Read the following passage.
A. On 12 January 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the Port-au-Prince region of Haiti. Shortly afterwards, the sea began to move along the coast. At Grand Goave, on the Bay of Port-au-Prince, a man and two boys who had stayed on the shore to watch were killed by a wave, and several homes near the water were swept away. Many survivors of the quake gathered on beaches to look at the waves as a kind of show instead of running inland. Near the border with the Dominican Republic, fishermen took photos and videos as the sea drew back.
B. Few people expected a tsunami from this earthquake. It happened where the Caribbean and North America plates meet, and this boundary is dominated by sideways, or strike-slip, motion. Faults of this type rarely produce much uplift or a tsunami. The quake was also smaller than the size that worries tsunami experts, who generally become concerned above magnitude 7.5. A regional warning centre recorded a wave of only 12 centimetres at Santo Domingo and cancelled its tsunami watch. In Haiti itself, the alert arrived by telephone at a police station that had already collapsed.
C. Several weeks later, Hermann Fritz, a coastal engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, travelled around the Haitian coast with four Haitian colleagues to collect evidence before it disappeared. Satellite images showed the team where waves had probably struck, and at those sites they found sand deposits, debris and scars on trees. The waves had averaged about three metres high along the southern coast of Hispaniola and the Bay of Port-au-Prince. At least one reached land about 100 kilometres from the epicentre, the point on the surface above where the quake began. Fritz also reported that Haiti had no tsunami warning signs on its beaches, unlike some other Caribbean countries.
D. Exactly how a quake of this kind made such waves is still being worked out. A team that surveyed the area onshore and offshore found that modest uplift played a part, but that submarine landslides caused the most severe waves locally. Early reports placed the earthquake on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, but another group later showed that it ruptured a separate, unmapped fault. Landslide tsunamis may strike this area about ten times more often than global estimates suggest. Yet the written record of Caribbean tsunamis is short, and a NOAA researcher said scientists do not know all of the trends.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.
Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.
Correct Answer: C
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph C: the team looked at the sites where waves had probably struck. There they found sand deposits, debris and scars on trees. Scars on trees are damage to the bark, and they showed where the water had come.
Passage Reference: Satellite images showed the team where waves had probably struck, and at those sites they found sand deposits, debris and scars on trees.
Tips: Find where 'researchers' went to see 'where the water had reached'. Check what they looked at, and whether 'damage to the bark of trees' was part of it.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: In paragraph A, the writer tells what happened on the day of the quake, such as homes swept away. Nobody is searching for evidence yet.
- B: Paragraph B explains why a tsunami was not expected and what the warning centre did. Trees are not mentioned.
- D: The fourth paragraph discusses the causes of the waves, like landslides and a new fault, not the marks left on land.
- E: The scars on trees that the survey team found are listed in Paragraph C.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: At Grand Goave, on the Bay of Port-au-Prince, a man and two boys who had stayed on the shore to watch were killed by a wave, and several homes near the water were swept away.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph A tells of a man and two boys at Grand Goave. They had stayed on the shore to watch and were killed by a wave. A man and two boys make three people, and staying to watch means waiting to see.
Tips: Look for people who 'waited by the water'. Then count them to check there are 'three'.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Paragraph B talks about a police station that collapsed, but it does not report anyone killed by a wave.
- C: The Bay of Port-au-Prince appears in Paragraph C too, but only for the average wave height. No deaths are given there.
- D: Paragraph D is about landslides, faults and gaps in the record. It does not describe any victims.
- E: The man and two boys killed while watching from the shore are described in Paragraph A.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: Several weeks later, Hermann Fritz, a coastal engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, travelled around the Haitian coast with four Haitian colleagues to collect evidence before it disappeared.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph C: Hermann Fritz, a coastal engineer, travelled around the Haitian coast with four Haitian colleagues. They went to collect evidence. Partners means colleagues, and proof means evidence.
Tips: The fourth paragraph also mentions research teams. Look for the paragraph with the trip along the coast.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A describes the coast on the day of the quake, with survivors and fishermen, not a team of researchers.
- B: A warning centre measures a wave in Paragraph B, but no one travels along the coast to study it.
- D: Look at paragraph D: it reports what survey teams found about uplift, landslides and the fault. But it does not describe a trip along the Haitian coast.
