November 5 is World Tsunami(海啸) Awareness Day. Tsunami is a Japanese word for a long, destructive(摧毁性的) ocean wave caused by an undersea earthquake. The goal of the anniversary is to learn from disasters(灾害) of the past and to prepare for the future. Two tsunamis in the last 15 years have changed the way people around the world think about these destructive events.

    On December26, 2004, a magnitude (震级) 9 earthquake near the coast of Indonesia caused tsunami waves that struck the coasts of four countries. An estimated(估计的) 230,000 people died and costs were in the billions of dollars. Then, on March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in that country. More than18,000 people died. The tsunami also caused serious damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power center on the island of Honshu. Several nuclear reactors(核 反应堆) were severely(严重地) damaged and leaked(泄漏) radiation(辐射).

    The two events caused people in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas to study and improve preparedness for disasters. This led to the SendaiFrameworkfor DisasterRiskReductionin 2015 in Sendai, Japan. The agreement was a UN effort to raise awareness(提高意识) about disaster risks and to urge(催促) countries to assess(评估)how well they were prepared for them.

    Willem Rampangilei is head of the Disaster Management Agency in Indonesia. He said Indonesia passed a law on disaster management after the 2004 tsunami. It led in 2008 to the creation of his agency. "Our responsibilities include reduction and preparedness, emergency response, as well as post-disaster recovery and reconstruction(重新建设)," he said. He added that 150 million Indonesians were at risk from earthquakes, 60 million from floods and four million from tsunamis.

    Preparedness has spread beyond Asia. There are now early warning systems in place for the Caribbean Sea, the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding(周围的) areas.

    An eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little brother. All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money. Only a very expensive operation could save him now and there was no one to lend them the money.

    When she heard her daddy say to her tearful mother, "Only a miracle (奇迹) can save him now." the little girl went to her bedroom and pulled her money from its hiding place and counted it carefully.

    She hurried to a drugstore with the money in her hand.

    "And what do you want?" asked the salesman. "It's for my little brother," the girl answered. "He's really, really sick and I want to buy a miracle." "Pardon?" said the salesman.

    “My brother Andrew has something bad growing inside his head and my daddy says only a miracle can save him. So how much does a miracle cost?" "We don't sell a miracle here, child. I'm sorry." the salesman said with a smile.

    "Listen, if it isn't enough, I can try and get some more. Just tell me how much it costs."

    A well-dressed man heard this and asked, “What kind of miracle does your brother need?”

    "I don't know," she answered with her eyes full of tears. "He's really sick and mum says he needs an operation. But my daddy can't pay for it, so I have brought all my money."

    "How much do you have?" asked the man. "$1.11, but I can try and get some more." she answered. "Well, what luck ,”smiled the man. "$1.11, the price of a miracle for your little brother."

    He took up the girl's hand and said, "Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let's see if I have the kind of miracle you need."

    That well-dressed man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a famous doctor. The operation was successful and it wasn't long before Andrew was home again.

    How much did the miracle cost?

    It has more than 845 million users around the world. If it were a country, it would have the third largest population (人口) in the world，behind China and India. This is Facebook, a popular website from the USA. It is similar to Renren in China.

    Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984. As a little kid, he loved creating little fun computer programs. He set up the network in February of 2004. He was then a second—year student at Harvard University. One day, he had the idea of building a website for Harvard students to get to know each other. He set up the Facebook website. Harvard students could share photos and their personal information there. Soon, the website became very famous. Zuckerberg decided to leave Harvard to run Facebook full time. It was the biggest adventure (冒险) in his life and later brought him great success. Now, the service is popular around the world.

    Greetings such as "Have you checked your Facebook page today?" became a part of young people's everyday language in the USA. People can exchange messages and get the latest information about their friends on Facebook. Zuckerberg's dream is to connect people through the Internet. "Facebook is to make the world more open and connected," he said.

    What's the young man's secret to success? Zuckerberg believes it's important to have an open mind and be ready to try new things. "The riskiest thing is to take no risks," he once said in an open letter. Sometimes the simplest ideas go furthest. We hope Mark can go much further, maybe even further than Bill Gates.

    Some students get so nervous before an exam that they do poorly even if they know the material. Sian Beilock, a psychology (心理学) professor at the University of Chicago, has studied these highly anxious (焦虑的) exam-takers.

    "They start worrying about the results. They might even start worrying about whether this exam is going to prevent them from getting into the college they want. And when we worry, it actually uses up attention and memory resources that we could otherwise be using to focus (集中) on the exam." says Sian Beilock.

    The researchers tested the idea on a group of twenty anxious college students. They gave them two short math tests. After the first one, they asked the students to either sit quietly or write about their feelings about the coming second test.

    The researchers added to the pressure. They told the students that those who did well on the second exam would get money. They also told them that their performance would affect other students as part of a team effort.

    Professor Beilock says those who sat quietly scored an average of 20% worse on the second exam. But the students who had written about their fears improved their performance by an average of 5%.

    Next, the researchers used younger students in a biology class. They told them before final exams either to write about their feelings or to think about things not connected to the test.

    Professor Beilock says highly anxious students who wrote about their feelings got an average grade of B＋, compared with a B—for those who did not.

    But what can they do if students do not have a chance to write about their fears immediately before an exam or presentation? Professor Beilock says students can try it themselves at home or in the library and they can still improve their performance.

