Earthquakes happen very often in Tokyo, but Tokyo is not an unlucky city. Many special parks have been built in Tokyo to keep people safe during earthquakes. These parks look nothing different from the other parks, but when earthquakes happen, they become life-saving places.

Many useful things in those special parks can meet people’s basic needs.

For example,   it is usually hard for people to get water after earthquakes. In the special parks, people can get drinking water from the water pump (泵). If people need to use toilets (厕所), they can choose special toilets that can be used without water. Also, the helicopter ( 直 升 机 ) can land on squares or baseball fields and bring food or other things to people. What’s more, if people need to cook in the parks, some special benches can become cooking things.

However, those useful things are not enough for people to face earthquakes. The most important part lies in training people. The parks, together with fire stations and the police, will train with local people at the usual time. This will let people think and move faster during real earthquakes and let them protect themselves better.

So, what can we do to protect ourselves from getting hurt in earthquakes? First, we need to check our furniture and make sure they won’t fall down easily. Second, when an earthquake happens, we need to stay under tables or desks and protect our head. Third, we can keep our door open and wear comfortable shoes during small earthquakes in order to get out safely.

【推荐3】The Ancient Town of Fenghuang, one of China’s most well-known ancient towns, was under water as heavy rain hit the center of the country, with tens of thousands of people leaving from the area. Heavy rain and floods(洪水) lasted for the past few days. Waters in the nearby Tuojiang River rose by almost one meter above warning level(警戒线), causing heavy rainstorms. More than 120, 000 local people and tourists have been helped to leave there because of the terrible disaster. And more than 4,000 shops in the town have been shut. Several bridges on the Tuojiang River have been damaged or destroyed. Water has flowed(流) into many bars, restaurants and hotels in its ancient town, and electricity in the ancient town has been cut off. About 128, 000 people have been affected by the floods. Though the heavy rains have stopped, but the popular tourist spot remains closed for local people’s safety.

A shoe shop owner named Kuang said the flood was the worst the town had experienced. “The floods came so quickly that I didn’t have time to move the shoes,” he said sadly.

“The flood has led to the Ancient Town of Fenghuang becoming a water town,” said a post on a discussion page on the topic set up on Sina Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter.

“We could only live in an old factory now where many homeless people have to stay together. The crowded space is full of sadness.” Tang said.

At least 14 people were killed in flooding in Hunan Province and the neighboring province of Jiangxi and region of Guangxi last month, Xinhua reported.