新西兰英语 171 Earthquake

　　The earthquake on Wednesday night surprisingly caused very little damage. It was a big earthquake, 7.8 on the Richter scale¹. This is the biggest earthquake recorded this year anywhere in the world. However, it was in a very isolated² part of New Zealand, in the south west of the South Island, where it is mostly mountains and there are no towns. People living in the nearest city, Invercargill, felt the earthquake but there was only minor³ damage. Nobody was hurt. Now, after-shocks are a worry to people living in Invercargill. There have been more than 100 after-shocks, some as big as 5.6 and they could continue for the next few weeks.
Scientists don’t know why this earthquake caused so little damage. Perhaps it’s because this area has soft rocks.
This earthquake is a reminder⁴ to people living in New Zealand that we can expect earthquakes at any time and we need to be prepared. Our worst earthquake was the Napier earthquake in 1931 which killed 256 people. It was also 7.8 on the Richter scale.
Read the inside back page of the Yellow Pages phone book to see what you should do in an earthquake.

1 scale   

n.比例；程度；范围

参考例句：

• The scale of this map is an inch to a mile.这张地图的比例尺是一英寸代表一英里。
• He's in business on a small scale.他做的是小本生意。

2 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

3 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

4 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。