Measuring the Earthquake

Earthquake

Today there was an earthquake off the coast of American Samoa in the Pacific Ocean. The earthquake resulted in a tsunami that killed people and damaged property on American Samoa and Samoa. The total number of casualties has not yet been determined.

I remember a small earthquake north of New York City in the 1980s. I was visiting my family on Long Island. At around 5 in the morning, we were awoken from our sleep by a rumbling sound from below. My father had the impression that it was from the oil burner in the basement, so he got up, turned the oil burner off, and went back to sleep. When he got up a few hours later, he called the oil burner company to ask for a repairman. The customer service agent informed him that the noise we had heard was an earthquake. We were astonished. That was the first and only earthquake I have ever felt, but my brother and his family have experienced a few small ones recently where they live in the New Jersey Highlands.

Anyone interested in earthquakes can learn about them at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

The Northern Hemishere

Here is a map of the Northern Hemisphere.

Back to School

All over the Northern Hemisphere, September is the time to go back to school. Summer and vacation time come to an end. Parents and children hurry to stores to buy autumn clothing and school supplies. In some localities, schools provide the supplies for the children. In others, schools send home long lists of items that the students will need for the school year. In these distressing economic times, some schools seem to be providing less. Nonetheless, most schoolchildren in the U.S.A. have the material essentials for learning, while in some parts of the world, they do not even have books. Sometimes organizations sponsor book collections, so we should be sure to keep an eye out for such charitable efforts in order to improve the educational experience of children everywhere.

Vocabulary

Northern Hemisphere--(noun) the northern half of the earth, the earth north of the equator
Autumn-- (adjective here, also can be a noun) fall
localities-- (noun) places
distressing--(adj.) upsetting, trying
sponsor--(verb) to finance or take responsibility for someone else
to keep an eye out-- (idiom) watch
charitable--(adjective) generous, willing to give money to help others

Vocabulary Exercise

1. I would like to _______________ a relative to immigrate to the USA.
2. Please ________________ for my husband because he is on his way.
3. Watching the news of the war on TV can be ______________.
4. In the ______________________, the weather is cold when we celebrate Christmas.
5. Many _________________ have snow in December.
6. Susana was kind and ______________ to her needy neighbors.
7. ______________ is my favorite season.

Grammar

The present tense of verbs is used for regular actions. For example, every weekday children attend school. Find the present verbs in the paragraph. Write a sentence using one of them.