BLUE HILLS COLLEGE
ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE
EXTENDED WRITING: DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY
EDUCATOR: L. MUGEZI
MODERATOR: M. RADEBE
WRITING DATES: 2 – 3 FEBRUARY 2023
NAME: ________________________________________
CLASS: GRADE 11
TOTAL: 45 marks
Candidate’s mark
DESCRIPTIVE WRITING
•
The primary purpose of descriptive writing is
to describe a person, place or thing in such
a way that a picture is formed in the reader’s
mind.
•
Capturing an event through descriptive
writing involves paying close attention to the
details by using all of your five senses.
•
Writing more descriptively will improve your
writing by making it more interesting and
engaging to read.
An Earthquake
When I was a child, there were three large earthquakes that happened near
Gauteng, from December to February. There were thousands of aftershocks, about
1,874 of them were so large that they could be felt as far as Cape Town, 305
kilometres away. It is unknown how many lives were lost during the earthquakes;
however, people say that the number was not large. The region that the quakes
affected had a small population. The main shock happened around 2:15 in the
morning on December, I thought we would all die.
It happened because of movement at Zimbabwe. It was then followed by three large
aftershocks with magnitudes that ranged from 6.0 to 7.0 that occurred throughout the
following 48 hours. Even though the tremors were so strong, only minor damage was
reported to human-made structures. Including collapsing chimneys, falling trees, and
cracking timbers in houses. A few areas were lifted, while others were destroyed.
Soil liquefaction caused large sand blows that destroyed farmland in states such as
Masvingo, Bulawayo, and Harare
I heard the shaking rang church bells as far away as Noordwyk. The earthquake
brought down houses in Limpopo, Northwest, and Western Cape about 360
kilometres away. A quake with a magnitude of 7.0 was the strongest one that day
and became known as the “dawn aftershock” that occurred at 7:15
a.m. The second quake occurred on January 23 and was the smallest of the three
earthquakes. The main shock happened at 9:15 in the morning, its estimated
magnitude was about 7.5. Were the earthquake’s epicentre was located is unknown.
Its location is believed to have been somewhere around Midrand and Blue Valley.
No noticeable damage to area was reported; however, landscape changes, like the
ones that occurred on December 16, are believed to have happened place. The third
quake happened on February 7th in 1811.The shocks epicentre was located near
Midrand, Pretoria as well. It hit at 3:45 in the morning and resulted in the destruction
of the region known as Midrand. Structural damage occurred in Noordwyk, Midway
Mews and Waterfall as well. Several chimneys fell because of the ground vibration.
The landscape was damaged in several ways including the warping of the ground
through sinking and uplift, sand blows, ground cracking, landslides, and stream bank
calving. Also, Durban, a body of water formed because of subsidence that came
from earlier earthquakes that happened. Flatboat operators reported that the flow of
the beach was suddenly reversed; however, studies since that time show that the
tremors produced westward-moving water waves that made it look like the beach
had reversed its course.
So, in conclusion, the earthquakes were a series of three large earthquakes that
happened between December to February in South Africa and Zimbabwe. They
were once believed to have been the largest earthquakes ever, this theory has since
then been proven otherwise. Although the earthquake did a lot of damage to cities
and manmade structures, it also created beautiful things like Lakes in Zimbabwe and
formed the spectacular landscape that we know today.
2023\02\02 9:03