Passage 2
Scientists in the United States have developed a method that may help to predict earthquakes earlier.They say it could give people who live in deadly earthquake areas enough warning to leave before an earthquake hits.
Currently,the most modern systems for predicting earthquakes find them only a short time before the event.Like most strong earthquakes,the one that hit southwestern China in May was not identified early enough for people to flee the area.That earthquake killed sixty-nine thousand people.
But scientists who study earthquakes are reporting that new technology could measure very small changes in the Earth's surface.Their report was published this month in Nature magazine.Fenglin Niu is a seismologist（地震学家）with Rice University in Houston,Texas.He and his team performed experiments along California's San Andreas Fault（断层）,an area famous for its many earthquakes.
The team placed highly sensitive electrical devices about one kilometer below ground in two different places.The devices were able to measure even small changes in air pressure on the Earth's surface.The scientists say such changes are caused when rocks push together,forcing air out of small cracks in the rock.When this happens,seismic（地震的）waves travel faster than usual through the rock.（203 words）
11.The method developed by some scientists in the United States can be used to _______.
答案:predict an earthquake
12.Why did the earthquake which hit southwestern China in May cause so many deaths?
答案：Both A and B.
13.What is California's San Andreas Fault famous for?
答案：Earthquakes
14.The Nature magazine is about_________?
答案：earthquake
15.What is NOT true about the experiments done by Fenglin Niu and his team?
答案：The electrical devices can measure changes in air pressure on the Earth's surface.
