Prime Time 2, Coursebook

Reading: A dangerous moment in my life – an eye-witness story Back home James writes an article for his school magazine. a) Read the story. 9 b) Then answer the questions below. 1. Why were his friends not scared by earthquakes? 2. Why did fire break out? 3. Why could the people not get out of the town? 4. Why was there no water to put out the fire? A few years ago, my family spent a year in Tokyo because my dad got a job there. There were a lot of new things to get used to in Japan, like the food and the language. I guess the hardest thing to get used to was the mini-earthquakes. They happened every five minutes! Of course, you didn’t usually feel them, but sometimes you did. It was a little scary. We lived on the 18 th floor of a high building, but my Japanese friends said it was no big deal. All Tokyo buildings are made to be earthquake-safe. But I’ll never forget 11 th March 2011. At first, my sister and I didn’t pay attention to the noise the glasses were making in the kitchen cupboards. It happened sometimes when there was a mini-earthquake. But this time the shaking continued … and got louder. Then the clock fell off the living-room wall and smashed! Mum screamed. Dad turned on the TV. The news was showing the town of Sendai, where a massive earthquake had just hit. “But Sendai’s over 350 miles north of us!” said Mum. “It must be a very strong earthquake if we can feel it in Tokyo,” Dad said. The TV showed a building just like ours in Sendai, it was damaged by fire from broken gas pipes. But there was no water to put the fire out because all the water pipes were broken by the earthquake too! So there was no electricity, gas or water in Sendai, and people couldn’t get out of town because the trains were all stopped. Just then our flat was shaking. A glass fell off the table and smashed. We could see our walls shaking … “I think we should all go down into the street,” said Dad. “It’s safer.” We all went out into the hall. Mum pressed the button for the lift. We waited, but no lift came. “Oh my God,” cried my sister, “Now the lift’s broken!” Our neighbours, Mr and Mrs Yoshida, heard us and looked out of their door. “The lifts are taken out of service when there’s an earthquake,” they explained. “It’s too dangerous. It’s safest to stay indoors.” Suddenly the whole building made a strange noise and moved ... ‘Come in, come in,’ said the Yoshidas. We sat with the Yoshida family that night. We ate popcorn and played Monopoly. They were very calm and laughed a lot, so we all felt much better. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 69 8 sixty-nine Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv