Unit 2:

VOCABULARY (natural phenomena):


Earthquake: terretremol
Tornado: tornado
Hailstone: calamarsada
Tsunami: sunami
Hurricane: huraca
Flood: indundació
Storm: tempesta
Landslide: esllevadisa
Avalanche: avalancha
Lightning: llampecs
Blizzard: tormenta de neu
Volcanic eruption: erupció d'un volcà




READING (News):

Tsunami: Making waves

On most days, Devils Hole looks like a glassy surface of crystal-clear water, shimmering with an unearthly, iridescent turquoise hue at the bottom of a crack in the rocks 50 feet below ground level.

But on April 4, 16 minutes after the shockwaves arrived in the Mojave Desert 300 miles north of the epicenter near Mexicali in Baja California, serenity gave way to turmoil in the small world of the Devils Hole pupfish.

"The water was sloshing back and forth so hard it splashed against our cameras four feet above the

waterline," said Ambre Chaudoin, a graduate student in fisheries conservation and management with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Arizona Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at the UA.

"The quake swept the shelf clean from algae, shuffling the silt and cobble around. Such disturbance can be important because the spawning shelf is less than 13 feet long and 7 feet wide, smaller than many walk-in closets. "

Chaudoin and fellow USGS researcher Olin Feuerbacher, a senior research specialist for the Cooperative, conduct the pupfish monitoring study as part of a joint effort to protect the Devils Hole pupfish population. Under its land grant mission, the UA is tasked with research aimed to learn how the fish might be propagated in captivity and what factors may threaten their survival as a species.

The study is being conducted by the USGS Arizona Fish and Wildlife Cooperative Research Unit and is funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in partnership with the National Park Service and the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

WRITING:

• was, were, there was and there were
  
  
  was and were: It is the past of verb to be.
  were use with: you,we and they.
  was use with: I, he, she and it.
  
  There was and there were: It mean hi havia.
  There was use with: I, he, she and It.
  There were use with: you, we and they.
  
  
  Examples:
  
  1- I was very worried.
  2- We were in a national park.
  3- There was an active volcano near here.
  4-There were some earthquakes in this area.
  
  
  Example of text:
  
  
  The weather was very bad in Scotland, where there were floods, and in some town there wasn't any electricity. Eighty-year-old Fanny Booth and her husband George were trapped in their hause. At first we were frightened because there was water in all of the rooms, said Fanny. But when we saw the helicopter, I wasn't worried.
  
  



• Ago, for and during:
  
  
  Ago: més tard
  For: per
  During: durant
  
  Exemples:
  
  1- The last eruption was 75000 years AGO.
  2- The hurricane continued FOR two days.
  3- DURING the storms, we didn't go to school.
  
  



• Past simple:
  
  
  - Verbs irregulars: ex: saw____ see
  flew____fly
  
  
  - Verbs regulars: ex: lift + ed= lifted
  arrive + ed= arrived
  
  
  Examples:
  
  1- The volcano ERUPTED.
  2- They SAW a helicopter.
  3- Some humans SURVIVED, but plants DIDN'T SURVIVE.
  4- The helicopter FLEW to the house.
  5- Where was he trapped?
  

• Past continuous:
  
  
  - Rules: The past continuos describes an action in progress in the past.
  We form the past continuos with was or were + verb+ ...ing.
  
  examples:
  
  - Negative: They weren't listening to the thunder.
  - Possitive: I was watching the storm.
  - Interrogative: Where was Sophie ran?
  



• Past simple and past continuos
  
  The verbs are past simple, they describe incomplete action.
  The verbs are past continuous, they describe finished actions or actions in progress.