The December day started like any other. Papa came back with his boat full of fish. Mama made breakfast for the family. Seven-year-old Joonas was doing his homework, while his two little brothers ran around the yard. That day seemed peaceful, but Alejo 1 better.
Alejo felt shaking in his legs, and his ears perked up (竖着), listening for what had already 2 Alejo made a crying sound, and Mama said, "Sh!" Alejo barked (吠), and Joonas complained, "Quiet, I'm trying to 3".
Suddenly, a strange roaring (轰鸣) sound began. Papa ran to a nearby building's roof (屋顶) to 4 what was happening. But Alejo knew better. The shaking of the ground 5 up his padded paws (肉掌). He wanted to run, but he didn't dare to leave his family.
"Why were they 6? Didn't they know that a great earthquake had roared under the ocean and would soon bring strong waves onto the land?" Alejo thought.
And then Papa shouted with 7 from the rooftop, "Tsunami(海啸)! Run!"
Mama cried, "Sons, come on! She grabbed (抓) a little one under each arm. "Joonas, run! You're fast and strong. Follow me up the 8. Fast!"
But the roar had gotten louder, 9 her words. All that Joonas had heard was, "Run!" And he ran back home where he thought he would be 10. Alejo barked and barked, but the tsunami made it 11 to hear his voice, too.
Alejo gently bit (咬) Joonas's feet, but the boy wouldn't move. " 12," Joonas pushed the dog away, but Alejo would not give up. He grabbed Joonas's shirt in his 13. He pulled and pulled until his mouth broke. With all his strength, he pulled Joonas back outside and hit him from behind. Finally, the boy 14.
Alejo ran toward the hill, looking back to make sure Joonas was following. They raced uphill as the huge wall of 15 ran after them. Alejo and Joonas didn't stop running until they reached higher up the hill and met their family. And they had a mother-father-brothers-dog thankful hug.
The Horsetail Fall (瀑布) is one of Yosemite National Park's most amazing views. Around the second week of February, the setting sun hits the Horsetail Fall at just the right angle (角度) to light the upper parts of the waterfall. And when conditions are right, the Horsetail Fall becomes orange and red at sunset. It is like red-hot lava (熔岩) pouring down from the top of the El Capitan. So, it got the name "firefall".
The firefall is a perfect match of the weather, the fall, the time and the watching place. It usually appears on dry, warm and cloudless days. There must be enough flowing water to make a firefall too. So there must be enough snow on the mountain top, and it turns into water on warm afternoons.
The sun goes to the best place before the fall in late February. And the best time to watch the fall is 5 to 15 minutes before the sunset. Only at this time can visitors see the firefall. The El Capitan Picnic Area is the best place to watch, because it is close to the fall and is perfect to set up cameras and tents.
Every year in February, thousands of photographers come to watch the firefall. Although the view may appear just minutes before sunset, many of them have to come hours earlier to get a right place to set their cameras in time. "I'm just saying that the Yosemite Firefall is something you don't want to miss during the winter," says Kate Moore, a traveller and the lead content creator for ParkedInParadise.com.
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was a great success. China has kept the promise to hold a green Olympics. Many green actions made it possible, like providing environmentally friendly smart beds, using new energy(能源) cars, supporting sporting places with 100% clean energy and reusing rain and snow water.
Take making ice as an example. China didn't use R507, a common material to make ice, because it isn't friendly enough to the environment. Through 18 months' hard work, China independently developed the CO₂ direct cooling technology.
A net of tubes runs under the ice. High-pressure liquid(液态) CO₂ goes through them to create heat(热) exchange. The CO₂ evaporates(蒸发) under the ice surface. The evaporation takes in heat and turns water on the surface into ice. And the CO₂ goes into another circle. This technology helps to make ice better and faster. And above all, it is much greener because there's no new CO₂ produced. Among all the 15 ice sporting places in the Winter Olympics, 7 used the CO₂ direct cooling technology to make ice. As a result, much less pollution was caused.
