Northern Sumatra, Indonesia
Magnitude (震级)—8. 6, Date—March 28, 2005
An earthquake happened at Sumatra Islands in the touristy month of March. Being an island area, the earthquake gave rise to a tsunami (海啸) wave and spread to areas as far as SriLanka. The number of deaths is about 1, 500 with more than 400 people getting injured.
Rat Islands, Alaska
Magnitude—8. 7, Date—April 02, 1965
This earthquake only happened inside water and all the losses were because of the tsunami waves caused by it. The quake gave rise to a huge tsunami causing a loss of thousands of dollars. The good news in this quake was that no human loss or injuries were reported in these islands.
Bio Bio, Chile
Magnitude—8. 8, Date—February 27, 2010
This quake happened to take the lives of more than 500 people. The tsunami caused by this quake added to the effects by forcing hundreds of thousands of people to leave their home, of which about 50 are still missing. The number of injured people reached a level of 12, 000, thus making one of the worst earthquakes of the human history.
Sumatra, Indonesia
Magnitude—9. 1, Date—December 26, 2004
Having its name twice in the list, it is clear that Sumatra comes in the area that is most prone (易于……的)to earthquakes. Just 3 months before the earthquake of 8. 6 magnitude, this quake caused much more loss of life and wealth than the later one! The earthquake gave rise to a huge tsunami killing about 300 thousand people all around the countries of South Africa and South Asia.
How to fight California's wildfires? It's an "all of the above" respond.
There might, indeed, be a need to make it easier to thin dying or dead trees out of thickly forested areas, reducing the fuel for wildfires. But the problem is actually more complicated. Even if dead trees are removed, the dry bushes act like kindling (引火物) when wildfires spread.
Even more to the point, thick forests were not a factor in these recent California's fires. "They're using these fires to talk about forest management that has nothing to do with the landscape in which the fires are occurring." says Chur Miller. W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History at Pomona College in Claremont, California.
Climate change is making wildfires worse. The resulting unpredictable weather patterns have created hotter, wetter winters in California, producing a sudden, heavy growth of brushes, grasses and trees. After winter, the state's ongoing drought and record-high summer temperatures draw water out of the plants, making them near-perfect kindling. With the hot and dry Santa Ana winds of fall, fires explode out of control.
Yet these tragedies can't be blamed only on global warming. Wildfires are actually a vital of the state's ecosystem. Lodgepole pines (松树), for example, grow well in fire-prone areas where millions of structures have been built in rural areas of California since the 1940s. When they burn, the cost in lives and treasures skyrockets.
Answering these disasters with a one-dimensional solution helps no one, although it might score short-term political points. The proper response includes placing limits on residential expansion into wildlands; better management and removal of dry brushes and continuously addressing the growing concern of climate changes.
In other words, the solution isn't either. It's all of the above.
In my memory, winters always used to be really unpleasant. You had to dress like a bear just to keep warm when you went outside. You were often cold, wet and no more than one step away from the thin ice on the lake. If you worked over time and went home in the dark, you would arrive home to an ice-cold house. And that would mean turning on the heating and waiting.
Fortunately, things don't have to be so challenging any more. Technology, engineering and design have developed, giving us new solutions to old problems. It means dealing with winter needn't be like skating on thin ice.
With a smart thermostat (恒温器), our homes can be toasty when we need them to be. Many models go with smartphone APPs that allow you to regulate temperature from a distance, so we can warm up the house before we arrive home. According to techradar. com, a large technology news and reviews website, Tado's model has a voice control function, while the Nest "learns" your habits and heats the house for you.
Clothes have been given an upgrade, too. Electronic heated jackets and trousers heat up when you turn them on. What better way to keep warm in the dead of winter? At the touch of a button, or through an APP on our phones, the clothes produce heat from materials placed inside. Many models offer three levels of heating which stay warm for over 12 hours.
Finally, there is the headgear (头部装备)—Hats that have speakers which are included in the cloth using Bluetooth technology, so we can listen to our favourite music or, in some cases, have a phone call using the in-built microphone. All while keeping the head warm and avoiding coldness.
For many, the thought of winter used to be enough to make their blood run cold. But using technology, life needn't freeze up. There's no reason why winter can't be really, really cool.
On April 14th, 2010, my entire life changed in an instant. One moment I was joyfully riding through the sunshine. The next moment, metal, flesh and bones were spreading against the pavement in a thunderous crash. Another cyclist, biking carelessly, had cut me off and sent me supermanning toward oncoming traffic.
As if to symbolize the accident that had hit my life, another disaster also occurred on April 14th, 2010. It cost the airline industry $1. 7 billion. Ten million travellers were stuck for days. Economics all over the world were disturbed. This was the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull, one of Iceland's many volcanoes.
However, volcanoes are not all bad. In fact, they are necessary. They are responsible for the birth of new earth, and for the creation of rich soil. This eruption gave off 0. 15 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere daily. But cancelling 48% of the world's flight travel saved about 2. 8 million tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere, temporarily decreasing our carbon footprint.
Similarly, the accident had badly affected my emotion but it also allowed me to look more closely inside myself and discover things about myself I would never have realized. I learned how not to judge myself for my new limitations.
In 1973, another Icelandic volcano, Eldfell, broke out. Icelanders decided to bomb it with cold water until it froze and chose a different path. After their plan worked, they used the geothermal (地热的) energy for the next 15 years to heat their homes. A good example of life bringing lemons, and making lemonade! One must move on from misfortunes, focusing only on the present moment and being hopeful for the future.
