Every month, we take a look at a word in the headlines, in English, for your English. See more at The Word of the Month.
Definitions:
Earthquake (noun): a sudden, violent shaking of the earth’s surface due to seismic activity.
Earth (noun): The ground or soil; the third planet from the sun.
Quake (verb + noun): to shake or tremble.
Some Awesome Earhquakes:
2011: Sendai, Japan, featuring Tsunami and Nuclear explosions.
2010: Haiti, 300,000 dead according to Haitian sources, up to 92,000 according to non-Haitian sources.
2004: Sumatra, Indonesia, Indian Ocean, causing 30 meter waves, and a 1 cm vibration of the entire planet… not good vibrations though.
1960: Valdive, Chile. Chile always has problems… remember those miners a little while ago?
Earthshaking Facts:
Earth rhymes with birth and worth, as well as recent Oscar winner Colin Firth.
Quake rhymes with bake, cake, and lake. Those things are usually more pleasant than earthquakes.
Also:
Earth is one of the only planets believed to support life. Martians disagree.
Quake was a popular video game last decade. The goal is to shoot and kill monsters with a shotgun, just like in real life.
I felt the Earth move — useful phrase after an intense sexual experience — or an 8.9 magnitude earthquake.
Take a look through our Word of the Month archives, or improve your English with gymglish.com.