Complete the following passage by filling in the blanks with an appropriate word or phrase.

Imagine what it ……………… (is / was /might) be like if you …………….. (are /were / had been) in your bedroom during an earthquake. Your bed ……………….. (shake / shook / shakes). Books and stuffed animals tumble ……………………. (of / in / from) shelves. Your computer monitor skitters ……………… (on / across / over) your desk and crashes to the floor. The walls creak and groan as they flex. In a very big earthquake, your whole house could ……………………. (collapse / collapsed / collapsing).

To get a better idea of what might happen …………………. (for / with / to) an ordinary house during an earthquake, engineers ……………….. (do / did / had) an experiment—a big one. In one corner of a lot the size of an airplane hangar, they …………………. (build / built / have built) a townhouse. Then, they shook the house …………………….. (on / at / with) the force of a large earthquake.
This wooden townhouse, which is similar …………………… (of / to / with) many homes in California, was specially built to see how it would survive the sort of shaking ………………………. (that / what) it could suffer in an earthquake.

Answers

Imagine what it might be like if you were in your bedroom during an earthquake. Your bed shakes. Books and stuffed animals tumble from shelves. Your computer monitor skitters across your desk and crashes to the floor. The walls creak and groan as they flex. In a very big earthquake, your whole house could collapse.

To get a better idea of what might happen to an ordinary house during an earthquake, engineers did an experiment—a big one. In one corner of a lot the size of an airplane hangar, they built a townhouse. Then, they shook the house with the force of a large earthquake.
This wooden townhouse, which is similar to many homes in California, was specially built to see how it would survive the sort of shaking that it could suffer in an earthquake.