[originaltext] (16-1)The negative impacts of natural disasters can be seen

(16-1)The negative impacts of natural disasters can be seen everywhere. In just the past few weeks, the world has witnessed the destructive power of earthquakes in Indonesia, typhoons in the Philippines, and the destructive sea waves that struck Samoa and neighboring islands.
    A study by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters finds that between 1980 and 2007, nearly 8,400 natural disasters killed more than two million people. These catastrophic events caused more than $1.5 trillion in economic losses.
    UN weather expert Geoffrey Love says that is the bad news. " Over the last 50 years, economic losses have increased by a factor of 50. That sounds pretty terrible,(16-2)but the loss of life has decreased by a factor of 10, simply because we are getting better at warning people. We are making a difference. Extreme events, however, will continue to occur. But the message is that they need not be disasters. "
    Love, who is director of Weather and Disaster Risk Reduction at the World Meteorological Organization, says most of the deaths and economic losses were caused by weather, climate, or water-related extremes. These include droughts, floods, windstorms, strong tropical winds and wildfires.
    He says extreme events will continue.(17)But he says extreme events become disaster’s only when people fail to prepare for them. " Many of the remedies are well-known. From a planning perspective, it’s pretty simple. Build better buildings. Don’t build where the hazards will destroy them. From an early-warning perspective, make sure the warnings go right down to the community level. Build community action plans. "
     (16-3)The World Meteorological Organization points to Cuba and Bangladesh as examples of countries that have successfully reduced the loss of life caused by natural disasters by taking preventive action.
     (18)It says tropical storms formerly claimed dozens, if not hundreds of lives, each year in Cuba. But the development of an early-warning system has reversed that trend. In 2008, Cuba was hit by five successive hurricanes, but only seven people were killed. Bangladesh also has achieved substantial results. Major storm surges in 1970 and 1991 caused the deaths of about 440,000 people. Through careful preparation, the death toll from a super tropical storm in November 2007 was less than 3,500.
Questions 16 to 18 are based on the recording you have just heard.
16. What is the talk mainly about?
17. How can we stop extreme events from turning into disasters?
18. What does the example of Cuba serve to show?