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This was the year the Earth struck back.
Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, snow storms, landslides and droughts killed
at least a quarter of a million people in 2010-the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were
killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years
combined.
"It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves," said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S.
Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.
And we have ourselves to blame most of the time, scientists and disaster experts say.
Even though many catastrophes have the ring of random chance, the hand of man made this a particularly
deadly, costly, extreme and weird (古怪的) year for everything from wild weather to earthquakes.
Poor construction and development practices conspire to make earthquakes more deadly than they need
be. More people live in poverty in vulnerable (脆弱的) buildings in crowded cities. That means that when the
ground shakes, the river breaches, or the tropical cyclone hits, more people die.
Disasters from the Earth, such as earthquakes and volcanoes "are pretty much constant," said Andreas
Schraft, vice president of catastrophic perils for the Geneva-based insurance giant Swiss Re."All the change
that's made is man-made."
The January earthquake that killed well more than 220,000 people in Haiti is a perfect example. Port-au-
Prince has nearly three times as many people - many of them living in poverty-and more poorly built shanties
than it did 25 years ago. So had the same quake hit in 1985 instead of 2010, total deaths would have probably
been in the 80,000 range, said Richard Olson, director of disaster risk reduction at Florida International
University.
In February, an earthquake that was more than 500 times stronger than the one that struck Haiti hit an area
of Chile that was less populated, better constructed, and not as poor. Chile's bigger quake caused fewer than
1,000 deaths.
Climate scientists say Earth's climate also is changing, bringing extreme weather, such as heat waves and
flooding.
In the summer, one weather system caused oppressive heat in Russia, while farther south it caused flooding
in Pakistan that inundated 161,200 square kilometers, about the size of Wisconsin. That single heat-and-storm
system killed almost 17,000 people, more people than all the worldwide airplane crashes in the past 15 years.
Scientists have calculated that the killer Russian heat wave-setting a national record of 43.9℃-would
happen once every 100,000 years without global warming.
1. What is responsible for the most human deaths in 2010?
A. Natural disasters.
B. Terrorist attacks.
C. Poor buildings.
D. Too rapid development.
2. According to Andreas Schraft, _____.
A. earthquakes are happening more often because of human beings
B. earthquakes are causing more damage because of human beings
C. stronger houses should be built to limit storm damage
D. Port-au-Prince is now overpopulated
3. The main point of the article is to _____.
A. list the natural disasters that occurred in 2010
B. give the details of some natural disasters of 2010
C. warn that more natural disasters are to strike
D. blame humanity for not helping those affected by the disasters

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