The Third Period

e.g.you are going to burst the balloon，if you are not careful.
s2：in the first paragraph，“farmers’ wives noticed that the well walls had deep cracks in them.” and in the second paragraph “a huge crack that was eight kilometers long and thirty meters wide.” do the two “cracks” have the same meaning？
t：you are very careful.yes，they have the same meaning.both of them are nouns.“crack” means a very narrow space between two things or two parts of something.“crack” can also be a verb，meaning to break or make something break so that it gets one or more lines on its surface，as in the sentence “in the city，the water pipes in some buildings cracked and burst.”
e.g.she fell off her bike and cracked a bone in her leg.
s3：how can we understand this sentence in the second paragraph “it seemed that the world was at an end.”？
t：in order to understand this sentence，you have to know the meaning of the phrase “be at an end”.it refers to a situation in which something is finished or no longer existed.
e.g.the long hot summer was at last at an end.
other examples are “come to an end”，“put an end to sth.”.
t：so now who can explain the sentence in our text？
s4：let me have a try.the earthquake was so terrible that nearly everything was destroyed.so people thought it was the end of the world.
t：excellent.and this sentence uses exaggeration.
s5：in the second paragraph，“in fifteen terrible seconds a large city lay in ruins.” why don’t we use “ruin” instead of “ruins”？
t：“ruin” can be an uncountable noun，which means a situation in which you have lost all your money，your social position，or the good opinion that people had about you.
e.g.with the collapse of grain prices，small farmers are on the brink of financial ruin.
while “ruins” means the part of a building that is left after the rest has been destroyed.
e.g.the ruins of a bombed-out office block
s6：in the second paragraph “two-thirds of the people died or were injured during the earthquake.” can we use “wound” to take the place of “injure”？
t：no.to injure someone means causing physical harm to someone，for example in an accident or an attack.to wound someone means injuring someone，especially by making a cut or hole in their skin using a knife，gun，etc.
e.g.（1）one of the players injured his knee and had to be carried off.
（2）gunmen killed two people and wounded six others in an attack today.
s7：in the third paragraph “everywhere they looked nearly everything was destroyed.” can we use the word “ruin” to take the place of “destroy”？