topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/earthquakes/sichuan_province_china/index.html
The New York Times
Sichuan Earthquake
May 23, 2008

On May 12, 2008 in Sichuan Province which is very mountainous, an earthquake hit which measured 7.9 on the Richter scale. The Richter scale measures the magnitude of an earthquake. The day after it happened, there were at least 12,000 deaths and 18,000 people missing. One sixth of the dead were students and teachers in the city of Chengdu where the population totals 4 million. The last time an Earthquake like this occurred was in 1976 killing over 240,000 people which tell us that China figured out better ways to defend against an earthquake. The collapse of schools and hospitals raises the question of, are these buildings new enough to withstand an earthquake or do buildings need to be replaced.

A. This article follows the AP World theme of, impact of technology, economics, and demography on people and the environment. China was hit with a huge earthquake and so they had to start cleaning up after the encounter with the environment.
B. There is not much historical background but China has gotten hit with big earthquakes before. They are located very close to a fault in the Pacific Ocean which will make this happen.
C. The article is not signed by anyone but we do know the person doesn’t live in China if they are writing for the New York Post. This means he’s an outsider and probably has not been at this site yet.
D. The author of this article tells us that 2,000 of the people killed were students or teachers in the area and so he/she seems to thinks that the education is the main concern right now.
E. I would like to hear from a person that was in the area during the earthquake and survived. They could tell us what is was actually like to be in an earthquake of that magnitude and what had happened to the town that they were living in.
F. I think that this is a terrible tragedy and that they need to get some help in there to clear debris and find many missing people. The UN needs to discuss plans to give money to China to help them rebuild the areas that were hit very severely. Although this was a terrible loss, it can teach people in China to work together to be heroes and help others in need.