Earthquakes: Multiple Choice Vocabulary Test

On 27th February 2008, something very unusual happened in the UK: there was a rather large earthquake.

It was the biggest earthquake for 25 years in the UK. There have been very small (1) _________ in the past but they pale into insignificance compared to this one. It was (2) _________in a large area across the country too, from as far north as Edinburgh in Scotland to as far south as Plymouth on the south (3) _________of England.

The epicentre of the earthquake was in a small town in Lincolnshire, which is an area about two and a half to three (4) _________north of London by car. A magnitude of 5.2 was registered on the Richter scale.

There were lots of (5) _________in the news from people who felt the earth move. One man said, «We had loads of vibrating and wall shaking and stuff, noise coming off the roof. I came outside — the chimney’s on the floor!» A (6) _________chimney was the cause of what was probably the worst injury from the earthquake; a man broke his leg when the chimney fell on him.

Another man who spoke to the BBC described the moment the earthquake occurred, «Everything was shaking. As (7) _________as it happened, we all went outside and saw everyone else down the street, coming out and just (8) _________it was an earthquake».

The huge rumble that was felt by a lot of people, surprisingly caused very little structural (9) _________to property.

Most British people would be surprised to learn that there are 200—300 earthquakes in Britain every year — but most of them are so small, they go (10) _________.