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Most earthquakes occur within the upper 15 miles of the earth’s surface. But earthquakes can and do occur at all depths to about 460 miles. Their number decreases as the depth increases. At about 460 miles one earthquake occurs only every few years. Near the surface earthquakes may run as high as 100 in a month, but the yearly average does not vary much. In comparison with the total number of earthquakes each year, the number of disastrous earthquakes is very small.The extent of the disaster in an earthquake depends on many factors. If you carefully build a toy house with an erect set, it will still stand no matter how much you shake the table. But if you build a toy house with a pack of cards, a slight shake of the table will make it fall. An earthquake in Agadir, Morocco, was not strong enough to be recorded on distant instruments, but it completely destroyed the city. Many stronger earthquakes have done comparatively little damage. If a building is well constructed and built on solid ground, it will resist an earthquake. Most deaths in earthquakes have been due to faulty building construction or poor building sites. A third and very serious factor is panic. When people rush out into narrow streets, more deaths will result.The United Nations has played an important part in reducing the damage done by earthquakes. It has sent a team of experts to all countries known to be affected by earthquakes. Working with local geologists and engineers, the experts have studied the nature of the ground and the type of most practical building code for the local area. If followed, these suggestions will make disastrous earthquakes almost a thing of the past.There is one type of earthquake disaster that little can be done about. This is the disaster caused by seismic sea waves, or tsunamis. (These are often called tidal waves, but the name is incorrect. They have nothing to do with tides.) In certain areas, earthquakes take place beneath the sea. These submarine earthquakes sometimes give rise to seismic sea waves. The waves are not noticeable out at sea because of their long wave length. But when they roll into harbors, they pile up into walls of water 6 to 60 feet high. The Japanese call them "tsunamis", meaning "harbor waves", because they reach a sizable height only in harbors.Tsunamis travel fairly slowly, at speeds up to 500 miles an hour. An adequate warning system is In use to warn all shores likely to be reached by the waves. But this only enables people to leave the threatened shores for higher ground. There is no way to stop the oncoming wave. The destruction of Agadir is an example of()

A. faulty building construction
B. an earthquake’s strength
C. widespread panic in earthquakes
D. ineffective instruments

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It is generally agreed that the first true cities appeared about 5,000 years ago in the food-producing communities of the Middle East. The cities of Sumeria, Egypt and the Indus Valley possessed a number of characteristics which distinguished them a truly urban area. The cities were very much larger and more densely populated than any previous settlement, and their function was clearly differentiated from that of the surrounding villages. In the cities the old patterns of kinship relations were replaced by a complex hierarchy of social classes based on the specialization of labor. Moreover, the need to keep records led to the development of writing and arithmetic, and the increased sophistication of urban society gave a new impetus to artistic expression of every kind.When the basis of city life was established in Europe and the urban tradition was drawn from the ancient cities of the Middle East via the civilizations of Greece and Rome, we can trace three main phases in the growth of the West European city. The first of these is the medieval phase, which extends from the beginning of the 11th century A. D. to about 1500. The second is the renaissance and Baroque phase which can be traced from about 1500 to the beginning of the 19th century. The third is the modern phase, extending from the early 19th century to the present day.Every medieval city began as a small settlement which grew up round a geographical or cultural focal point. This would often be a permanent structure such as a stronghold, a cathedral or a large church. In districts where travel and trade were well established, it might be a market, a river crossing, or a place where two or more trade routes met. In studies of urban geography other oldest part of a town is referred to as the nuclear settlement. There are many small towns in Europe where it is still possible to trace the outline of the original nuclear settlement. It is, of course, much more difficult to do this in the case if a large modem city which has grown to many times its original size. Which of the following could be regarded as a geographical focal point()

A town hall.
B. A vegetable garden.
C. A local cafeteria.
D. A farm.

