. Match the word to the correct definition.
1) wildfire
2) drought
3) hurricane
4) tsunami
5) flood
6) avalanche
7) landslide
8) eruption
9) epidemics
10) earthquake
11) famine
12) disaster
a) a huge amount of stones, mud, soil slides down and destroys everything
underneath
b) an explosion of lava and hot rocks pour down the mountain, ash rises in the air
c) a sudden strong shaking of the ground
d) a violent wind with a lot of rain which moves quickly, sometimes in a circle
e) a long period of months or years when a region doesn’t have any rain.
f) rivers overflow the banks and cover the area that is usually dry with water
g) snow, ice, rocks slide down the mountain and buries everything underneath
h) diseases affecting a lot of people (plague, AIDS, cholera, malaria)
i) uncontrolled fire that happens in a wilderness (forest, bush)
j) high wave that hits the coast, destroy houses, kill people
k) a widespread scarcity of food caused by several factors including crop
failure, population imbalance, or government policies
l) a terrible event, causing harm and even death
9. Use the words from the previous exercise to complete the sentences. There are four
extra words.
1) Last night a volcano on Maui _____ and as there are two villages located at the foot of the
volcano, the local population was evacuated.
2) The devastation caused by ____ Sandy, particularly in New York and New Jersey, is tragic.
3) After the harshest winter in decades, the Balkans region in the southeast of Europe is now
facing its hottest summer and the worst _____ across the area in nearly 40 years.
4) A powerful _____ off the coast of Indonesia sparked a three-metre-high _____ that killed
at least 113 people.
5) A landslide caused by rains in southern China left 21 people missing today, adding to a
growing death toll from China's worst _____ season in a decade.
6) This summer a dozen _____, which are more common in the US, have hit Europe. The
twister which swept through Poland yesterday flattened more than 400 hectares of woodland
in the area.
7) The US navy has been deployed to help prevent a looming environmental _____ in the Gulf of
Mexico.
8) 200 years ago there was a great _____ in Ireland, – many people died because of the potato
crop failure.