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Studying volcanoes is a demanding profession. Hazel Rymer frequently has to struggle through
rainforests, climb to the top of mountains, then climb 200 metres into the crater of active volcanoes.
But the 38-year-old volcanologist does her best to make it sound less alarming than it is. “Driving to
work is more risky,” she insists. “And the deepest I go into the crater of a volcano is about 300 metres,”
she adds, trying to make it all sound as ordinary as taking the dog for a walk.
Hazel has been studying volcanoes for a long time, so it’s not surprising she is used to the danger.
Her interest in volcanoes began at school. A teacher gave her a book about Pompeii. “I remember
reading about the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of the city,” she explains. “The thought of
all those people just frozen in time had quite an effect on me and I am still excited by their dangerous
beauty today.”
Nowadays, volcanoes are getting more and more unpredictable. There have been many changes
in sea level caused by global warming and melting ice caps. These have resulted in some dormant
volcanoes erupting, so studying them is more dangerous than ever before. Hazel says that although she
doesn’t take any unnecessary risk she has had some frightening moments. Her worst experience was
on the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, when she was slowly surrounded by lava. “I had a choice of
walking ten hours to get around the lava flow or just walking across it,” she explains. She chose to pick
a path across the cooler rocks in the lava stream. “I guess it was five metres. The flow was 1,000°C,
so if you hesitated your boots would begin to melt. It was scary, but it really was a practical decision -
there wasn't time to do anything else.”
And what about the future? “I haven’t been to the volcanoes in Indonesia yet. And I would love to
spend some time working in the Antarctic,” she says. “I would also like to know why quiet lava flows
erupt from some volcanoes and why other volcanoes go bang.” In other words, Hazel Rymer won’t
be exchanging her volcanoes for the relative safety of driving to work just yet.
1. Hazel’s claim that “driving to work is more risky” than exploring volcanoes shows that ______.
A. people have exaggerated the dangers of volcanoes in the past
B. Hazel does not really understand the dangerous situations she puts herself in.
C. there are many bad drivers in the place where Hazel lives
D. Hazel is being modest and understating the dangers she faces
2. When did Hazel first become interested in volcanoes?
A. When she was visiting Italy.
B. When she was at school.
C. When she was twenty.
D. When she saw Vesuvius.
3. The underlined word “these” (in paragraph 3) refers to __________.
A. melting ice-caps
B. volcanic eruptions
C. changes in sea level
D. higher temperatures
4. When Hazel was on Mount Etna she had to ________.
A. take a dangerous route
B. take an unnecessary risk
C. leave her boots behind
D. walk for ten hours around the mountain
5. In the future, Hazel wants to ________.
A. revisit volcanoes she knows
B. go on holiday to the Antarctic
C. find a less dangerous job
D. discover new things about volcanoes
