UNIT 9: NATURAL DISASTERS

 Vocabulary: Natural disasters

 Grammar: Passive voice
 Listening: Extrication training
 Reading: The causes of floods
 Bibliography
Página 1

Unit 9 Inglés Técnico Coordinación Emergencias y Protección Civil

VOCABULARY

GLOBAL WARMING

Earthquakes Explosions Major accidents (plane crash)

Hurricanes/tornadoes Famine

Volcanoes Epidemics
War

Arsonist a criminal who illegally sets fire to

property.
Avalanche a slide of large masses of snow, ice
and mud down a mountain.
Blizzard a storm with widespread snowfall
accompanied by strong winds.
Cyclone a violent storm in which air moves in
a circular direction.
Drought a shortage of rainfall.

Dust storm a windstorm that lifts up clouds of

dust or sand.
Earthquake vibration from underground
movement along a fault plane.
Epidemics a widespread occurrence of an
infectious disease in a community at
a particular time.
Explosion The fact that something like a bomb
explodes.
Famine Extreme scarcity of food .

Flood the rising of a body of water and its

overflowing onto land.
Página 2

Unit 9 Inglés Técnico Coordinación Emergencias y Protección Civil

 Fog droplets of water vapor suspended in
the air near the ground.
Hail precipitation of ice pellets.

Hurricane a severe tropical cyclone usually with

heavy rains and winds.
Storm a violent weather condition with
winds 64-72 knots (11 on the
Beaufort scale) and precipitation and
thunder and lightning.
Tornado a violently destructive windstorm
occurring over land.
Tsunami a cataclysm resulting from a
destructive sea wave.
Poverty the state of having little or no money
and possessions.
Cataclysm a sudden violent change in the
earth's surface.
War Armed fighting between two or more
countries.

Verbs connected with natural disasters

 A volcano has erupted in Italy
 The epidemic spreads easily
 An earthquake shook all the country yesterday night.
 A tornado swept through the islands

Injure  people

Damage  things

A. Complete the following sentences with the correct verb.

1. A volcano has …………….. in Indonesia last night.
2. Lot of people died due to the huge epidemic of HIV that …………… through
the European continent.
An earthquake ……………….. the whole city yesterday night.
Página 3

Unit 9 Inglés Técnico Coordinación Emergencias y Protección Civil

 People involved in disasters:
 Casualty/ies: dead and injured people
 Victims: people suffering the result of disasters
 Survivors: people who live through a disaster
 Refugees: people who scape from war
 Dead: people who lose their lives
 Wounded: people injured in battle by a weapon.

B. Complete the following chart with the vocabulary given above.

Verb Noun (thing) Noun (person)

Explosion X

Survivor

Injure

Starve

Erupt X

C. Complete the following sentences with the vocabulary above (people).

1. The real …………….. of the war were the children who lost their parents.
2. There were only 20 …………………….. of the plane crash, the rest are dead.
3. Thousands of people get …………… in Afghanistan war.
4. Europe is suffering a crisis due to the huge number of Syrian ……………….
5. There were 2 …………………… in the car crash, they were driven straight to
the hospital.
Página 4

Unit 9 Inglés Técnico Coordinación Emergencias y Protección Civil

GRAMMAR

Passive voice
Al igual que en español la voz activa también cambia a voz pasiva cuando el
sujeto no es quien realiza la acción sino quién la recibe.

E.j: my padre construyó la casa ( activa)  la casa fue construida por mi padre (
pasiva)

En inglés la estructura es la misma; el complemento directo (casa) pasa a ser el

sujeto de la oración pasiva y el sujeto de la oración activa ahora será en
complemento agente (por mi padre).

E.j: my father built the house  the house was built by my father.

Para hace el cambio de verbo correctamente tendremos que fijarnos en la tabla

de abajo.

STRUCTURE:

Página 5

Unit 9 Inglés Técnico Coordinación Emergencias y Protección Civil

 Verbs chart

TENSE ACTIVE FORM PASISIVE FORM

PRESENT SIMPLE He rescues a dog A dog is rescued by him
PRESENT CONTINUOUS He is rescuing a dog A dog is being rescued by him

PAST SIMPLE He rescued a dog A dog was recued by him

PAST CONTINUOUS
FUTURE SIMPLE
PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE
PAST PERFECT SIMPLE
He was rescuing a dog A dog was being rescued by
him
He will rescue a dog A dog will be rescued by him
He has rescued a dog A dog has been rescued by
him
He had rescued a dog A dog had been rescued by
him

También tendremos que hacer un cambio de pronombre al pasar el Sujeto a

Complemento Agente.

E.j: she stole the bike  the bike was stolen by her

SUBJECT  OBJECT
I  ME
YOU  YOU
HE  HIM
SHE  HER
IT  IT
WE  US
YOU  YOU
THEY  THEM
Ejemplos:
- Activa
Mark Twain wrote the book.
- Pasiva
The book was written by Mark Twain.
- Activa
The housekeeper will clean the room.
- Pasiva
Página 6

The room will be cleaned by the housekeeper.

Unit 9 Inglés Técnico Coordinación Emergencias y Protección Civil

 Uses

1. Usamos la voz pasiva cuando no sabemos quién ha realizado la acción.

Ejemplos:
A civilian has been killed.
The car was stolen.
2. Usamos la voz pasiva cuando queremos dar más importancia a lo que
pasó, que a quién realizó la acción o cuando no queremos decir quien la realizó.
Ejemplos:
The letter was delivered yesterday.
A mistake was made.

