On the day the tornado hit, there was no indication severe weather was on its way—the sky was blue and the sun had been out. The first alert my husband, Jimmy, 67, and I, 65, got came around 9 p. m. , from some scrolling text on the TV Jimmy was watching. He ran upstairs to find me in our third-floor bedroom, and we changed the channel from the presidential primary debate I had been watching to our local Pensacola, Florida, station.
No sooner had we found coverage of the tornado than it was on top of us. It was the loudest thing I have ever heard. The bones of the house shook, and the power went out. Pink insulation flew into the room from a trapdoor to the attic, and the wind began to roar through the house.
I didn't know how or if we would make it down the steps. It felt as if there were no floor underneath me as the wind lifted me off my feet. I gripped the banister (栏杆) and tried to move forward, but this intense pressure held me in place.
By the time I reached the closet, the tornado had been over us for about a minute. Jimmy pushed me down to the closet floor, but he couldn't get inside himself because of the wind. I gripped Jimmy's arm. My knees and scalp were full of glass, but in that moment, I felt no pain.
All of a sudden, Jimmy lifted off his feet like people in tornadoes do in the movies. I thought he was gone. And then everything stopped. He landed on his feet. In those first quiet moments, I couldn't believe it was over. Jimmy said he'd go outside to check. "No," I said. "Don't leave me. "
Our neighbor says the storm lasted four minutes. In that time, four of the twelve town houses in our unit were completely destroyed. Of the houses left standing, ours suffered the most damage. Amazingly, none of us were severely injured.
Many years ago, there lived a poor fisherman. His only companion was his dog. They might be seen walking on the white sandy beach.
The dog was always beside his master as the fisherman made his little boat ready to sail. When the man pulled out to sea each morning, the dog would run up on the high ridge(山岭). There he would sit and watch all day. The dog never moved until late afternoon when he saw the little boat return. Then he would race back to the shore to greet his master.
As the years went by, the fisherman grew older. So did the faithful dog. The fisherman still went out to sea. The dog still watched for his return, sitting on the high ridge.
One early morning in September, the fisherman was getting his little boat ready. All at once the dog began to bark. He circled around the fisherman and tugged at his trousers. The fisherman could not remember when he had seen his dog act so strangely. He patted the dog's back, thinking the dog wanted to play. But nothing made any difference. Then the man climbed into the boat and sailed away. The dog went to his watching place, still barking.
There were other fishing boats out that morning. Suddenly the soft wind changed. It began to blow wildly. The fisherman's boat was seized by the wind and whirled around(随风旋转). The sky darkened. Rain began to fall.
"It's a hurricane! "said the fisherman. The man thought of his dog at once. Had the dog left the ridge and run home? Or was he still sitting there? The fisherman tried to drive his boat and turn it toward the shore. Suddenly a great wave swept over his head and tossed the boat away(卷走).
The next morning, the hurricane was over. The families of the other fishermen ran to the shore. They watched for the return of the boats. They waited and waited, but no one returned. Then the people went slowly back to their homes and started a new life. As they rebuilt their village, no one gave a thought to the fisherman's dog.
Several months later, a group of villagers was out gathering sea grapes(海葡萄). They noticed what appeared to be the figure of a dog sitting high on the ridge. "Look" said one. "Isn't that the old fisherman's dog?" "How could it be, after all this time?" said another.
When the man reached the spot, he found only a rock—shaped like a dog. But as soon as the people looked up again, they saw the stone dog. He just sat there on top of the ridge, waiting, waiting...
Maggie had never experienced an earthquake before, only prepared for it. As long as she could remember, preparing for an earthquake was routine(常规的) at school. Her family as well had made plans in the event of a natural disaster. Earthquakes are so much more common on the West Coast of the United States.
Today Maggie was at home alone. Maggie knew her mom would be driving home on the busy freeway, thinking about preparing supper for Maggie's dad. Maggie's dad would arrive at the airport. He was coming home from a two-week business trip.
Maggie arrived home from school at the regular time. She was taking some biscuits from the kitchen cupboard, when she felt it. First just a tremor(微震), then the violent shaking. Maggie quickly ran under the large, wooden table in the dining room. The sounds of breaking glass and the crashing(坠落) of many things were frightening. But the table remained undamaged, and Maggie hid herself in fear.
After what seemed like a century the earthquake appeared to be over. Maggie could hear the sound of water rushing below her in the basement. The smell of natural gas was present in the air. Maggie knew where the main water valve(阀门) was located. Dad had shown her where it was and how to turn it off. Slowly and carefully she came out from under the table. The once tidy home was now almost unrecognizable. As Maggie reached the open basement door she could see the steps were still in good condition. She carefully made her way down into the dark basement. While still on the steps she felt the water rising and rising. Suddenly Maggie felt a lot of pain as a large ceiling beam (天花板梁) hit her head and shoulder. She fell onto some storage boxes. . .
Not all bodies of water are so evidently alive as the Atlantic Ocean, an S-shaped body of water covering 33 million square miles. The Atlantic has, in a sense, replaced the Mediterranean as the inland sea of Western civilization. Unlike real inland seas, which seem strangely still, the Atlantic is rich in oceanic liveliness. It is perhaps not surprising that its vitality has been much written about by ancient poets.
"Storm at Sea", a short poem written around 700, is generally regarded as one of mankind's earliest artistic representations of the Atlantic.