While still catching-up to men in some spheres of modern life, women appear to be way ahead in at least one undesirable category. "Women are particularly susceptible to developing depression and anxiety disorders in response to stress compared to men," according to Dr. Yehuda, chief psychiatrist at New York’s Veteran’s Administration Hospital.Studies of both animals and humans have shown that sex hormones somehow affects the stress response, causing females under stress to produce more of the trigger chemicals than do males under the same conditions. In several of the studies, when stressed-out female rats had their ovaries (the female reproductive organs) removed, their chemical responses became equal to those of the males.Adding to a woman’s increased dose of stress chemicals, are her increased "opportunities" for stress. "It’s not necessarily that women don’t cope as well. It’s just that they have so much more to cope with," says Dr. Yehuda. "Their capacity for tolerating stress may even be greater than men’s," she observes, "It’s just that they’re dealing with so many more things that they become worn out from it more visibly and sooner."Dr. Yehuda notes another difference between the sexes. "I think, that the kinds of things that women are exposed to tend to be in more of a chronic or repeated nature. Men go to war and are exposed to combat stress. Men are exposed to more acts of random physical violence. The kinds of interpersonal violence that women are exposed to tend to be in domestic situations, by, unfortunately, parents or other family members, and they tend not to be one-shot deals. The wear-and-tear that comes from these longer relationships can be quite devastating."Adeline Alvarez married at 18 and gave birth to a son, but was determined to finish college. "I struggled a lot to get the college degree. I was living in so much frustration that that was my escape, to go to school, and get ahead and do better." Later her marriage ended and she became a single mother. "It’s the hardest thing to take care of a teenager, have a job, pay the rent, pay the car payment, and pay the debt. I lived from paycheck to paycheck."Not everyone experiences the kinds of severe chronic stresses Alvarez describes. But most women today are coping with a lot of obligations, with few breaks, and feeling the strain. Alvarez’s experience demonstrates the importance of finding ways to diffuse stress before it threatens your health and your ability to function. Which of the following is TRUE according to the first two paragraphs()

A. Women are biologically more vulnerable to stress.
B. Women are still suffering much stress caused by men.
C. Women are more experienced than men in coping with stress.
D. Men and women show different inclinations when faced with stress.

Given the lack of fit between gifted students and their schools, it is not surprising that such students often have little good to say about their school experience. In one study of 400 adults who had achieved distinction in all areas of life, researchers found that three-fifths of these individuals either did badly in school or were unhappy in school. Few Macarthur Prize fellows, winners of the Macarthur Award for creative accomplishment, had good things to say about their pre-collegiate schooling if they had not been placed in advanced programs.Anecdotal reports support this. Pablo Picasso, Charles Darwin, Mark Twain, Oliver Goldsmith, and William Butler Yeats all disliked school. So did Winston Churchill, who almost failed out of Harrow, an elite British school. About Oliver Goldsmith, one of his teachers remarked, "Never was so dull a boy." Often these children realize that they know more than their teachers, and their teachers often feel that these children are arrogant, inattentive, or unmotivated.Some of these gifted people may have done poorly in school because their gifts were not scholastic. Maybe we can account for Picasso in this way. But most fared poorly in school not because they lacked ability but because they found school unchallenging and consequently lost interest. Yeats described the lack of fit between his mind and school: "Because I had found it difficult to attend to anything less interesting than my own thoughts, I was difficult to teach."As noted earlier, gifted children of all kinds tend to be strong-willed nonconformists. Nonconformity and stubbornness ( and Yeats level of arrogance and self-absorption) are likely to lead to conflicts with teachers.When highly gifted students in any domain talk about what was important to the development of their abilities, they are far more likely to mention their families than their schools or teachers. A writing prodigy studied by David Feldman and Lynn Goldsmith was taught far more about writing by his journalist father than his English teacher. High-IQ children, in Australia studied by Miraca Gross had much more positive feelings about their families than their schools. About half of the mathematicians studied by Benjamin Bloom had little good to say about school. They all did well in school and took honors classes when available, and some skipped grades. The author quotes the remarks of one of Oliver Goldsmiths’ teachers ()

A. to provide support for his argument
B. to illustrate the strong will of some gifted children
C. to explain how dull students can also be successful
D. to show how poor Oliver’s performance was at school

Can Computers Replace Libraries You are to write in three parts. In the first part, state specifically what your opinion is. In the second part, provide one or two reasons to support your opinion. In the last part, bring what you have written to a natural conclusion or make a summary. Marks will be awarded for content, organization, language and appropriateness. Failure to follow the instructions may result in a loss of marks.

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