Cloze passage: Massive Tsunami killed 113, Straits Times, 2 Oct 2009.

APIA (WESTERN SAMOA): Towering tsunamis churned up by a huge


1. _______________slammed into the Samoan islands on Tuesday, killing at least 113 people as they 2. ____________ out entire villages and flattened tourist resorts.

Monster 3. ___________ that witnesses and officials said measured 3m to 7.5m in 4. ____________ pounded the remote Pacific islands of Samoa and American Samoa after an 8.0-magnitude undersea quake 5. ___________ in the early morning.

While the quake toppled buildings and 6. ____________ thousands fleeing to high ground as the tsunami 7. ____________, many others were hit by the walls of 8. ____________ that swept people and cars out to sea and destroyed 9. ___________ settlements.

Samoa, an island nation of 180,000 people, is located about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii. Neighbouring American Samoa is a US territory that is home to 65,000 people.

US President Barack Obama called the situation in American Samoa a 'major disaster' and vowed 'aggressive' action to 10. __________ survivors.

'I am closely monitoring these tragic events, and have declared a major disaster for American Samoa, which will provide the tools necessary for a full, swift and aggressive response,' he said.

Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said he was 'shocked beyond belief'.

'So much has gone. So many people are gone,' he told the Australian news agency AAP.

The tsunamis swept 11. __________ the Pacific, battering Samoa, where hospital workers said at least 84 people had been killed, American Samoa, where 22 were felled, and Tonga, where at least seven 12. _____________ died.

As Australia, New Zealand and the United States led with immediate pledges of aid, scores more people were missing or feared 13. ___________in the chaos.

'Entire villages have been wiped out,' local journalist Jona Tuiletufuga said, adding that up to 70 villages had stood in the way of the waves in the worst-hit area and that each had housed from 300 to 800 people.

Nine members of one family were killed in the village of Lalomanu on the south-east of Samoa, a relative said.

'My family own the Taufua Beach Fales and we have confirmation that nine members of our family have 14. ____________, four of them children, and many more are missing,' the bereaved relative told Australia's public broadcaster. 'The tourists haven't been accounted for either.'

Amateur video footage showed villages that had been obliterated, homes reduced to metal and wood, and cars stuck in treetops, where they had been hurled by the force of the 15. _____________.

Samoa's Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni said his tiny country's tourism hot spot had been 'devastated'.

The tsunami left residents and holidaymakers with little time to flee.

'We've heard most of the resorts are totally 16. ____________ on that side of the island. We've had a pretty grim picture painted of that coast,' said Mr Telefoni.

Australia said at least two of its citizens, including a six-year-old girl, were dead, while Seoul said two Koreans had also been killed. One person from New Zealand was also feared 17. ____________.

Apia, the capital of Samoa, was evacuated as officials scrambled to get thousands of residents to higher ground.

Officials in American Samoa, about 100km from Samoa, said the death toll of 22 was expected to climb.

In the capital of Pago Pago, the streets and fields were filled with ocean debris, mud, overturned cars and several boats as a massive cleanup effort continued into the night. Several buildings in the city were flattened.

The eastern part of the island was without power and water supplies after the devastating earthquake, which 18. __________ at 6.48am on Tuesday (1.48am yesterday Singapore time) at a depth of 18km, 195km south of Apia.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami 19. __________ over a vast swathe of the Pacific, as far as Hawaii, which was later cancelled. The walls of moving water were so 20. ____________ that small tsunami waves were able to reach the shores of Japan thousands of kilometres away.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Straits Times, 1 Oct 2009.



ANSWERS



1. earthquake 2. wiped 3. waves 4. height 5. struck

6. sent 7. approached 8. water 9. coastal 10. help

11. across 12. people 13. dead 14. perished

15. water 16. devastated 17. dead 18. struck

19. alert 20. powerful