Earthquakes are one of the most destructive natural disasters. They can happen just about anywhere. Earthquakes cannot be stopped,     1     your chances of survival are much better if you know what     2     (do) when an earthquake strikes.

If you are in     3     building, drop, cover, and hold on. This     4     (be) the national standard for earthquake safety in the United States. The advice is to get next     5     a strong piece of furniture (家具) so that if a wall falls, it will create something     6     (call) the “triangle of life” to help you survive. Use your     7     (hand) and arms to protect your vital areas like your head and neck. Do not move     8     (immediate) unless it is safe to do so.

Remember that aftershocks are possible at any time and are     9     (likely) after a bigger earthquake. Take good care of     10     (you) when you leave the building.

The color of the ocean has changed     1     (great) recently and human-caused climate change is responsible, according to     2     new study.

More than 56% of the world’s oceans have changed color,     3     cannot be explained, said a team of researchers, led by scientists from the National Oceanography Center in the UK.

Tropical (热带的) oceans close to the equator     4     (become) greener in the last 20 years, according to the study     5     (publish) in the journal Nature.

“    6     is not clear exactly how these ecosystems are changing”, said Stephanie from the Center for Global Change Science. “All changes are causing an imbalance in the natural organization of ecosystems. Such imbalance will only get     7     (bad) over time if our oceans keep heating,” she told CNN.

Though the researchers are still working to understand exactly     8     the changes mean, they said what is clear is that the changes are being driven     9     human behavior.

The researchers studied changes in ocean color from space by     10     (watch) how much green or blue light is reflected from the surface of the sea.

4 . How to Prepare for an Earthquake

An earthquake can be a very destructive natural disaster, particularly in the Pacific Rim region. After an earthquake, your home may be a mess and you might be left without a water supply or power.     1     By doing so, you may minimize the damage and injury in and around your home.

· Create a disaster plan.

Form your plan and know what to do before the earthquake happens.     2     The most important first step is understanding what to do when an earthquake hits.

    3    

In a real earthquake, this is your number one defense. Drop to the floor, take cover under a firm desk or table and hold on firmly. Namely, drop and cover your head from falling objects. Stay there until the shaking stops.

·Learn basic first aid.

There are resources in your community to educate people on how to deal with first aid emergencies.     4    

·Write down and share emergency contact lists.

This should include everyone in your home, office, etc.     5     In addition to normal contact information, ask each person to provide an emergency contact as well.

6 . When Alex Lin was 11 years old, he read an alarming article in the newspaper about e-waste. The article said that people were throwing away their e-waste in places it should never go. This was dangerous, the article said, because e-waste contains poisonous chemicals and metals like lead. These harmful substances (物质) can leak into the environment, getting into crops, animals, water supplies — and people.

Alex showed the article to a few of his classmates. They were worried too. But what could they do about this problem with e-waste? How would they even start? “The first thing we did,” Alex says, “was to learn more about the problem.” Alex and his friends spent several weeks gathering information about the chemicals in e-waste and their effects on humans. They learned how to dispose (处理) of e-waste properly and how it could be recycled. “Then,” he says, “we had to find out what the situation was in our town. So we sent out a survey.”

What they found shocked them: Of the people who answered the survey, only one in eight even knew what e-waste was, let alone how to properly dispose of it. Alex and his friends went into action. They advertised in the local newspaper and distributed notices to students, asking residents to bring their unwanted electronics to the school parking lot. The drive lasted two days, and they collected over 21,000 pounds of e-waste.

The next step was to set up an e-waste drop-off center for the town and to find a responsible company to recycle the waste. That was when Alex and his friends learned another scary fact about e-waste — some irresponsible recycling companies don’t break down the e-waste and dispose of it safely themselves. Instead, they ship it overseas to countries such as China and Nigeria, where local environmental laws are not applied. “We checked carefully online to make sure the company we chose didn’t do this,” Alex says.

