Lesson 3 Always Aware, Always Prepared
Waking Up to an Earthquake
One night in February, after I had gone to ____ an earthquake hit.
I woke up suddenly because ____ bed was shaking.
I thought my brother was shaking my bed ____ a joke.
But then I ____ the mirror on my desk fall to the floor and break into pieces.
I knew it wasn’t my brother then, but I still didn’t ____ what exactly was happening.
Soon the whole room began to ____ violently, and my confusion turned to panic.
My mom shouted that it was an ____ and ran into my room.
Since it was my first time experiencing an earthquake, ____ didn’t know how to react.
I just kept saying, “What should ____ do?”
My mom pulled me and my brother out of bed.
We ran to the kitchen ____ crawled under the table.
I could see the light ____ violently and books falling to the floor.
Our family picture dropped from the ____ and the glass covering it broke.
A cup ____ over and rolled off the kitchen table.
Every second, I ____ hear something else in the apartment break.
I started to worry that ____ building would collapse.
Then the shaking ____ to stop.
____ started crawling toward the door.
At that moment, my mom’s cell ____ rang.
It was my dad, who was coming home from ____
He shouted, “It stopped!
Get ____ of the building! Take the stairs!
Don’t take the ____ Hurry!”
“Where are you? Are you okay?” my ____ asked urgently.
My dad answered, “Don’t ____ I’m okay.
____ was driving home when the shaking started.
____ I pulled over immediately.
I’m listening to the radio right now to ____ out what’s going on.”
We nervously made our way ____ the stairs and outside.
I looked around.
Parts of buildings had fallen and had ____ several cars.
We went to an open space to avoid more falling ____
How could all this have happened ____ a few minutes?
Although I had done many earthquake drills ____ school,
I had never ____ I’d experience a real earthquake.
I still get ____ when I remember that night.
I can’t forget the panic I felt when the furniture was shaking ____ things were falling to the floor.
After that night, I began to take earthquake ____ seriously.
I realized that I should be ____ for the next earthquake, which can occur at any time.