A major earthquake rocked Haiti at 4:53 pm local time on Jan.12, 2010, killing possibly thousands of people but no official figure has been released so far.
The quake, which struck about 15km (10 miles) south-west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks. In the space of a minute, numerous buildings fell down. A five-story U.N. building was also brought down by the 7.3 magnitude quake, the most powerful to hit Haiti in more than 200 years according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
As night fell, the whole city is in total darkness. You can see thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go. There are people running, crying, screaming. Describing the earthquake as a "catastrophe", Haiti’s president said the cost of the damage could run into billions.
Haiti became the first independent Caribbean state in the early 19th century. Haiti's location, history and attracting climate once made it a tourist hot place. However, decades of poverty, environmental pollution and violence have left it as the poorest nation in the Americas. It has suffered a lot, including four hurricanes and storms in 2008 that killed hundreds.
小题1:The great earthquake happened to the _______ of the capital city.
A．south-west
B．north-west
C．south-east
D．north-east小题2: What can we infer from the underlined sentence?
A．People in Port-au-Prince don’t like to light on.
B．The earthquake happened in the evening.
C．Electricity in the city was cut off that night.
D．There are no lights at all in Port-au-Prince.小题3: What’s the meaning of the word in bald “catastrophe”?
A．chance.
B．joke.
C．illness.
D．disaster.小题4:Which statement about Haiti is NOT true?
A．Haiti became an independent state in the early 19th century.
B．Haiti belongs to Americas, just like Canada, America and so on.
C．At one time, tourism was important to the economy of Haiti.
D．Haiti is a country where such strong quacks often take place.