    Many people say dolphins are very itelligent. They seem to be able to think, understand, and learn things quickly. But are they smart like humans or are they more like cats or dogs? Dolphins use their brains differently from people. But scientists say dolphin intelligence and human intelligence are similar in some ways. How?

    Like humans, every dolphin has its own name. The name is a special whistle. Each dolphin chooses a specific whistle for itself, usually by its first birthday. Actually, scientists think dolphins, like people, "talk" to each other about a lot of things, such as their age, their feelings, or finding food. And, like humans, dolphins use a system of sounds and body language to communicate. But understanding their conversations is not easy for humans. No one speaks "dolphin" yet, but some scientists are trying to learn.

    Dolphins are also social animals. They live in groups, and they often join others from different groups to play games and have fun—just like people. In fact, playing together is something only intelligent animals do.

    Dolphins and humans are similar in another way: both species make plans to get something they want. In the seas of southern Brazil, for example, dolphins use an interesting strategy to get food. When fish are near a boat, dolphins show signs to the fishermen to put their nets in the water. Using this method, the men can catch a lot of fish. What is the advantage for the dolphins in doing so? They get to eat some of the fish that escape from the net.

    There was once a man called Mr. Flower, and flowers were his only joy in life. He spent all his free time in one of his four glass-houses and grew flowers of every color, with long and difficult names, for competitions. He tried to grow a rose of a new color to win the silver cup for the Rose of the Year.

    Mr. Flower's glass-houses were very near to a middle school. Boys of around thirteen were often tempted to throw a stone at one of Mr. Flower's glass-houses. So Mr. Flower did his best to be in or near his glass-house at the beginning and end of the school day.

    But it was not always possible to be on watch at those times. Mr. Flower had tried in many ways to protect. his glass, but nothing that he had done had been useful. He had been to school to report to the headmaster; but this had not done any good. He had tried to drive away the boys that threw stones into his garden, but the boys could run faster than he could, and they laughed at him from far away. He had even picked up all the stones that he could find around his garden, so that the boys would have nothing to throw; but they soon found others.

    At last Mr. Flower had a good idea. He put up a large notice made of good, strong wood, some meters away from the glass-houses. On it he had written the words: DO NOT THROW STONES AT THIS NOTICE. After this, Mr. Flower had no further trouble, the boys were much more tempted to throw stones at the notice than at the glass-houses.

    Stephen Hawking is one of the most famous scientists in this century. He was born in 1942. He's world well—known on space and time. Stephen was searching some very big questions, such as "How did the universe begin? How will it end?"

    Stephen was a student at Oxford University. He studied math and science. Then, at the age of twenty, he became sick. He was so young, but the doctors said to his family, "He has only two more years to live." As a matter of fact, the doctors were wrong – he didn't die. He can't walk but he uses a wheelchair. He can't feed himself and get in or out of bed himself. But he refused to give in to the condition. He talks with the help of a computer. After Oxford, Stephen went to Cambridge University. Three years later, in 1965, he became a doctor of philosophy (哲学).

    Because of his serious health problems, it was difficult for him to draw or to write. So he started to think in pictures. With this new way of thinking, he became one of the most famous scientists in the world. In 1981, he met the Pope (教皇) in Rome. They talked about his ideas. Then in 1988, he wrote his first important book, A Brief History of Time. It sold more than 5.5 million copies in 33 different languages. He was once invited to China, he impressed us with his self—confidence, humorous and witty (风趣的) conversation.

    You are visiting the Eiffel Tower in France, but the next second you are in Thailand. Then, suddenly you may have dinner with Barack Obama in America. But you are not dreaming. This is what might happen in the near future. With the help of virtual reality(Vr,虚拟现实) technology, lots of changes are taking place in our life.

    VR is a computer technology that makes an environment and allows users to see and even interact with it. Just wear a pair of VR glasses joined to your computer and you can experience a lot of things without stepping out of your room. "The most interesting part of virtual reality is that it offers an immersive(身临其境的)experience," said Wang Bing, leader ,leader of the Chinese entertainment company Funshow.  "That's why VR movies are popular among users. You become a part of the story. "According to the Report on Chinese VR Users' Behaviour last month, over 960, 000 people in China have bought VR products and 83. 2 percent of them have watched VR movies.

    VR can also be used in some other ways. It can help to train workers before they have to work in highly dangerous environments. VR also helps patients with acrophobia(恐高症) by making them think they are standing on the top of a tall building.

    However, VR technology still has a long way to go. Users report feeling sick while wearing VR glasses. Maybe it could take a period of time for VR to be widely used around the world.

    Have you ever stayed in a hotel? Most Chinese hotels often provide guests with things like disposable(一次性的) toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo and slippers.

    Many guests like the idea because they don't have to bring their own. But if you travel to Beijing, remember to bring these things of your own. That's because some hotels in Beijing have no longer provided guests with these disposables (一次性用品). Many disposable things are made of plastic. People throw them away after only using them once. It's a waste of natural resources (资源) and is very bad for the environment.

    In Beijing, people throw away about 19,000 tons of plastic bags and 1,320 tons of lunch bowls every year!

    Plastic can take 100 to 400 years to break down. So the less plastic we throw away, the better environment we will have.

    So, wherever you travel, bring your own things and use them again and again. Back at home and school, you can also do something to make our world a better place. Try to do these things in your daily life:

    Use cloth shopping bags, not plastic ones.

    After using a plastic bag, wash it out and let it dry. Then use it over and over again.

    Do not use paper cups.

    At your school canteen (餐厅), use your own bowls and chopsticks instead of disposable ones.