Helping a Family in Haiti

Haiti is often associated with poverty and crime, but most recently it is being identified as one of the world's largest natural disasters in history. Haiti is a country very dear to my heart. This past December, I visited the country with my boyfriend. We stayed at his family's house in the capital city Port au Price. It was a vacation I will cherish forever and a country I had planned to visit in the near future. On January 12, 2010, Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Haiti experienced a tremendous loss of people and the coutry itself. Many efforts of relief were immediately sought and delivered to the country. Fortunately, my boyfriend's family still had their health, but that wasn't to be said about thousands of other Haitians. My boyfriend and friends got together to help raise money for his family. The benefit was held at CHI restaturant and lounge on January 28, the fundraiser was a success. We raised over $4,000 in one night and more importantly gave his family an immediate sense of hope.

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Vocabulary

• crime (noun) violation of the law
• devasted (verb) to bring to ruin
• earthquake (noun) shaking or trembling of the earth
• magnitude (noun) great size
• natural disasters (noun) a disaster caused by natural forces
• poverty (noun) not having enough money
• relief (noun) public help in the form of money, food, clothing, shelter and medicine

Fill in the blanks with the correct vocabulary words:

• Hurricane Katrina was a ________ ________ that left many people homeless.
• The tsunami __________ most of Sri Lanka.
• Most college students experience _________ because tuition is very expensive.
• The Red Cross is responsible for coordinating _________ to countries around the world that need help.
• California is one state that has been struck with numerous amounts of _________.
• New York city has a strong war against _________.
• The ________ of the earthquake was so large in scale scientist were bewildered.

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Grammar Point

The paragraph contains several Past Participles. Past Participles usually ends in -ed or-t. Can you find all of the Past Participles in the paragraph? What are your thoughts on Haiti and the earthquake? Write a paragraph about it.

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Link

Donate to help the people affected by the earthquake in Haiti, visit this link:

http://www.redcross.org/