What are hurricanes?

    You may already know that hurricanes are storms. They can cause

terrible waves, winds, and rains. 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.

Kinds of Hurricanes

    There are five kinds of hurricanes. it helps people know a hurricane is so bad because the greater the wind speed is, the more dangerous the storm is. For example, a kind of hurricane has winds over 155 miles per hour, which are strong enough to break the buildings along the seaside completely.

    Hurricane Dangers

    When a hurricane happens together with heavy rain, there can be a terrible flood. The centre of a hurricane is called the eye. While most of a hurricane has dangerous strong winds, when the eye is a calm area in the storm in fact. 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, fresh drinking water, and enough food.

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

    ● Stay inside during the storm. You could be badly hurt if you go outside.

    We choose food to eat every day．We might know some of the reasons for the choices，but food scientist Dr．

    Brian Wansink has found that we are unaware of 90% of our food decision．Here are some"big ideas"in his research on the hidden power that drives our eating．

    Food for thought

    In one of the studies，Dr．Wansink made volunteers eat chocolate yogurt in a dark room．He told them the yogurt was with a taste of strawberry even though they were all eating chocolate．Finally，65% of volunteers described the yogurt as having a"nice strawberry flavor!"

    The research shows that our imagination has an effect on our taste．If you expect a food to taste good，it will．So take a moment before you eat your unpleasant healthy food to remind yourself that you are eating delicious fish and chips．

    Our eyes eat first

    How your food looks is just as important as how it tastes．Dr．Wansink gave cakes to three groups of people．The cakes were exactly the same but served in different ways．

①Group one got the cake on a nice plate．

    ②Group two got the cake on a paper plate．

    ③Group three got the cake on a piece of paper．

    Dr．Wansink then asked the people how much they would pay for each cake．

    Dr．Wansink then asked the people how much they would pay for each cake．

    ①Group one who got the cake on a nice plate would pay $1.27．

    ②Group two who got the cake on a paper plate would pay 76 cents．

    ③Group three who got the cake on a piece of paper would pay 53 cents．

    Take some time to make your healthy food look amazing．Cut your fruit into a flower shape and put your colourful vegetables on nice plates．This works really well for your appetite （胃口）．

    Out of sight，out of stomach

    Dr．Wansink also found that when people sat at the desk full of snacks，they ate 71% more of snacks a day than those sitting near a clear table．We eat what we see．As a result，put all the unhealthy food in your fridge．

    Hide it and make it really hard to get to．The closer bad food is，the more you eat it．

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    In the future, your automobile will run on water instead of gas! You will be able to buy a supercomputer that fits in your pocket! You might even drive a flying car!

    For each prediction(预言) that has come true today, several others have missed by a mile. Many of these predictions didn't consider how people want to use the technology, or if people really needed it in their lives or not. Let's look at some predictions from the not-too-distant past.

    Robot helpers

    Where's the robot in my kitchen? Nowhere, of course. And he's probably not coming any time soon. Robots do exist today, but mostly in factories and other manufacturing environments.

    Back in the 1950s, however, people said that by now personal robots would be in most people's homes.

    So why it hasn't happened? Probably because robots are still too expensive and clumsy. And maybe the idea of robots cooking our dinners and washing our clothes is just too weird. At home we seem to be doing fine without them.

    Telephones of tomorrow

    In 1964, an American company introduced the video telephone. They said by the year 2000 most people would have a video phone in their homes. But of course the idea hasn't caught on yet.

    Why? The technology worked fine, but it overlooked something obvious: People desire for privacy. Would you want to have a video phone conversation with someone after you just stepped out of the shower?

    Probably not—it could be embarrassing! Just because a technology available(可利用的) doesn't always mean people will want to use it.

    Flying cars

    And finally, how about that crazy prediction of the flying car? It's not so crazy any more! But a flying car remains one of the most fascinating technology ideas to capture our imagination. Keep watching the news or perhaps the sky outside your window to see what the future will bring.

    Dolphins are not fish, but warm-blooded animals. They live in groups, and speak to each other in their own language. In this they are like other animals, such as bees and birds. But dolphins are very different from almost all land animals. Their brain is nearly the same size as our own, and they live a long time—at least twenty or thirty year.

    Like some other animals, dolphins use sound to help them find their way around. They also make these sounds to talk to each other and to help them find food. We now know they do not use their ears to receive these sounds, but the lower part of the mouth, called the jaw.

    Strangely, dolphins seem to like man, and for thousands of years there have been stories about the dolphin and its friendship with people.

    There is a story about sailors in the 19^th century. In a dangerous part of the sea off the coast of New Zealand, they learnt to look for a dolphin called Jack. From 1871 to 1903 Jack met every boat in the area and showed it the way. Then in 1903 a passenger on a boat called The Penguin shot and wounded (伤害) Jack. He recovered and for nine years more continued to guide all ships through the area—except for The Penguin.

    Today, some people continue to kill dolphins, but many countries of the world now protect them and in these places it is against the law to kill them.

    One American university uses a robot as a teacher to help students with their problems. And none of the students knew that was a robot at the beginning!

    Jill Watson, a robot made in that university, helps the students a lot. When answering their questions, Jill seems to be an excellent teacher. She can give wonderful answers quickly. She sounds natural and usually says good words.

    When someone told the students that their "teacher" was a robot, they all got very surprised.

    "How was it possible? I was talking to a robot?" said Bailey, "She sounds like a common teacher." Another student Jennifer told the newspaper, "We are thinking about choosing Jill Watson to be our best teacher. She is really helpful,"

    Now many students like to ask questions on their school's website. It usually takes teachers too much time to answer them. So the university had such an idea of making Jill Watson. It's a faster way to help the students with their problems.

    Jill can quickly find possible answers in her own computer to the questions and make sure they are all right. After that, she tells the students in an electronic voice that sounds like a famous actress.

    Which animal do you think is "the king of the animals", the elephant, the lion or the tiger? They are all large and strong. But I think the tiger is "the king of the animals". If you watch carefully, you can find some black lines on the tiger's forehead(前额). The lines look like the Chinese word "WANG". The word means "the king of the world" in Chinese.

    Most of the tigers come from China and India. Tigers are dangerous animals. They look scary(吓人的). They like eating meat. They have yellow fur with black lines. They usually weigh about 200 to 300kg. Tigers can run fast. They run at a speed of 20 meters per second.

    Some people think they are dangerous. But they don't know tigers are in danger now. There are only 20 to 30 wild South China Tigers in China and less than 300 in the world. Lots of people kill them for their fur. We should take action to protect them.