There are many different kinds of disasters around the world. As an adult you know what to do during a disaster, but what about the children? Some adults think it would probably never happen to them, so they don't teach their children what to do. Before it's too late, here are ways to help you prepare your child for a disaster:

    Educate: It is always good to let your child know about possible disasters. This doesn't mean children have to live in fear. When teaching them about disasters, keep the conversation positive（积极的）by telling them there is a solution（解决办法）to the disaster. Keep the conversations short, allow for questions and answer honestly.

    Prepare: Always be prepared, that is the best advice for children. For example, when preparing for bad weather, get the tools you need, like candles, radios, food, water and medicine. Teach your child what is needed in certain disasters so that they know what is available for them, if ever needed.

    Plan: You should always have a plan for you and your child for any dangerous situation. Write out a simple list that they can read. The plan could start with “listen to an adult's advice and/or call 119”.

    Practice: Once you have got the correct safety tools and worked out the right plan, practice every few months. Practicing what to do during a disaster with your child will help them if the time comes.

    Disasters can't be avoidedbut they can be lessened（减轻）once you areprepared and ready for one.

    If music makes you smarter and exercise helps you to think, surely exercising to music can turn you into an intelligent(聪明的) person.

    A team of scientists from Ohio State University did tests on 33 volunteers who were getting better from heart problems following operation(手术). They found that people who exercised while listening to "The Four Seasons" did much better on language ability tests than without music.

    "Facts suggest that exercise improve the learning ability of people with heart problems," said the scientist Charles Emery, who led the study. "And listening to music is thought to enhance understanding. We just wanted to put the two results together." he added.

    The volunteers said they felt better after exercising with or without the music. But their improvement on the test doubled after listening to music during exercise. Scientists have shown it is true that music can be good for health. It helps cut down stress, sadness and nervousness. And it also wakes up the body and improves memory and thoughts.

    In medical fields, music is used widely for patients who have had headaches before and after operation. "The Four Seasons" was used because of its soft tempo(节拍) and better results in earlier research.

    "Exercise seems to cause better changes in the nervous system and these changes may have a direct result on learning ability." Emery said. Scientists have been studying the result of music on understanding since the early 1950s. By 1990, scientists were using Mozart's music to help children with speech disorders. Mozart was chosen because his music is not overexciting. A study showed students who listened to Mozart scored higher marks in an intelligence test. With important exams coming, your parents will not probably allow you to listen to music. But perhaps now you have good reasons to argue with them.

    You probably know a typhoon is a large and powerful storm that can cause a lot of rain and wind. Everyone pays attention to typhoons because they can be dangerous. Some typhoons come and go and really don't cause much more trouble than a bad thunderstorm. Others may damage homes and cause some floods that go away on their own.

    Typhoons are always a concern, especially for people who live near the coast. When a typhoon is on the way, weather forecasters can say which areas will be affected. Maybe you've heard people call a typhoon a "natural disaster", but what does that mean? A natural disaster is something that happens in nature and causes big problems, like a typhoon, a tornado(龙卷), an earthquake, or a tsunami. But wherever you live, it's important to remember that there are lots of people looking out for you. In a bad storm or other crisis, this would include not only mums and dads, but also police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, and other people who are trained to handle emergencies.

    It's every parent's worst nightmare there's a fire in the house, the alarms are beeping, but the children are sleeping on. Now scientists have found a better way to rouse slumbering youngsters. Researchers in the US have discovered that playing a child a recording of his mother's voice is about three times more likely to wake him up than a traditional alarm.

    Writing in the Journal of Pediatrics, Smith and colleagues report how they compared the effects of four different smoke alarms on 176 children aged between 5 and 12 years old, none of whom had hearing difficulties or were taking any medication that affected their sleep. While one alarm featured a high-pitched beep the sort of commonly found in households the other three featured the voice of the child's mother calling either the child's name, giving instructions such as: "Wake up! Leave the room! ", or both. Each child slept in a lab-based room that resembled a real bedroom.

    The results show that vocal alarms appear to be more effective than high-pitched beeps. About 90% of children woke for a voice alarm compared with just over 53% for the traditional alarm.

    “High pitched beeping alarms don't wake up children well at all under about 12 years of age, "said Dr Gary Smith, a co-author of the research from the Nationwide Children's hospital in Ohio, although

he said at present it is not known why. He said it was important to look at developing better alarms.

    Prof Niamh Nic Daeid, director of the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee, said the research found a human voice combined with a low-frequency pulsing tone was far more effective in waking up children than a traditional high-pitched alarm. She also noted that more work was needed to explore whether other familiar sounds, such as a dog barking, might also prove effective in rousing children.

    When someone says, "Well, I guess I'll have to face the music", it doesn't mean that he is planning to go to hear a singer or attend a concert. It is something far sadder than you are called in by your leader to explain why you did this and that or why you did not do this or that.

    At some time or another, every one of us has to "face the music", especially as children. We can all remember Father's angry words "I want to talk to you". And only because we did not listen to him. What a bad thing it was!

    In the middle or at the end of every term, we students have to "face the music". The result of the exam will decide whether we will face the music or not. If.…that means parents' cold faces and contempt (轻蔑) of the teachers and classmates.

    The American novelist James Fennimore Cooper said in 1851 that the expression "face the music" was first used by actors while waiting aside to go on stage. When it was their turn to go on the stage, they often said, "It's time to face the music." An actor might be frightened or nervous as he moved onto the stage in front of the audience because they might be friendly, or perhaps they are hostile, especially if he forgot what he would say. But he had to go out. If he did not, there would be no play. He would lose his job.

    "To face the music" is well known to every American, young or old. It is at least 100 years old. It really means that you have to do something, no matter how terrible the whole thing might be, because you know you have no choice.

    Some of the greatest problems we face today are the destruction (破坏) of our environment. Brown clouds, polluted water, endangered wild animals…. these problems seem so huge.

    So my family does what we can. We take cloth bags to stores instead of using plastic bags. We walk where we don't have to drive…

    But does it do any good? When I am the only one in line at the market with cloth bags, am I doing any good? Does my walking to stores make any real difference to the world?

    I recently learned something about flamingos(火烈鸟) which like to get together in groups of a thousand or more. Every year, when the time comes for migration(迁徙), a few of them first take off from the lake. But none of the others seem to notice. So the small group returns. However, the next day they try again. This time a few more fly along with them, but most of them still pay no attention, so they return again. They try for several times. Every time a few more birds join in but, since thousands of the others still take no notice, the great migration plan is once more stopped.

    Then one day something changes. The same small group of birds once again starts flying and a small number more join in just as before, then more. Finally, they all take flight and the migration really begins. What a spectacular sight it must be — thousands of flamingos taking off into the sky at once!

    A few can make a difference. Even if you're the one to take the first step, and continue trying, others will someday take notice and together we will solve even our greatest problems.