Part V Do you know…?

A. Listen to the news. Supply the missing information.

 1. Main Idea: Europe pauses to remember tsunami victims.

 2. Time of the tribute: midday/ 3 minutes of silence/ people stopped/ flags lowered to half staff

 3. Purpose of the brief tribute: giving people a chance to remember all those who died.

 4. The hardest hit European countries

     Country                 Number of Citizens missing and/ or unaccounted for

   1. Sweden                     700+1200

   2. Germany                    +1000

Tapescript:

Tens of millions of people across Europe have observed three minutes of silence as a mark of respect for the victims of the Asian tsunami.

The brief tribute came on the same day that Germany announced it will increase its aid to the affected countries to $675 million, making it one of the biggest donors.

At midday in most of Europe, people paused to remember those who died and those who are still suffering half a world away. Flags were lowered to half staff at government buildings, while people at airports, railway stations, supermarkets, factories and offices, from Lisbon to Ljubljana, stopped to reflect on a natural disaster whose toll is beyond mankind’s recent memory.

The purpose of the initiative by the European Union was to give people across the continent, which lost many of its own citizens in the disaster, a chance to remember all those who died. No European country has been hit harder than Sweden, which has 700 citizens confirmed missing and another 1,200 unaccounted for.

For the past 10 days, Stockholm resident Elias Modig has been searching for news of his 27-year-old brother Jakob, who had been on vacation in southern Thailand when the tsunami hit. “The same factor that keeps you hoping is also the same factor that tortures you, and that is the lack of information,” he said. “Because that is what keeps you hoping that they still might find him. But that is also what keeps you screaming out in tears.”

Alongside Sweden, Germany appears to be the hardest hit European country, with over 1,000 nationals missing or unaccounted for.

B. Now listen to an interview with an American tsunami expert. Answer the following questions with key words.

  1. What kind of earthquake could generate a tsunami?

Large earthquake/ epicenter under water

  2. Should experts issue tsunami warnings each time there is an earthquake? Why?

No/ most quakes no tsunamis

  3. Generally speaking, how long after the earthquake will the place be hit by a tsunami?

Depending on distance/ near the earthquake/ immediately/ hardest hit area/ two hours away

  4. What are some of the signs that indicate a potential tsunami?

a. water/ seriously withdrawing or coming in for no apparent reason

b. feeling an earthquake/ witnessing a landslide at the coast

Tapescript:

Walter Dudley is a professor of oceanography and director of the Marine Center. He’s also the author of a book about the tsunami.

Walter Dudley: “First of all, there’s the matter of monitoring earthquakes. And the Indian government is quite good at that. But when you have a large earthquake that occurs, if you know if it’s big enough and where the epicenter is, if the epicenter’s under water, then potentially it could have generated a tsunami, and the next thing is to confirm whether tsunami waves have actually been generated. If you declare warnings every time there was an earthquake, you’d have system that very quickly would be ignored by the public because, fortunately, most earthquakes don’t generate tsunamis.

Robin Rupli: Now it’s my understanding that an earthquake took place two and a half hours before the tsunami hit. Is that correct?

Walter Dudley: “It depends on how far away people are from the earthquake. Those communities right near the earthquake would have been affected almost immediately. The tsunami in 1960 that came from Chile of course destroyed coastal communities in Chile immediately. It arrived in Hawaii 14 hours later and hit the coast of Japan a full 24 hours later and still killed over a hundred people there. So it really depends on the distance from the earthquake. My understanding is that most of the hardest hit areas were about two hours away.”

Robin Rupli: What are some of the signs that the ordinary person could recognize?

Walter Dudley: “If you’re at the coast and you see the water either, mysteriously for no apparent reason, withdrawing or coming in, then that’s an indication that something unusual and potentially very deadly is about to occur. Also, if you’re at the coast and you feel an earthquake or were to witness a landslide, those are things that would be an indicator that there is tsunami potential there.”

Robin Rupli: Walter Dudley, thank you so much.

Walter Dudley: “It’s been a pleasure talking with you, Robin.”

Robin Rupli: Walter Dudley is a professor of oceanography and the director of the Marine Center in Hilo, Hawaii. This is Robin Rupli.