It was 3:43. Thunder was crashing and the rain was pouring. Suddenly my father 1 into my room.
"Adam! Adam! Get up! We're flooding!" he shouted and shook me by the shoulders. That 2 me up! I ran downstairs to the basement (地下室). It was like a swimming pool.
My mother and I immediately started to pick up things and take them upstairs. I had no 3 on, so my feet were quite freezing.
Things got worse every minute. Within the next hour, we had moved 4 that we could to the first floor. The computer, big-screen television and heavy boxes 5 with our most valuable things were taken to safety.
6, our piano, sofa, washing machine and water heater were all still down there—being destroyed. There was nothing we could do.
That was the hardest part. Knowing that your home is being destroyed is bad enough, but realizing that you can't do anything to stop it feels even worse. Water had come in our front door. Rescue7 were floating in our streets. Mother told me to pack an overnight bag of clothes and valuables and get ready to leave.
When it was 8 safe to walk outside, all the people in the neighborhood 9 at the street corner. People became friends, and friends became like family. People comforted each other. We learned later that the National Weather Service had declared the storm a flash flood.
I really have learned something from this flood. I've learned what destruction is. I have learned what 10 means. I know in the future, when I watch people's lives affected by natural disasters, I can understand them. I will show great pity on them and I will do what I can to help them.
Dogs are known as "man's best friend". Owners love their dogs they are very loyal (忠诚的). Dogs may be as (small) as the Chihuahua, or as large of the Great Dane. Dogs have a very good sense of smell. Do you know that one kind of dog, the Bloodhound, is used in duck hunting? They also help policemen their work.
Anne was born on 12 June, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany. Her family was Jewish. During World War II, they had to live in a secret hiding place (escape) the Nazi Holocaust (纳粹大屠杀). This was a time the German Nazis were killing Jews. On 4 August, 1944, the hiding place (discover). Of all the people had hidden there, only Otto Frank, Anne's father, survived.
Last year my family moved to a new city. I still (remember) the first day when the teacher asked me to introduce myself to the class. I was so nervous that my mind went blank. (stand) in the front of the class speechless, I was close to tears. Suddenly, a girl walked up to me. She said she would go first. Her smile and words encouraged me, and I had the (confident) to introduce myself to the class.
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My sister Alice and I have been trying to get people to stop dropping cigarette (香烟)butts(烟头)for seven years. One day, we were walking in our hometown and saw hundreds of cigarette butts on the ground. They made the town look so ugly that we decided to start a group to make people dropping butts. We called it "No Butts About It".
At first, we drew pictures with "The Earth is not your ashtray(烟灰缸)"written on them. We put the pictures around our hometown—in parks, by beaches, and along roads. We wanted to make people understand that dropping butts hurts the environment. Most smokers don't think that dropping butts hurts the Earth. But it does, and all rubbish does!
Later, we wrote to companies and asked them for money to help us. We used the money to buy ashtrays to give to smokers. We wanted smokers to carry the ashtrays with them so they didn't have to drop butts.
At the moment, we are trying to get cigarette companies to put an ashtray in each pack of cigarettes. Some companies want to do it. Many people have started to join our group since it began. Today there are 45 other "No Butts About It" groups in America.
Now there even groups in England, Australia, and India! Many newspapers have written about my sister and me over the last seven years. And we have won many prizes for what we do. But we are not interested in prizes. We just want to make the Earth a better and cleaner place for animals, plants and people.
One day, it will be.
In September, something terrible happened on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia. As many as 380 pilot whales became stranded(搁浅) in shallow water there and later died. This might have been Australia's largest stranding event on record, the BBC reported.
But this large amount of whale stranding is not uncommon. For centuries, it has happened all over the world and has puzzled scientists. Scientists say the cause is often unknown. But they have offered many different explanations.
Some say the whales chase small fish for food and end up in shallow water because they are not paying attention to where they are going.
Others think the stranding has something to do with Earth's geomagnetic field (地磁场). They say that a geomagnetic compass in whales' brains controls their position. Unusual changes in Earth's magnetic field can affect the whales' compasses and send them in the wrong direction.
