A serious earthquake can be a terrible experience, and it is easy to forget safety measures(措施) in disorder(混乱). Fortunately, most earthquake safety measures are common sense, but if you forget everything else, re­member the following instructions: drop, cover, and hold on. Also, most of earthquake deaths hap­pen after the earthquake, so remember that the danger does not end when the shaking does!

     If you stay indoors during an earthquake, move away from unsupported areas and windows. Try to get under a doorway or another area of the building which is held up by strong beams(梁).  Stay under a table or desk only if it is very strong. Do not rush to lifts, because it is far safer to stay where you are. Cover your head with your arms around it and curl (蜷缩) into a ball, and wait for the shaking to stop.

     If you stay outdoors during an earthquake, move to an area which is as open as possible. Don't move to build­ings, electric poles and other objects which may fall during an earthquake and injure you. Protect your head and stay low to the ground till the shaking ends and it is safe to move.

     After an earthquake, many buildings are less strong, although they appear safe. If you stay indoors, move people from the building quickly and help disabled or injured people. Once outdoors, move well away from the building so that if it falls down, you will not be injured. Wait till public safety officials an­nounce that it is safe to stay indoors.

     By planning ahead and keeping calm during an earthquake, you can greatly increase your chances of survival(生存) without injury.

　　　When you're not at home, many worries may start to crowd your mind. Did I turn the coffee maker off? Did I lock the door? Are the kids doing their homework or watching television? With a smart home, you can quiet all of these worries.

　　　A smart home is a home with a communication network. This network connects devices(装置),such as lights and TV sets, and allows them to be controlled from far away through electrical wiring, mobile phone communication or WiFi over the internet.

　　　More and more people may start to consider owning a smart home, because it makes life much more convenient. It can help keep your room at a certain temperature. It can record what happens inside the home and send the video to your phone. When you are on vacation abroad, you can use a smart home controller to switch on or off the electricity when necessary. Some smart homes can receive a visitor, allowing him to come in and offering him a drink. They can even feed the cat and water the plants.

　　　Besides, smart homes are easy to fix. Most smart home technology and devices are wireless and can be set up with a minimum of tools, using only the guiding information. When a problem appears, you can deal with it yourself without paying a professional.

　　　However, for home-users, the smart home technology is far from perfect. It can be rather expensive to own the technology and the devices. Also, because the smart home system(系统)allow its owner to get home information from anywhere, it leaves the home easy to be attacked by hackers(黑客),who may secretly use or change the information in the system.

　　　Now, many scientists are excited at the future of smart home technology. Imagine being able to get fashion advice from your mirror, or receive food shopping suggestions from your refrigerator. While there are others who worry that those smart devices will make people lazier and lonelier. Whatever it is, one thing is for sure—smart home technology will change the way we live and work.

Vision—phones(可视电话)

    Many inventions are very useful in our daily life. They have greatly changed our life. For example, radios, telephones and televisions are widely used in the world. When you turn on the radio, you can listen. But when you use the telephone, you can not only listen to others but also chat with them. However, you can't see anything at all. The television is much better than both of them. People can watch TV and listen to it, but they can't take part in what they see.

    Today, some people are using a type of telephone called the vision phone. With it two people can see each other when they are talking

    Vision-phones can be of great use when you have something to show the person when you are calling him or her. It may also have other uses in the future. Some day you may be able to call up a library and ask to read a book over your vision-phone. You may be able to do some shopping through it too. Perhaps in the future, the vision-phone will come into wide use in our everyday life.

Dear sir,

    I am doing a project(课题) at school about animals in danger. I think the situation all over the world is really terrible.

    Firstly, I feel so sorry for the giant panda. Pandas mainly live on bamboo. A panda can eat about half its body's weight(重量) of bamboo in 24 hours！That's a lot of bamboo. I think we should try to do more to stop cutting down their forests. We would be so sad if they disappear.

    Secondly, what we should try to protect more is the Chinese alligators(短吻鳄) . They live in some parts of eastern China. They live in freshwater rivers and lakes but the water in some places isn't clean enough for them to live in. It's really dirty in fact. The government should stop factories from polluting the lakes and rivers.

    If we protect these beautiful animals in China, more people may come to China to visit our beautiful country, especially to see the quieter areas in the country. Now most visitors just see the cities.

    I hope you will encourage(鼓励) more people to think about such an important subject.

Yours,

Huang Jing

    "Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell."

    This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown person who lived in Rome in AD 53 wrote it.

    We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives.

    But have all these developments really improved the quality of our lives?

    Picture this: You're rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, and the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night to get it done. How calm and happy do you feel?

    Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have no telephones, no cars, not even any electricity(电) often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they lead simple lives.

    Our family in the UK went "back in time" to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today. The grandparents, with their daughter, and grandsons Benjamin, 10 and Thomas, 7, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.

    The grandmother, Lyn, said, "It was hard physically, but not mentally." She believed life was less materialistic(物质的). "The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes," she said. The boys said they fought less. Probably, they said, because there was less to fight over, such as their computer. Also Lyn changed from being a "fashionable, beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things."

    Here are some simple ways to beat the stress often caused by our inventions!

    Don't be available all the time. Turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day.

    Don't check your emails every day.

    Don't reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets boring.

    Make sure you spend some time talking to your family. Set aside one evening a week when you don't turn on the television. Play cards and chat instead.

    Get a low technology hobby. Every day, do something in the old way, such as walking to have a face-to-face meeting instead of using the email or telephone.

    Don't worry too much about life—laugh more.

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