Read the text and mark the statements below as T (true), F (false), or NS (not stated).
I was one of the people who happened to be in the region of the earthquake. That’s what’s called being in the wrong place at the wrong time − just my luck. But on the other hand, I’m one of the luckiest people all the same − because I survived this devastating situation and was not even injured. A few scratches don’t count. My friends have been calling me Lucky Sam since then. It was a terrifying experience which will never be repeated, I hope. And I still shiver when I recall that day.
The earthquake started all of a sudden. For me it came out of the blue as I had never experienced anything like earthquakes, hurricanes or other disasters, before. There had not been any warnings or earthquake notifications from the hotel staff. And people tend to be careless when they are on holiday, don’t they?
Anyway, I was woken up at night by a strange noise. It felt as if I was on board a ship in the rough sea. I put my head under the pillow but the shaking did not stop. I could hear shouts from the corridor, got out of bed and rushed out of the room. My hotel room was on the twelfth floor, and my first impulse was to go to press the elevator button. Fortunately, it occurred to me that I shouldn’t use the elevator as the electricity might go off at any moment, and I could be trapped inside the cabin or even fall down the elevator shaft.
I ran to the staircase and was somewhere between the first and ground floor landings when the building shook again, I lost my balance and fell down on my knees. At that very moment, there was a crash. There were bright sparks everywhere and the walls started to fold down as if the building were made of cards.
The electricity went out, and it became dark. I wanted to stand up but I could not as there was a stone block right above my head. There was enough space to roll over on to my belly, but I could not even stretch my arms.
The shaking stopped. It felt very quiet and I got a panic attack. Well, wouldn’t you? I cried and shouted but nobody heard me. I don’t know how long all that went on.
Then I ordered myself to calm down. From the back of my mind there came some vague memories about instructions we were given at school of what to do in an earthquake. The first thing I remembered was that one should not light a match. I had no matches anyway so that was useless. Then I remembered that shouting was not recommended either, as one could inhale too much dust or gases or whatever. Then a piece of useful information emerged. To help the emergency workers to locate you, you should tap on pipes or walls. I remembered how we played hide−and−seek in the old abandoned house. The house was large and it could take too much time to find all the people. So we tapped what we pretended to be Morse code to help the seeker to identify our location. It goes without saying that we knew nothing about the code except its name, Morse. I decided to do the same. I found a stone and started to tap on the large block above. To make the sound less monotonous and more recognizable, I tapped out the rhythm of all the melodies I could recall at that moment. Later, the emergency workers said that it was the sound that attracted their attention.
1. Sam escaped injuries during the earthquake.
2. Sam had survived several earthquakes.
3. When the earthquake started, Sam was in his hotel room.
4. Sam used the elevator to get to the ground floor.
5. There were several people blocked under the remains of the building.
6. Sam’s watch was broken.
7. Sam lit a match to find out where he was.
8. The sounds Sam made helped the emergency workers to find him.