When the wind is from the west
All the waves that cannot rest
To the east must thunder on
Where the bright tree of the sun
Is rooted in the ocean's breast.
As the poem suggests, the Atlantic is never dead and dull. It is an ocean that moves, impressively and endlessly. It makes all kinds of noise—it is forever thundering, boiling, crashing, and whistling.
It is easy to imagine the Atlantic trying to draw breath—perhaps not so noticeably out in mid-ocean, but where it meets land, its waters bathing up and down a sandy beach. It mimics(模仿)nearly perfectly the steady breathing of a living creature. It is filled with symbiotic existences, too; unimaginable quantities of creatures, little and large alike, mix within its depths in a kind of oceanic harmony, giving to the waters a feeling of heartbeat, a kind of sub-ocean vitality. And it has a psychology. It has personalities: sometimes peaceful and pleasant, on rare occasions rough and wild; always it is strong and striking.
I work as a meteorologist(气象学家) in Tampa, Florida. It's my job to follow hurricanes(飓风) and provide information about them to scientists.
I was working for the National Meteorological Office in Bracknell, near London, in the autumn of 1995, and I saw a documentary called Stormchasers with family. Two months later I came across an ad for a meteorologist to work in Florida. I was interviewed over the phone, moved to the US, and started to work here in Tampa in May 1996.
I have been all over the world hunting hurricanes. It's exciting to end up in different cities and different countries day after day. If you are a meteorologist, you have to love flying. I also love working with top scientists. For me, it's like a classroom in the sky.
People often ask me what an average day is like. In fact, there's no such thing as an average day in my job! We often take off at a moment's notice to hunt storms.
Next, I would like to join a space program and be the first meteorologist in space. There aren't any hurricanes!
If you also want to be a meteorologist, study math and science and get a degree in meteorology. I have taken the hurricane hunter path, but you could do research.
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A. I have learned so much from them. B. What I like most about my job is the travel. C. It's a wonderful job and the pay is pretty good. D. It all depends on the weather, and you can't control that. E. However, I haven't come up with an experiment to do in space yet. F. Because of the job, I'm away from my family who all live in the UK. G. It was about hurricane hunters and I thought, "Wow, that's an interesting job! " |
It all started when we were at school on a Monday. It was after lunch time and we had just finished this week's maths exam and Stephen, Vivian, Krystal and I were correcting our1again. We were just getting ready to do English when everything started2. Things were flying everywhere. It was an EARTHQUAKE!
Stephen, Vivian, Krystal and I all3for cover while everyone else stood there, too4to move. Even the5boys in the class didn't move! It shook like jelly and it was the scariest earthquake ever! A bookshelf fell on the6of the girls. The heater fell on the boys. It was a disaster! So far, Stephen, Vivian, Krystal and I were the only people7. We were all as scared as if we had seen a8.
The earthquake went for a couple more9and then we ran into the corridor and checked if anyone was alive. Everyone but us was dead. We went outside and all the10were wrecked. All except one.
We ran into the house and it was as11as ice. The disgusting cobwebs(蜘蛛网)touched our skin. It was a nightmare! The house was old and rotten and it12like really bad body smell. We ran13and we heard someone shouting. We14the door. There was a girl in the room. We guessed she was about eight years old. "Help me", she shouted in a frightened voice, I was just about to help her when I heard my alarm clock ringing. It was just a15!
I always sit down comfortably in the barber's shop and listen patiently my barber(理发师). He either explains the current political situation and women's fashions or tells me jokes which I (hear) at least five times already. In twenty (minute),I get a great deal of information as well as a hair-cut.
But last week our conversation was very short indeed. We heard loud cries of "fire!" (come) from upstairs. All of the customers and barbers made up their minds (escape) from the shop immediately.
We were (certain) a funny sight to passers-by! I had a white sheet round my neck and my hair (be) half cut. My barber was close behind me with a comb and a pair of scissors in his hands. One of the customers had sat next to me was not so (luck). There were still soap bubbles on one side of his face and his barber ran after him holding a shaving-brush in one hand and a razor in the !
Science can't explain the power of pets, but many studies have shown that the company of pets can help lower blood pressure(血压) and raise chances of recovering from a heart attack, reduce loneliness and spread all-round good cheer.
Any owner will tell you how much joy a pet brings. For some, an animal provides more comfort than a husband/wife. A 2002 study by Karen Allen of the State University of New York measured stress(紧张) levels and blood pressure in people—half of them pet owners—while they performed 5 minutes of mental arithmetic(心算) or held a hand in ice water. Subjects completed the tasks alone, with a husband/wife, a close friend or with a pet. People with pets did it best. Those tested with their animal friends had smaller change in blood pressure and returned most quickly to baseline heart rates. With pets in the room, people also made fewer math mistakes than when doing in front of other companions. It seems people feel more released (放松) around pets, says Allen, who thinks it may be because pets don't judge.
A study reported last fall suggests that having a pet dog not only raises your spirits but may also have an effect on your eating habits. Researchers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital spent a year studying 36 fat people and their equally fat dogs who were put on diet-and-exercise programs; a separate group of 56 people without pets were put on a diet program. On average, people lost about 11 pounds, or 5% of their body weight. Their dogs did even better, losing an average of 12 pounds, more than 15% of their body weight. Dog owners didn't lose any more weight than those without dogs but, say researchers, got more exercise overall—mostly with their dogs—and found it worth doing.
