At 3:42 a. m. everything began to shake. One of the most deadly 【小题1】 (earthquake) of the 20th century had begun. A huge crack, eight kilometers long and 30 meters wide, cut across houses, roads and waterways. In less than one minute, a large city 【小题2】 (lie) in ruins. Two thirds of the people 【小题3】 (live) there were dead or injured. About 75 percent of the buildings, 90 percent of the homes and all of the hospitals were gone. Bricks covered the ground 【小题4】 red autumn leaves. Most bridges had fallen or were not safe 【小题5】 (cross). The railway tracks were now useless pieces of metal. 【小题6】 (late) that afternoon, another big quake shook Tangshan again. People began to wonder how long the disaster would last.

But hope was not lost. The army sent 150,000 soldiers to Tangshan to dig out those who 【小题7】 (trap). More than 10,000 doctors and nurses came to provide medical care. Workers built shelters for survivors 【小题8】 home had been destroyed. Slowly, the city began to breathe again.

Tangshan started to revive 【小题9】 (it) and get back up on its feet. With strong support from the government and the tireless efforts of the city’s people, 【小题10】 new Tangshan was built upon the earthquake ruins.

On Thursday, April 14, 2019, an earthquake shocked the people of Japan’s Kyushu Island. The quake, 【小题1】 hit the town of Ueki, in the Kumamoto Prefecture, happened just before 9:30 pm local time. It resulted in nine 【小题2】 (die) and over 850 injuries. About 4,000 people were made homeless. Many smaller aftershock (余震) followed and most experts believed that the worst was over. 【小题3】, they were wrong. On April 16 at 1:25 am local time, 【小题4】 even bigger earthquake rocked the Kumamoto Prefecture. To make matters worse, the area was hit by a heavy rain, which even caused 【小题5】 (extreme) serious mudslides (泥石流). While people worldwide were still shocked by the events, the news of another even more powerful earthquake came in Ecuador, South America. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Muisne, a coastal town at about 7:00 pm local time on Saturday, April 16. It killed at least 350 people and over 2,000 got 【小题6】 (injury). In a short period, the town 【小题7】 (lie) in ruins.

With rescue teams in both Japan and Ecuador looking for survivors who 【小题8】 (trap) in the buildings, experts were trying to determine whether or not there were any connection 【小题9】 the two earthquakes. Meanwhile, people of both nations were now trying their best 【小题10】 (recover) from natural disasters, hoping that the earth beneath them didn’t shake.

None of the 【小题1】 (survive) could believe the earthquake was 【小题2】(nature). Wherever they saw, nothing had remained and almost everything had 【小题3】(destroy). The ground was covered 【小题4】 bricks, which are just like autumn leaves 【小题5】 couldn’t be blown away. The railway tracks were everywhere and looked like pieces of steel which were of no 【小题6】 (useless) at all. Animals and people all suffered【小题7】 (extreme) and two thirds of them died or got 【小题8】 (injure) during the disaster. It was a 【小题9】 (shock) scene when people around 【小题10】 city came to save the living.