Because of the work of people like Alex and his team, more and more people are getting the message about safe disposal of e-waste. As Alex says, “Today’s technology should not become tomorrow’s poisonous trash.”

8 . A flood can develop slowly, over time or rapidly, as in the case of flash floods which can develop in just a few minutes and without signs of rain.

    1     This is the first thing that a person should do. It is unwise to just depend on history to decide whether your area is at risk of flooding.

Create an evacuation plan in case you have to evacuate your home. Pay attention to the safe areas you can go to. Prepare food kits for natural disasters that you can easily take with you if you have to leave your house.     2    

If there is a possibility of a flash flood, leave your home and move to higher ground at once. Do not wait for instructions to move. Evacuation may also cause a shortage in the food supply.     3     To survive, one must depend on food storage.

While evacuating, avoid walking through moving water. Even six inches of moving water can make you fall. If you have to walk in water, walk where the water is not moving.     4    

Do not drive into flooded areas. If floodwaters rise around your car, abandon (舍弃) the car and move to higher ground, when water is not moving or not more than a few inches deep.     5     If your car is trapped in rapidly moving water, stay in the car. If the water is rising inside the car, move on to the roof (顶部).

9 . The ocean covers more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface and the deep sea could contain as many as 100 million species. But it’s becoming worse. Overfishing, plastic pollution, rising sea levels, and climate change are to partly blame (责怪) for the ocean’s present state.     1     But there are still some things we can do to improve the situation.

People are talking about plastics more than ever after recognizing the heavy effect the material has on our planet. Every year, thousands of seabirds, sea turtles, seals, whales, dolphins, and fish are killed after mistakenly eating plastics.

    2     You can buy reusable water bottles instead of plastic ones. When buying things, take a reusable shopping bag and choose the product that isn’t covered with plastic packaging.

Keeping our coastlines clean is a simple way to help the planet. After a day at the beach, make sure you’ve taken everything with you, including rubbish.

    3     Common sun cream chemicals can harm ocean life. Search for sun cream made with eco-friendly ingredients (成分).

    4     Consider making a donation (捐赠) to an organization working to help the ocean. The American Cetacean Society helps protect the habitats of whales, dolphins, and other marine (海洋的) animals through educational programs.

Being mindful of what cleaning products you use is another effective way to reduce your effect on the earth. Chemicals like household cleaners can move through waterways and eventually end up in the sea, affecting the health of oceans and the animals in them.     5     You can often use simple ingredients like baking soda, vinegar (醋), or lemon juice to complete many household chores.

10 . The area in front of Janet and Jeffrey Crouch’s house in Columbia, Maryland, does not look usual for their neighbourhood. That is because the Crouches do not have a grass lawn(草坪). Instead, they have some small trees and many native plants.

In recent years, support for replacing lawns with native plants has been increasing in the US. It can be costly to keep a lawn looking good and green. But the Crouches had to spend much more money for the right not to have one.

People living in a house next to them complained to their homeowner’s association, or HOA. HOAs can make rules about the plants that homeowners in a neighbourhood are permitted to grow. Many HOAs require grass lawns. The HOA ordered the Crouches to pull out their native plants and put in grass. However, they refused. “We knew we were doing things that were beneficial for the environment, ” said Janet Crouch.

Lawns are called environmental dead zones in part because they provide no food or shelter for wildlife. They also do not support pollinators like birds, bees, and butterflies. Bee populations have been getting smaller in North America and may be getting smaller around the world.

There are other reasons that lawns are bad for the environment. They require a lot of water and chemicals. Large amounts of water can remove nutrients from the soil. After the water removes the nutrients, people buy even more chemicals to put on their lawns. Scientists say some of these chemicals might cause cancer and other health problems. There are over 16million hectares of grass lawns in the US. That means lawns use more water than any other irrigated(灌溉)crop in the country.

The Crouches’ battle against their HOA took three years. They say they spent $60, 000 fighting to keep their natural garden. They won. Because of their efforts, the state of Maryland passed a law that lets people grow native plants instead of grass, no matter what their HOA wants.