E n g L i s h jenni Currie Santamaria

Dragonwings
by Laurence Yep. 
Dragonwings
is 
the story of a young Chinese boy and his father living in San Francisco in the 
early 1900s. In this part of the story, the boy is experiencing the 1906 
earthquake. This terrible earthquake and t
he ire that followed it destroyed 
much of the city. It is believed that more than 3,000 people died in the disaster, 
making it one of the worst in U.S. history.
B.
Words to know before you read
____ 1.
tremor 
a. a tall narrow tower, often the bell tower 
of a church
____ 2.
steeple 
b. a house divided into apartments for 
rent; low-rent housing
____ 3.
tenement 
c. a movement, sometimes of the earth
____ 4.
surge 
d. thankfully
____ 5.
topple over 
e. move quickly
____ 6.
mercifully 
f. knock over
C.
Reading strategy
Skim the following article quickly, and write the answer to the question.
What happened to the tenement house and Miss Whitlaw’s fence?
__________________________________________________________________________

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Better Reading English
II. READ
Read the text. Mark the words you don’t know, but don’t stop reading to look 
them up.
He started to get to his feet when the second tremor shook and he fell forward 
lat on his face. I heard the city bells ringing. They were rung by no human 
hand—the earthquake had just shaken them in their steeples. The second 
tremor was worse than t
he irst. From all over came an immense wall of noise: of 
metal tearing, of bricks crashing, of wood breaking free from wood nails, and 
all. Everywhere, what man had built came undone. I was looking at a tenement 
house to our right and it just seemed to shudder and then collapse. One 
moment there were solid wooden walls and the next moment it had fallen with 
the cracking of wood and the tinkling of glass and the screams of people inside.
Mercifully, for a moment, it was lost to view in the cloud of dust that rose 
up. The debris surged against Miss Whitlaw’s fence and toppled it over with a 
creak and a groan and a crash. I saw an arm sticking up from the mound of 
rubble and the hand was twisted at an impossible angle from the wrist. 
Coughing, Father pulled at my arm. “Stay here now,” he ordered and started 
for Miss Whitlaw’s.
Source: 
Dragonwings
, by Laurence Yep, New York: HarperCollins, 1977.
III. COMPREHENSION CHECK
Read the questions. Circle the best answer.
1.
Why did the bells ring?
a. 
to warn people about the earthquake
b. 
the earthquake shook the bells
2.
What did the people do when the tenement house collapsed?
a. 
They screamed.
b. 
They ran outside.
3.
What was making a lot of noise?
a. 
dust rising and Father’s coughing
b. 
metal tearing and bricks crashing
4. 
Who is in the room with the boy?
a. 
Father
b. 
Miss Whitlaw
5.
Who is Miss Whitlaw?
a. 
someone who lives on the other side of the city
b. 
someone who lives very nearby

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San Francisco
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IV. VOCABULARY BUILDING
A.
Synonyms
Some of the words in this article have synonyms with very similar meanings. 
Read the following words and their synonyms. Then complete the sentences 
with an appropriate word. More than one answer is possible for each sentence. 
Use the correct form for the verbs.
shudder (v.)