34. Disasters TEST YOUR VOCABULARY 3

TEST YOUR VOCABULARY 3

34. Disasters

Complete the extracts from newspaper articles with the correct words from the box. Put the verbs in the correct form.

crash (verb)	disease	drought	drown (verb)
earthquake	famine	flood	hijack
hurricane	kidnap (verb)	lightning	volcano

1	Thousands of children are dying of hunger in Ethiopia. The Red Cross is distributing food in the worst areas of the __famine___ but …
2	The area around Boulder, Colorado, has not seen rain for nine months. During the long __________, water supplies have been brought in by lorry …
3	A 53-year-old policeman __________ in the River Thames at Hammersmith, West London, last night. The man, Robert Fox, dived in to rescue his granddaughter …
4	A massive __________ shook Los Angeles yesterday, destroying hundreds of buildings and a road bridge. It measured 7.2 on the Richter Scale …
5	A twenty-eight-year-old mother of two mas in hospital last night after she was struck by __________. The woman has slight burns on her arm. ‘I was taking the dogs for a walk in the park when the storm started …’
6	The __________ of the International Airplanes plane ended last night when the terrorists released all the passengers and gave themselves to the police.
7	Doctors have no cure for the mystery __________ which is spreading across northern India. Symptoms are sore fingers and toes and a fever.
8	Scientists say that Mount Etna will erupt in the next few days. Thick smoke started to pour from the __________ this morning and …
9	Residents of Lewes, in East Sussex, had to swim across the main street yesterday. The __________ caused by recent heavy rain is the worst for 150 years.
10	A coach full of schoolchildren __________ on the M4 motorway last night. The driver and two children were taken to hospital suffering from cuts.
11	The 12-year-old son of a wealthy businessman was __________ in New York last night. Mr Tony Brancusi, the child’s father, told journalists he had received a letter asking for $2 million for the return of his son.
12	A __________ in the Caribbean island of Nevis has killed fourteen people and left thousands homeless. ‘The wind blew the roof off mu house,’ one survivor said.

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