Firemen had been fighting the forest fire for nearly three weeks before they could get it under control. A short time before, great trees had covered the countryside for miles around. Now, smoke still 【小题1】 from the warm ground over the desolate hills. Winter was coming on and the hills threatened the 【小题2】 villages with destruction, for heavy rain would not only wash away the soil but would cause serious floods as well. When the fire had at last been put out, the forest authorities 【小题3】 several tons of a special type of grass-seed which would grow quickly. The seed was sprayed over the ground in huge 【小题4】 by aeroplanes. The planes had been planting seed for nearly a month when it began to rain. By then, however, in many places the grass had already 【小题5】. In place of the great trees which had been growing there for centuries, patches of green had begun to appear in the 【小题6】 soil.

The Wilsons river broke its banks on the night of February 27^th while Lismore, a town of around 30,000 in New South Wales, was sleeping. Its residents snoozed through early-hours emergency 【小题1】 that “risk to life was approaching”. Within hours the town was submerged. Residents scrambled into their attics. Mothers carried children onto rooftops. An army of locals launched tin boats into the floods to save them. Four people died.

Eastern Australia has been 【小题2】 by what politicians call “once-in-1,000-year” flooding. It has already had a rainy summer because of La Niña, a phenomenon which triggers downpours there. Brisbane, Queensland’s capital, received almost 80% of its annual rainfall in less than a week in February, flooding 15,000 homes. As the rain 【小题3】 into northern New South Wales, it ripped up roads and drowned herds of cattle. Storms lashed Sydney on March 8 th , causing a dam to 【小题4】 over. Some 50,000 people in the state have been forced to evacuate.

Scientists are careful when blaming floods on global warming because everything from rainfall to urban development contributes to them. They disagree, too, about whether climate change is a factor in this kind of never-ending downpour. No matter the 【小题5】, extreme weather is now a regular occurrence in Australia. In 2019 and 2020 vast lands of the country were torched in bushfires which destroyed more than 3,000 homes and killed 33 people. Unlucky towns such as Lismore have in recent years been hit by both fire and floods.

It does not help that the state and federal governments’ 【小题6】 has been disorganized. When disaster strikes, official aid is often slow to come. In 2019 the federal government set aside almost A$4bn for a fund that would help it respond to 【小题7】 and prevent future ones. But it has spent hardly any of that money. It has now deployed the army and is dishing out cash to victims, but locals fume that they were 【小题8】 for days without power or fuel as supplies of food and water dwindled.

A debate now 【小题9】 about how or even whether places like Lismore should rebuild. Analysts think the floods might trigger insurance claims worth more than A$3bn. Expenses are already so high in disaster-prone towns that many locals can no longer afford 【小题10】. “If we are going to start thinking every time there’s a natural disaster that we have to give up and leave because it’s too hard, then where are we going to live?” asks Lismore’s mayor, Steve Krieg. That is becoming a question for ever more Australians.

It’s known that the earthquake is one of the most powerful natural 【小题1】 in the world. And it’s difficult to predict (预测) it in advance.

Several years ago, an earthquake which reached a magnitude of 7.8 suddenly hit New Zealand. It struck the South Island, 【小题2】 hundreds of aftershocks and a tsunami.

Some roads and buildings 【小题3】 by the earthquake and its aftershocks. In the coastal town of Kaikoura, a popular whale-watching destination, many people found their water and power 【小题4】 cut off. Some parts of the town lay 【小题5】. From all directions, Kaikoura was completely cut off from the outside.

After the earthquake, helicopters and a navy ship were sent there to rescue about 1,000 people who 【小题6】 in the town. The people who lost their homes had to take 【小题7】 in the tents.

After touring the 【小题8】 area, John Key, the then New Zealand’s Prime Minister predicted that clearing away the debris (瓦砾) and the blocked roads could take months.