Beijing did so much more to save energy. Beijing built the new sporting places with green materials. As for the old ones, Beijing used new glass walls to take the place of traditional walls to let more natural light in. 70% of the waste heat was also reused to keep warm and dry. And a large number of new energy cars were used at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics is the first to truly achieve carbon neutrality(碳中和), and it has set new standards in green technologies. Some newspapers say China has set an example for the world in environmental protection and green development.
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Recently, China has announced the list of the first five national parks.
Each of them is divided into two parts-the core (核心) protection area and the general control area. In the core protection area, only research and surveillance (监视) in science are allowed. And the general control area is open to the public, allowing travel activities such as camping and hiking. In the future, national parks are expected to be natural classrooms. People can learn about different kinds of animals and plants through eco-friendly (环保的) travel activities.
The national parks can also be helpful to local people. The building of these national parks provides many jobs for local people. People living in or around the parks can work as park rangers (护林员) and guides. They can also sell some eco-friendly things with local colour. So their yearly incomes (收入) will grow a lot.
Then let's take a look at the five national parks.
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Three River-Source National Park on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (青藏高原) , is the largest national park in China. Because it is home to the sources of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers, people call it "China's water tower". |
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Northeast China Tiger and Leopard (豹) National Park is in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces. It covers an area of 14,100 square kilometres. It is our country's biggest and only place for wild Siberian tigers and Amur leopards to live in. |
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Wuyi Mountain National Park in Fujian Province is a UNESCO natural and cultural heritage site (遗址) . The forest makes up over 96 percent of the park. The park is the paradise of birds, kingdom (王国) of snakes and world of insects. You can also see the Danxia landform (地貌) there. |
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Giant Panda National Park connects panda habitats (栖息地) in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Inside the park are more than 1,600 wild gian1 pandas. They make up over 70 percent of the pandas in China. |
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Hainan Tropical (热带的) Rainforest National Park is the largest tropical forest in China. There are more than 400 kinds of plants that can only be found in Hainan. The world's only 35 Hainan gibbons (长臂猿) live there. |
A: Hello, Jane. How was everything going last month?
B: Not very well!
A: A terrible experience? What happened?
B: The heavy snow stopped cars and trains, and we didn't have enough water and food.
A: Really? So how did you go to school?
B: I couldn't ride a bike and it took me two hours to walk to school.
A:
B: Yes, you are right.
A: What was the weather like then?
B: It was very cold.
A: I'm sorry to hear that. What happened next?
B: Thousands of people helped us to fight against the snow. My uncle was one of them who volunteered to put into the fight actively.
A: How great your uncle was! We should take pride in him. As a student, we are supposed to study harder and get better grades.
B: Yes, I agree with you.
A: Oh! It's time for class. See you later!
B: See you!
A. Many people got ill because of the bad weather.
B. It was the heaviest snow I had ever seen.
C. It was the most wonderful moment I had ever heard.
D. I had a terrible experience during the cold winter.
E. He was a good example whom we should learn from.
F. I think you must be very tired after you arrived at school.
WeatherAntarctica lies in the most southern part of the world. It is the coldest area on Earth. There isn't much rain, but there is a lot of snow and wind. The lowest temperature was on 21 July in 1983 at -89.2℃!
PopulationNobody lives in Antarctica all the time! The first people to stay there for a while were fishermen in 1786. Now there are about 5, 000 scientists and researchers there in the summer.
History of exploration (探险)During 1907-1909, British explorer Earnest Shackleton explored Antarctica on foot. In 1911, two explorers—a British man named Scott and a Norwegian named Amundsen—raced 1, 400 kilometres to the South Pole (南极). Amundsen arrived first.
Animals and birdsThere aren't any large animals in Antarctica. Polar bears live at the North Pole. But there are a lot of penguins and seabirds. Every spring there are over 100 million seabirds in Antarctica.
