Haiti in Ruins after Huge Earthquake
Television pictures are slowly beginning to show how great the damage is in Haiti following the huge earthquake on Tuesday. A magnitude 7.3 quake, just 16km from the capital, hit the Caribbean nation as people were going home after work. Much of the country has been devastated. Many major buildings in the capital Port-au-Prince have collapsed, including the Presidential Palace and the UN headquarters. Haiti's President Rene Preval described the scene in the capital as "unimaginable". The Red Cross says up to 3 million people have been affected. Mr. Preval fears "well over 100,000 people" may have died.
Haiti's ambassador to the USA, Raymond Joseph, said there was "no way of estimating" how many casualties there were. Countries around the world are acting quickly to send whatever help they can to Haiti. Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. More than half of its people live below the poverty line on less than two dollars a day. It is one of the poorest-equipped countries on Earth to deal with such a catastrophe. The nation was still trying to recover from being hit by four deadly hurricanes in 30 days in 2008. Its economy is in ruins and it has a long history of corruption and coups.

Example: The earthquake that hit Haiti was a magnitude 16 in strength. False

1. The article says Haiti’s president believes 3 million people are suffering. _______
2. Most Haitians are so poor they live on less than two dollars a day. _______
3. Haiti’s ambassador to the US has a good idea of casualty figures. _______
4. Why is economy of Haiti so poor? _____________________________________
Read the definition and guess what word it is from the words in bold. (Прочтите определение и угадайте, какое это слово из слов, выделенных жирным шрифтом.)
5. a violent storm with strong circular winds of at least 118 kilometers) per hour: _____
6. a city that is the centre of government of a country or smaller political area: ____
____/6 points
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