- E: The coastal engineer's trip with four Haitian colleagues is described in Paragraph C.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: Fritz also reported that Haiti had no tsunami warning signs on its beaches, unlike some other Caribbean countries.
Why this is correct: In paragraph C, the writer says Haiti had no tsunami warning signs on its beaches. It does not say that anyone put signs up after the survey, so this later step is not in the passage.
Tips: Paragraph C says there were no signs. Check whether any paragraph says signs came later.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: People on beaches appear in Paragraph A, but only watching the waves on the day of the quake. No signs are mentioned.
- B: The second paragraph describes a telephone alert and a cancelled watch. It says nothing about signs on beaches.
- C: Notice that paragraph C reports that there were no warning signs on Haitian beaches. It does not say any were added after the survey.
- D: The causes of the waves and what is still unknown fill paragraph D. New signs are not part of it.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: Early reports placed the earthquake on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, but another group later showed that it ruptured a separate, unmapped fault.
Why this is correct: Paragraph D says another group showed that the earthquake ruptured a separate, unmapped fault. Unmapped means that no one had drawn it on a map.
Tips: Faults come up more than once. Find where experts changed their minds about which one moved, and check whether the new one was known before.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A has the date and size of the quake, but nothing about which fault moved.
- B: Faults are discussed in Paragraph B, but only as the sideways kind that rarely lifts the seafloor. It does not say a fault was unknown.
- C: The third paragraph covers the survey of the coast and the wave heights. It does not name any fault.
- E: The separate, unmapped fault that the earthquake ruptured is reported in Paragraph D.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: Near the border with the Dominican Republic, fishermen took photos and videos as the sea drew back.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph A describes the coast near the border with the Dominican Republic. There, fishermen took photos and videos as the sea drew back. Fishermen fish for a living, and photos and videos are recordings.
Tips: Satellite images in Paragraph C are a trap. Look for people with cameras.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: A wave measured at Santo Domingo appears in paragraph B, but not people filming the sea.
- C: Satellite images are used in Paragraph C to find wave sites. Nobody films the water there.
- D: Notice that paragraph D is about causes and the short record of tsunamis. No photos or videos are mentioned.
- E: Fishermen taking photos and videos as the sea drew back is reported in Paragraph A.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: In Haiti itself, the alert arrived by telephone at a police station that had already collapsed.
Why this is correct: In Haiti, paragraph B tells us, the alert arrived by telephone at a police station that had already collapsed. An alert is a message about danger, and a collapsed station is a building that has fallen down.
Tips: Warning signs and a warning message are different things. Find where a message was sent, and check what state the building was in.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Homes are swept away in Paragraph A, but no message or alert is mentioned.
- C: Notice that paragraph C mentions warning signs, saying Haiti had none on its beaches. It does not describe an alert being sent.
- D: In paragraph D, the writer covers the science of the waves. It says nothing about alerts or damaged buildings.
- E: The alert that reached a collapsed police station by telephone is reported in Paragraph B.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: Several weeks later, Hermann Fritz, a coastal engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, travelled around the Haitian coast with four Haitian colleagues to collect evidence before it disappeared.
Why this is correct: The team set out several weeks after the quake, in paragraph C. How long they spent on the coast is never stated, so the length of the survey is not given.
Tips: Find when the survey began. Ask whether the text also says how long it lasted.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Look at paragraph A: it covers only the day of the quake, before any study of the coast began.
- B: The second paragraph gives a wave height and the cancelled watch. No research trip is mentioned.
- C: Notice that paragraph C says when the team went, several weeks after the quake, but not how long their work took.
- D: Look at paragraph D: it reports what research teams found, but it gives no length for any survey.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: At least one reached land about 100 kilometres from the epicentre, the point on the surface above where the quake began.
Why this is correct: In paragraph C, the writer says at least one wave reached land about 100 kilometres from the epicentre. It explains that the epicentre is the point above where the quake began. The distance and the starting point match.
Tips: Find where the researchers report how far the waves went. Check the distance, and what it was measured from.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A describes waves at Grand Goave and near the border, but it gives no distances.
- B: A wave of 12 centimetres at Santo Domingo is in Paragraph B, but no distance from the quake is given.
- D: The fourth paragraph talks about how often landslide tsunamis happen, not how far one wave travelled.
- E: The wave that reached land about 100 kilometres from the epicentre appears in Paragraph C.
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