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Module 3 The Violence of Nature What Is a Tornado? A tornado is a rotating column of air from a thunderstorm to the ground. The most violent have winds of more than 400 kilometres per hour. Almost all of them occur in the US, in the area from Texas in the southeast to South Dakota in the north. Tornadoes can pick up cars, trains and even houses and put them down in the next street – or even in the next town. They can take the fur off the back of a cat and the feathers off a chicken. They can destroy houses, but leave the furniture inside exactly where it was. On average, there are 800 tornadoes in the US each year, causing about 80 deaths and 1,500 injuries. The worst tornado of all time occurred in 1925, affecting three US states: Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. By the time it ended, more than 700 people had been killed and 2,700 had been injured. What Is a Hurricane? Hurricanes are strong tropical storms, and they usually occur in the southern Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. There are violent winds of 120 kilometres per hour or more, which cause huge waves, heavy rain and floods. There are on average six Atlantic hurricanes each year and they usually affect the east coast of US from Texas to Maine. The worst hurricane disaster of all time occurred on the 8th September 1900 in Galveston, Texas. Winds of 200 kilometres per hour and five-metre high waves hit the city. The disaster killed 6,000 people in a population of 37,000 and destroyed 3,600 buildings. An Extraordinary Event This is a story about the 1900 Galveston hurricane. Charles Coghlan was a nineteenth-century Irish actor who went to live in Canada. He then moved to New York, where he became famous. By the 1890s, he had moved to Galveston, where he died in 1899, a year before the hurricane struck. The cemetery where Coghlan was buried was destroyed by the hurricane and Cohglan’s coffin ended up in the sea. Eight years later, the coffin was found by fishermen in the sea near his home on Prince Edward Island in the east of Canada. The Gulf Stream had carried it 3,000 kilometres up the eastern US coast to Prince Edward Island. Coghlan traveled back to Canada – after he had been buried in Texas! CULTURAL CORNER Earthquakes Around the Pacific About 400 earthquakes occur worldwide every day, more than a hundred thousand in a year. China is situated in one of the most active earthquake regions in the world and there have been many terrible earthquakes. The most serious of these occurred in Hua County in Shaanxi Province in 1556. the earthquake affected eight provinces in Central China. It covered an area of 800 square kilometers. In some communities, 60 percent of the population were killed. In all, 830,000 people lost their lives. The California Earthquake of the 18th of April 1906 is the worst earthquake that has ever happened in the United States. It took place at 5:15 a.m., and lasted for only a minute. However, it caused the worst natural disaster in the nation’s history. Fires caused by the California Earthquake did the most damage. The fires burned for three days, destroying a total of 25,000 buildings. About 500 people were killed in the city of San Francisco and 250,000 were made homeless. In the whole of California, the earthquake and fires caused about 3,000 deaths. The 1906 earthquake was caused by a movement on the San Andreas Fault. One hundred years later, movements on the San Andreas Fault continue to cause problems for the whole of California. Module 3 大自然的威力 什么是龙卷风？ 龙卷风是指一个从空中的雷暴延伸到地面而生成的旋转气柱。最厉害的一次风速达到每小时400公里。几乎所有的龙卷风都发生在美国，从东南部的得克萨斯州直到北部的南达科他州。 龙卷风能卷起汽车、火车，甚至房子，把它们卷到旁边的街道——甚至能卷到邻近的城镇。龙卷风可以卷走猫背上的皮毛、鸡身上的羽毛。它们能毁掉房子，却把房内的家具留在原处。平均来说，美国每年发生800次龙卷风，造成大约80人死亡、1，500人受伤。最恶劣的一场龙卷风发生在1925年，波及到了美国的三个州：密苏里州、伊利诺伊州和印第安纳州。等到风停时，已有700多人死亡，2，700多人受伤。 什么是飓风？ 飓风是强劲的热带风暴，通常发生在南大西洋、加勒比海和墨西哥海湾。飓风发生时，风暴速度达到每小时120公里或者更快，引发巨浪、暴雨和洪灾。每年平均有六次大西洋飓风，通常会影响到从得克萨斯州到缅因州的美国东部海岸。 最恶劣的一次飓风于1900年9月8日发生在得克萨斯州加尔维斯顿。时速高达200公里的狂风和五米高的巨浪袭击了加尔维斯顿城。37,000人口中有6,000人遇难，3,600幢大楼被摧毁。 一个离奇的事件 这是关于1900年加尔维斯顿飓风的故事。 查尔斯o科格伦是19世纪一位定居加拿大的爱尔兰演员。后来他移居纽约，并在那里获得了成功。19世纪90年代后期，他迁居加尔维斯顿，直到1899年在那里去世，也就是飓风袭击的前一年。掩埋科格伦的公墓被飓风所摧毁，他的棺材最后被卷入了大海。 八年后，渔民们在位于加拿大东部爱德华王子岛他家附近发现了他的棺材。墨西哥湾流沿着美国东海岸把它（棺材）一直带到爱德华王子岛，行程3,000公里。埋葬于得克萨斯州的查尔斯o科格伦又回到了加拿大。 |
