Complete the paragraph with the words in the box in the correct forms.

burn to the ground absolute volcano eruption wave fountain ash lava erupt

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD took the people of Pompeii by surprise. They had always known that the mountain was a_____ but it had been quiet for so long that nobody saw it as a threat. When the volcano finally did _______ , it was so quick and so severe that the town was soon covered in ______ and __________ . A writer called Pliny, who was there during the________ , described how lava was thrown into the air like a ____________.

volcano

erupt

ash

lava

eruption

fountain