Monday, October 5, 2009

Cloze Passage: Quake killed 1,100 UN, Straits Times 2 Oct 2009

PADANG (Indonesia) - ACROSS this coastal provincial capital, hardest hit by the latest earthquake to 1. ________________ Indonesia, mourners, survivors and 2. __________ workers alike clawed through the rubble.


Some, like Malina Utami, had already realized the worst. She was just looking for the shoes missing from her dead daughter's body, found in the 3. __________ of a four-story school that was 4. ___________ within seconds.

As the death 5. ___________ climbed on Thursday - to 1,100 by one UN estimate - others looked for 6. ____________, with thousands of people missing and feared 7. ____________ in the wreckage of shattered buildings.

When search efforts were suspended for the night, an eerie quiet 8. __________ over the city of 900,000.

'Let's not underestimate. Let's be prepared for the 9. __________,' President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in the capital, Jakarta.

Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude earthquake started at sea and quickly rippled through Sumatra, the westernmost island 10. __________the Indonesian archipelago.

Government figures put the number of dead at 777, with at least 440 people 11. ______________ injured. John Holmes, the UN's humanitarian chief, set the death toll at 1,100, and the number was expected to 12. ________________.

President Barack Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, pledged to support earthquake recovery efforts there, as well as provide assistance to the South Pacific countries 13. ___________ Samoa and American Samoa, which were 14. _________ by a deadly tsunami on Tuesday.

Most of the confirmed deaths in Indonesia were reported in Padang, where more than 500 buildings were severely 15. _________ or flattened.

Where a mall once stood was a heap of concrete slabs layered like pancakes with iron rods jutting 16. ________. Police and army rescue teams used bulldozers, backhoes and electric drills to clear the 17. ___________ in intermittent rain, or climbed the hills of rubble to dislodge pieces of concrete with 18. _________ hands.

Relatives of the 19. _________ gathered outside ruined buildings, hoping to hear 20. ________ news. But mostly, the rescuers found bodies. -- REUTERS



ANSWERS
1. devastate 2. rescue 3. rubble 4. flattened 5. toll 6. survivors

7. trapped 8. fell 9. worst 10. in 11. seriously 12. grow

13. of 14. hit 15. damaged 16. out 17. wreckage 18. bare

19. missing 20. good

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