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