangled (缠结) about like spaghetti dropped from the sky. Sheet metal from roofs and fencing 【小题5】(turn) into floppy strips of chewing gum, scattered on the hills. Not only 【小题6】(be) people such as Sostre exposed to the elements, but supplies of clean drinking water are inadequate and environmental health experts fear a public health emergency 【小题7】 be brewing (酝酿).

On Tuesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, said it had 1,700 personnel deployed in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, 【小题8】 also were hit by Hurricane Maria. Yet nearly 2,600 FEMA staff — about 900 more —   remain deployed to Hurricane Harvey, nearly two months after that storm hit the Gulf Coast of the mainland United States.

“The point is 【小题9】 numbers do not save or improve lives, but missions and progress do, for example, (Texas) may need more people to support the power system.” FEMA said in an emailed statement.

Others see it differently.

“I thought we’d learned our lesson after (Hurricane) Katrina where the response was awful, both carelessly slow and incompetent,” said John Mutter, a professor at Columbia University and an expert in international disaster relief. “In Puerto Rico, it doesn’t look like we’ve learned 【小题10】 at all.”