Reading Non-Fiction: Analysing a News Article 5

Reading Non-fiction: News Articles

In your Unit One exam you will be asked to read three documents, one of which is usually a news article. We are going to look at an article and then practise analysis of its contents in this worksheet.

Read the article until you feel that you have fully understood it.

The article is about an event. While you are reading think about the following pieces of information about the event:
 

• What happened?
• Where did it happen?
• Who is involved?
• Why did it happen?
• What did people think about it?
• What is the author's attitude to the topic?

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Homes and crops ruined, but relief rolls across Queensland in Yasi’s aftermath

Queensland residents breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when no deaths were reported in the aftermath of cyclone Yasi. However, the cost of the destruction is estimated at £2.2bn.

Several thousand people are temporarily homeless following the cyclone, said state premier Anna Bligh. Yasi damaged several towns and lucrative banana and sugarcane farms.

The cyclone created winds of up to 170mph and tidal surges crashed into coastal communities. Lives were saved because advance warnings were heeded as people fled to evacuation centres or made themselves secure at home.

Local resident Penelope Windsor spent a restless night in a basement car park with her husband and three cats after deserting their seaside home. “It was terrifying, but we were safe," she said. “It was a terrifying sound. All I could hear was the wind screeching."

Officials said that hundreds of houses were wrecked or seriously damaged and most would be uninhabitable until the debris was cleared. Piles of soaked mattresses, drenched personal property, broken glass and torn metal lay stretched across the lawns of towns that had been in the eye of the storm.

Though it has been a terrifying night for many, for one family it was miraculous. With the help of a Scots midwife, a baby girl was born before dawn at the Cairns evacuation centre.

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Now answer the questions about the article. You can refer back to it at any time by pressing the 'Help' button.