Another explanation suggests that stranding is caused by the close relationships that whales have. Pilot whales travel in large groups. One lead whale might mistakenly lead the whole group to shallow water. "And if one gets into trouble, the others will not leave," said Sheryl Gibney, a leading biologist from New Zealand. "Some will come in and try to help, they get trapped on the beach, then more will come."
The whales are trapped by mistake or out of sympathy(同情). Once they get stranded, they will likely die. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the US, less than 10 percent of all stranded whales survive.
UK physicist Isaac Newton once said, ''Nature is pleased with simplicity and nature is no dummy (傻子). '' Indeed, Mother Nature can provide almost everything human beings need if we follow her rules. But if we break the rules, she is likely to be cruel and lash out at us.
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia (新型冠状病毒肺炎, NCP) in China and some other countries at the beginning of this year is an example. According to Xinhua News Agency, the new coronavirus is similar to a virus found in a bat in 2017 and probably has an intermediate host (中间宿主). It's believed that the virus originated from the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, Hubei province, where live wild animals were sold.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Dr Peter Daszak, president of the US-based health organization EcoHealth Alliance, said, ''This outbreak is a lesson for us. On a global scale, human population density, wildlife diversity, and land use change are what drive new pandemics (流行病). ''
In ancient times, people needed to rely on nature to survive so they held it in awe (敬畏). For example, the American Indians believed that humans are a part of nature and nature is a part of humans. Chinese ancients always pursued the harmony between nature and human beings.
However, as human beings master more knowledge and make more advanced tools, people try to change and even conquer nature. They use more land to make buildings, genetically modify (改变) plants, capture some wild and rare animals to suit their own needs. In this process, humans gradually lose contact with nature and even throw it out of balance. For example, cutting a large number of forests means carbon dioxide must build up in the atmosphere and it contributes to global warming.
Although we don't know for sure what first caused the NCP outbreak, Brian Lamacraft at Medium said it's time for people to ''reflect on our relationship with our planet'' and ''reconnect with this world and everything that we've been given''. After all, according to US poet Gary Snyder, ''Nature is not the place to visit. It's our home.''
About three years ago, something terrible happened to me. That was the day when it took only six hours to break my body and soul.
One day, my two brothers and I were coming back from the islands where we often risked going and got more fish than others. Suddenly, the sky was covered with dark clouds and in less than a minute we were in a terrible storm. A huge wave covered our boat and my younger brother fell into the sea. My elder brother cried out "Moskoe-strom!" The moment I heard the word I became very frightened. I knew what he meant by that one word well enough.
With the wind and waves, we were going in the direction of the whirlpool. We were hopeless. Nothing could save us. It may appear strange, but at that moment, when we were in the edge of the whirlpool, I felt calmer than when we were moving towards it.
I saw clearly that there were other objects in the whirlpool — trees and barrels. After a while, I became curious about the whirlpool itself. I then made three important observations. The first, the larger the bodies were, the more rapidly they fell; the second, between two objects of equal extent, round objects fell down less rapidly; and the third, between two objects of the same size, objects shaped like a tube fell down more slowly. So I tied myself to a barrel to help me float. I tried to make my brother understand, but he was too frightened and stayed in the heavy boat. Without waiting, I jumped into the sea to try and escape.
As you can see, the reason why I'm here to tell the story is that I made the right decision. Some time after I left the boat, with my brother in it, it was pulled into the bottom of the whirlpool. Soon after that, the whirlpool became less wild. I was still tied to the barrel and the waves soon carried me to an area where the other fishermen were. In the end, a boat picked me up.
①appear②curious③escape④wild
|
A. to seem to be B. to start to be seen C. violent and strong D. wanting to know about something E. living or growing in natural conditions F. to get away from a dangerous situation |
假设你是红星中学高一学生李华。你的英国朋友Jim在给你的邮件中询问你所钦佩的人。请你给Jim回信，内容包括：
1）你钦佩的人是谁；
2）你钦佩他/她的理由；
注意：开头和结尾已为你写好，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
……
Yours,
Li Hua
