What is a hurricane?

    You may already know that hurricanes are storms that can cause devastating(毁灭性的)waves, wind, and rain. They happen during “Hurricane Season,” which is from June 1st until November 30th in the Atlantic Ocean and from May 15th until November 30th in the Pacific Ocean.

Categories(类别)of Hurricanes

    There are five categories of hurricanes, which are based on wind speeds. The categories help people know how much damage(危害)a hurricane may cause because the greater the wind speed, the more dangerous the storm is. For example, a Category 5 hurricane has winds over 155 miles per hour, which are strong enough to destroy the buildings along the shorelines completely.

Hurricane Dangers

When a hurricane happens together with heavy rainfall, there can be a devastating flood. The centre of a hurricane is called the eye. While most of a hurricane has dangerously strong winds, the eye is actually(事实上)a calm area in the storm. When the eye of a hurricane passes over land, people might think that it's over, but before long the wind and rain increase again as the second part of the hurricane moves through.

Hurricane Safety Tips

    There is no way to stop a hurricane or make it change direction, so if you ever find yourself in the path of a hurricane, be sure to remember the following safety tips.

    Be sure you have a radio, batteries, fresh drinking water, and enough food.

    Tell neighbours, friends, and family members your emergency plans. Tell them where you'll go if you need to leave your home.

    If you live near the ocean, leave your home and travel to a safe place. You could stay with a friend or a family member, in a hotel or in an emergency shelter area.

    Stay inside during the storm. You could be seriously injured (受伤) if you go outside.

    The leaders （领导人） of 13 countries had a big meeting in St Petersburg, Russia from November 21 to 24, 2010.The meeting was about tigers. They talked about the ways to protect the animals in their countries. They agreed to spend more money protecting tigers and they wanted to double the number of tigers in the world before 2022.

    Tiger is one of the world's most endangered animals. The World Wildlife Fund （WWF） says, there are only about 100,000 wild tigers now. And the number is becoming smaller and smaller. 'If nothing happens, tigers will face disasters,' said WWF spokeswoman Marie von Zeipel.

Nine types of tigers lived 100 years ago, but now at least three of them have died out. ‘If people leave tigers alone and don't kill them, then the number of tigers will double in 10 years,' said Jean-Christoph Vie, a French tiger expert (专家).

    China is one of the 13 countries where tigers live. There are about 50 wild tigers in China now. They are the Bengal tigers in Tibet, Indochinese tigers in China's southwest, and Siberian tigers in the northeast. The South China tigers lived in southeast China many years ago but disappeared in the 1970s. Many experts think they have already died out.

    One of the hottest places on the earth is Death Valley. It's a desert valley in North America. The animals in Death Valley don't use technology to keep cool. They have special abilities that help them live there.

    The kangaroo rat is one animal that lives in Death Valley. During the day in Death Valley, it gets hotter than 100°F. The kangaroo rat rests all day in a hole in the ground. It covers the hole with grass to keep out the heat. The kangaroo rat comes out at night when it is cooler. This little rat is also very good at conserving (节约) water. It gets all the water it needs from the food it eats. Some kangaroo rats never take a drink of water in their whole lives!

    The sun makes the desert sand very hot. Animals, like snakes, get too hot if they lie on the hot sand too long. One snake, called the sidewinder, can solve this problem. When it travels, the sidewinder bends (使弯曲) its body into a“W”shape. Then it uses the bottom (底部的) parts of the“W”like legs and walks sideways (向一侧). That way it touches only a little of the sand at a time, so the hot sand doesn't burn the snake. This strange way of moving is how the sidewinder got its name.

    A lot of water in the desert is too salty for most animals to drink. All water has some salt in it. As the desert heat dries up pools of water, the salt is left behind. The remaining water in these pools can be much saltier than the ocean. One kind of fish, the desert pupfish, can live in these salty pools because it can drink the salt water.

    Computer technology has become a major part of people's lives. This technology has its own special words. One example is the word " mouse". A computer mouse is not a small animal that lives in buildings and open fields. It is a small device (装置) that you move around on a flat surface in front of a computer.The mouse moves the cursor (光标) on the computer screen.

    Computer expert Douglas Engelbart developed the idea for the mouse in the early nineteen-sixties. The first computer mouse was a carved block of wood with two metal wheels. It was called a mouse because it had a tail at one end. The tail was the wire that connected it to the computer.

    Using a computer takes some training. People who are experts are sometimes called hackers. A hacker is usually a person who writes software programs in a special computer language. But the word" hacker" is also used to describe a person who tries to steal information from computer systems.

    Another well known computer word is Google. It is the name of a popular search engine for the Internet.People use the search engine to find information about almost any subject on the Internet. The people whostarted the company named it Google because in mathematics, googol, spelled g-o-o-g-o-l,is an extremely

    large number. It is the number one followed by one hundred zeros.

    When you "Google" a subject, you can get a large amount of information about it. Some people like to Google their friends or themselves to see how many times their name appears on the Internet. If you Google someone, you might find that persons name on a blog. A blog is the shortened name for a Web log. A blog is a personal Web page. It may contain stories, comments, pictures and links to other websites. Some people add information to their blogs every day. People who have blogs are called bloggers.

    Imagine a world with no more animals: no elephants, no tigers or lions. To some people, that thought is too terrible for words. So they are doing something about it. Tiffany Soechting is one of them.

    Being among wild animals—feeding them and caring for them—is all Tiffany Soechting has wanted to do with her life. And that is exactly what she does!

    Soechting is the human "mother" to the 500 animals that live on her family wildlife farm in San Antonio, Texas. On the farm, she cares for animals from around the world. Soechting says she loves them all. However, two reticulated giraffes(网纹长颈鹿) take up a special place in her heart. Their population in the wild has become smaller by 80% in the last 15 years. "I'm so glad to get help from five wildlife researchers that took giraffes up to a higher level. All our hard work helps protect giraffes living in the wild."

    Besides her animal caring, Soechting also holds monthly classes, where she teaches school children about the animals.

    Soechting also opens the farm to the public. Visitors not only learn about the animals, they can also get close to them. And the animals are not against that. For them, people are part of their natural environment.

The farm is part conservation(保护) area, part educational center and part animal park. As the animals walk peacefully around the grounds, it is easy for them to forget that San Antonio, a busy city, is just a few minutes away.