Part One Geological Disasters 1
Unit One Earthquakes 3
Text A Squeezing Water from Rock 4
Text B Can We Save California? 10
Text C Earthquakes Shake Northern Italy 15
Unit Two Mudslides and Landslides 18
Text A Hundreds Killed in Rio de Janeiro Mudslides 19
Text B When Land Slides 24
Text C Papua New Guinea：Dozens Dead and Missing in Landslide 29
Unit Three Tsunamis 32
Text A Going Vertical：Fleeing Tsunamis by Moving up， Not out 33
Text B Tsunami Wreaks Mental Health Havoc 37
Text C Indonesia：Inadequate Relief Endangers Disaster Victims 43
Unit Four Volcano Eruptions 47
Text A Deepest Explosive Eruption on Sea Floor： Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle Jason Images Discovery 48
Text B Volcanic Ash Cloud Leaves Hundreds of Thousands Stranded in Europe 52
Text C Could a Changing Climate Set off Volcanoes and Quakes？ 57
Part Two Meteorological Disasters 63
Unit One Floods 65
Text A Queensland Crisis Points to Lack of Flood Mitigation and Basic Infrastructure 66
Text B More Deaths As a “Wall of Water” Engulfs Queensland Towns 71
Text C Pakistan’s Despair：Through Hell and High Water 76
Unit Two Hurricanes 84
Text A Hurricane Isaac Pounds Gulf Coast 85
Text B New Orleans Braces for Gustav 90
Text C Special Report on the Galveston Hurricane 95
Unit Three Tornadoes 100
Text A Nighttime Tornadoes are Worst Nightmare：Twisters That Occur from Midnight to Dawn are 2.5 Times More Likely to Kill 101
Text B Is Climate Change Causing an Upsurge in US Tornadoes？ 105
Text C Tri-State Tornado：Missouri，Illinois，Indiana, March 1925 111
Unit Four Snow and Ice 115
Text A Mounting Anger over Sydney Hailstorm Disaster 116
Text B China on Ice 120
Text C East Coast Blizzard Lays Bare Social Crisis of US Cities 126
Part Three Biological Disasters 131
Unit One Pest Disaster 133
Text A The Perfect Swarm：Locusts Threaten Eastern Australia 134
Text B The Beaver: Destructive Pest or Climate Saviour? 138
Text C Cricket Swarm Brings Plague to State’s North—Insects Keep Finding Ways to Thwart Efforts to Eradicate Them 142
Unit Two Viruses 148
Text A HIV/AIDS Danger Increasing in the West 149
Text B EU States Downplay Risk as Bird Flu Spreads Toward Western Europe 153
Text C US West Nile Virus Cases Double in One Week 159
Part Four Events of Public Security 163
Unit One Industrial Disasters 165
Text A Death in the Darkness 166
Text B China’s Toxic Shock 170
Text C After Fukushima：Massive Global Expansion of Nuclear Industry Under Way 175
Unit Two Traffic Accidents 180
Text A What Brought Down Air France Flight 447？ 181
Text B Australia：Fatal Train Accident Highlights Infrastructure Decay 185
Text C Mean Streets 189
Unit Three Environmental Disasters 196
Text A Severe Dust Storm Hits Australian Coastal Cities 197
Text B Pollution Lingers at Old Missile Sites 201
Text C Gulf Oil Spill Threatens Public Health 206
Key to Exercises 209
Glossary 216