A. Complete the sentences using one of these verbs in the correct form, present
or past:

Cause Damage Hold Invite Make

Overtake Show Surround Translate Write

1. Many accidents …………. By dangerous driving.

2. Cheese …………….. from milk.
3. The roof of the building …………….. in a storm a few days ago.
4. You ………… to the wedding. Why didn´t you go?
5. A cinema is a place where films …………….
6. Elections for president ……………. Every four years.
7. Originally the book ………… in Spanish, and a few years ago it ……………into English.
8. Although we were driving quite fast, we ……………. By a lot of other cars.
9. You can´t see the house from the road. It ……………. By trees.
Página 7

Unit 9 Inglés Técnico Coordinación Emergencias y Protección Civil

B. Complete the following sentences modifying the verb into passive voice, both
present simple or past simple are possible.

1. How much of the earth´s surface …………….. (cover) by water?

2. The park gates ………….(lock) at 6.30 p.m
3. The letter ……………(post) a week ago.
4. While I was on holiday, my camera ………..(steal) from my hotel room.
5. I saw an accident yesterday, fortunately nobody ………….. (injure)
6. Two hundred people …………(employ) by the new company.
7. Where …….. these photographs ………..? in London?
8. Many accident ………….(cause) by careless driving.
9. We …………(wake) up by a loud noise yesterday.
10. How much money ………..(steal) in the robbery?

C. Change the sentences from active to passive voice.

1. Somebody cleans the room every day.
________________________________
2. They cancelled all flights because of fog.
________________________________
3. People don´t use this road much
________________________________
4. Somebody accused me of stealing money.
________________________________
5. How do people learn languages?
________________________________
6. Somebody warned us not to go out alone.
________________________________
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/30/europes-
extreme-june-heat-clearly-linked-to-climate-change-research-shows
Página 8

Unit 9 Inglés Técnico Coordinación Emergencias y Protección Civil

READING

The Causes of Floods

Floods are second only to fire as the most common of all natural disasters.
They occur almost everywhere in the world, resulting in widespread damage
and even death. Consequently, scientists have long tried to perfect their
ability to predict floods. So far, the best that scientists can do is to recognize the
potential for flooding in certain conditions. There are a number of conditions, from deep
snow on the ground to human error, that cause flooding.

When deep snow melts it creates a large amount of water. Although deep snow alone
rarely causes floods, when it occurs together with heavy rain and sudden warmer
weather it can lead to serious flooding. If there is a fast snow melt on top of frozen or
very wet ground, flooding is more likely to occur than when the ground is not frozen.
Frozen ground or ground that is very wet and already saturated with water cannot
absorb the additional water created by the melting snow. Melting snow also contributes
to high water levels in rivers and streams. Whenever rivers are already at their full
capacity of water, heavy rains will result in the rivers overflowing and flooding the
surrounding land.

Rivers that are covered in ice can also lead to flooding. When ice begins to melt, the
surface of the ice cracks and breaks into large pieces. These pieces of ice move and float
down the river. They can form a dam in the river, causing the water behind the dam to
rise and flood the land upstream. If the dam breaks suddenly, then the large amount of
water held behind the dam can flood the areas downstream too.

Broken ice dams are not the only dam problems that can cause flooding. When a large
human-made dam breaks or fails to hold the water collected behind it, the results can
be devastating. Dams contain such huge amounts of water behind them that when
sudden breaks occur, the destructive force of the water is like a great tidal wave.
Unleashed dam waters can travel tens of kilometres, cover the ground in metres of mud
and debris, and drown and crush every thing and creature in their path.

Although scientists cannot always predict exactly when floods will occur, they do know
a great deal about when floods are likely, or probably, going to occur. Deep snow, ice-
covered rivers, and weak dams are all strong conditions for potential flooding. Hopefully,
this knowledge of why floods happen can help us reduce the damage they cause.
Página 9

Unit 9 Inglés Técnico Coordinación Emergencias y Protección Civil

1. Which of the following words are natural disasters? (More than one answer
may be correct).
A. flood
B. earthquake
C. airplane crash
D. typhoon

2. Which of the following are included as causes for floods in the reading
passage?
A. droughts
B. large lakes
C. poorly built roads
D. melting snow

3. How does deep snow cause flooding?

A. melting snow causes flooding
B. too much rain causes flooding
C. sudden warm temperatures combined with heavy rains causes flooding
D. freezing water causes flooding

4. A broken human-made dam is compared to what?

A. a tsunami
B. a tidal wave
C. a broken ice dam
D. overflowing

5. Which of the following best describes how a frozen river can cause a flood.
A. The ice in the river melts too quickly and causes a flood.
B. The ice in the river cracks causing the water to overflow.
C. The ice in the river cracks into pieces that eventually create a dam causing
the water to overflow.
D. The water behind the ice dam collects and when the dam breaks, it causes
flooding upstream.

6. How far can dam water travel when it is unleashed from a broken dam?
A. less than 10 kilometres
B. tens of kilometres
C. thousands of kilometres
Página 10

D. tens of thousands of kilometres downstream

Unit 9 Inglés Técnico Coordinación Emergencias y Protección Civil

 7. Why does saturated ground contribute to flooding problems?
A. the ground cannot absorb more moisture
B. the ground is too hard, so the water runs off
C. the ground forms a kind of dam
D. it remains frozen

8. What kinds of problems can floods cause?

A. death
B. widespread damage
C. destruction of plants and animals
D. all of the above

9. What is the most common natural disaster?

A. Flood
B. fire
C. wind damage
D. rain

10. How does melting snow cause problems related to flooding?

A. it makes the rivers run too fast
B. it makes the water too cold
C. it causes pieces of ice to block the river
D. it makes the level of the river rise

Text source URL:

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/490/reading/floods2-reading.htm

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Murphy, R. (2012). English grammar in use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Página 11

Unit 9 Inglés Técnico Coordinación Emergencias y Protección Civil