I ran from April 14th, 2010, to every kind of escape. Eventually I ended up in university for a new-found love for Earth sciences.
Many countries have traditional dishes, made with special ingredients and prepared in a certain way. , and when tourists visit, these are the foods they want to try. But why are some foods more popular than others in certain areas?
Traditional ingredients
Typical recipes (菜谱) are usually made with native plant and animal products. For example, Korean dishes often include rice and soybeans because both plants are native to East Asia and grow well in hot, wet areas. In contrast, wheat grows well in drier areas, like the Middle East, where bread is a common staple (主要的) food. , whereas inland cuisines tend to use more meat from farm animals.
Food preservation
Local cuisines often depend on how people traditionally prepared food for storage. In warm weather, meat and fish can go off quickly, so they must be cooked right away or preserved for later. . For that reason, modern Norwegian cuisine includes many smoked foods.
Cooking techniques
. In China, people often fry food in a deep metal pan or steam it in a basket over hot water. In Morocco, people cook traditional dishes in a special pot called a tajine, while in parts of India, people use a large oven, called a tandoor. And some local dishes aren't cooked at all.
Imported (进口的) ingredients
Sometimes local cuisines include ingredients that originally came from another place. , while many Russian dishes are made with potatoes. However, all of these ingredients were brought to Europe from South America in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. But now they are common around the world.
A. Seafood is often a key ingredient in coastal areas
B. There is a danger that local food traditions will be lost
C. Many different cooking techniques are used around the world
D. For example, Italian dishes often include tomatoes and peppers
E. Nowadays, we can buy food products from all around the world
F. These local dishes can become symbols of a place and its culture
G. In Norway, the Vikings used to “cure” meat and fish by smoking them over a fire
"This Friday we'll have the yearly Egg Drop Challenge," said our science teacher, Mr baker. "You can work alone or with a partner."
My friend, Cassie, and I smiled at each other. We always worked on projects 1.
The goal of the challenge was simple—to build a protective container to keep an egg from breaking when 2 the stadium wall.
I made my sandwich that afternoon while waiting for Cassie. 3 the butter-cream gave me an idea.
"I have a brilliant design for our 4 container!" I said when Cassie arrived. "We can protect the egg with some butter-cream."
"Why not put the egg in a basket with a parachute (降落伞) 5?" Cassie rolled her eyes. "The parachute is better than that stupid idea."
I couldn't believe it. Of course, we'd had our little 6 in the past, but she'd never called any of my ideas "7" before.
"Then I'll build mine and you build yours!"
8 words had been out, our friendship was challenged.
When Friday finally arrived, I had to 9 Cassie's Egg Force One looked pretty good. Anyway, my Egg-cellent Egg Cream didn't look quite scientific. We kids carried our containers up three stadium steps and dropped them over the side wall. Those whose eggs broke were out; those whose eggs survived 10 three more steps and dropped them again. This would go on till the last egg broke.
After four rounds, only Cassie and I were 11. I let go of my box. I heard someone say "ew" after seconds. Had my egg broken? I raced down the 12. The side walk was dotted with egg shells from those 13 drops. Finally I found my little Egg-cellent Egg Cream.
"That looks like egg drop soup, Laura," Cassie said. She was holding her Egg Force One. My heart raced. Had she won? I looked at her basket. Empty.
"My egg bounced (弹起) 14."she explained, pointing to a broken shell.
"A tie," Mr Baker said.
Cassie looked at me, and her glare 15. I laughed. She smiled.
One of the biggest challenges (face) students today is how to concentrate on studies. Almost all of them are struggling for their concentration power. In an age mobile phones and Internet are eating up most of our time and energy, one can understand how different it is to focus attention and energy on studies.
One of the most important (factor) for developing concentration on a task, whether it is study or anything else, (be) to develop an interest in that task. We are able to focus (easy) and more long periods of time on tasks that we find more interesting. If you ever want to concentrate on anything and studies are no (except), you need (ensure) that the environmental around you is distraction (注意力分散) free. So the question is not how to concentrate on studies how to avoid distractions that have swallowed up mankind today. The only way to guarantee distraction free environment is by getting rid of all the unnecessary things around you, (include) the electronic gadgets (小器具) like mobile phones.
The familiar yellow school bus is the largest system of mass transportation in the US and every school day transports roughly 25 million young people to school and home again after the school day ends. Meanwhile, they are the safest method for getting kids to and from school, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Children are 70 times more likely to arrive at school safely on the school bus than if they had traveled to school driving themselves or riding with friends.
These school buses meet more of the nation's motor vehicle safety standards than any other vehicles on the road. Also, several new technologies available today are making school buses even safer, such as video cameras on the inside and outside, stop arm cameras, GPS tracking and collision lessening systems. Another safety tool on school buses is high seat backs, closely-spaced seats and energy-absorbing seating.
But even the safeness of school buses would not completely sum up why children are safer when riding the big, yellow bus. The bus is only as safe as the professional men and women who drive them. All drivers must obtain a Class B or C Commercial Driver's License (CDL). They are randomly tested for alcohol and drugs, usually have their driving record checked, and are given the same review for criminal history as teachers and other employees who have contact with students. In order to serve as a school bus driver, most applicants are required to successfully complete a training course, along with instruction in the classroom and behind the wheel.
School buses are safe for the environment, not only because each bus replaces 36 passenger cars that would, but for the buses, be on the road taking and picking up school children. Additionally, school buses use alternative green fuels like natural gas, and electric power.
Todd Monteferrario, President of the National School Transportation Association, said parents should remember that the safest and smartest choice is to put their children on the big yellow bus when they can.
