【正文】 g room , whi ch are the m ost li kel y to hurt us, are puters, tel evi si ons and l am ps. They can be ti ed to tabl es or them so they won’t easil y move around. The kitchen, which is al so very dangerous, must have strong doors on al l the cupboards. This is the pl ace where m any sm al l things are stored that mi ght fal l down. The water heater shoul d have a case round i t too. Wi ndows are speci al probl em . When they break, gl as can cause m any acci dents,. It is beter to use safety gl ass i f you can, especi al l y for pictures. Al ways remember:” It is better to be safe than sorry. ” TH E STORY OF AN EYEWITNESS By Jack London N ever before in hi story has a city been so pletel y destroyed. San Franci sco is gone. N othi ng i s l eft of i t but m em ori es and som e houses far from the centre of the ci ty. Its buni nes are gone. The factori es, hotelsand pal ace are al l gone too. Wi thi n an hour after the earthquake, the smoke of SanFrancio’s fires coul d been seen 160 kil ometres away. The sun is red in the dark sky. There was no stoppi ng the fi res. There was no way to ani ze or m uni cate. The steel rail way tracks were now useless. And the great pi pes for carrying water under the streets had burst. Al l of the ways m an had m ade to keep the ci ty safe were gone in the thi rty second the earth m oved. O ut at sea i t was cal m. N o wi nd cam e up. Yet from every di recti oneast, weast, north, andsouth, strong wi nds bl ew upon the unl ucky city. Man himsel f had to make ruins of the city’s best buil dings so that they woul d not be a danger to those i n the strets. A l ist of bui l di ngs undesteryed was now onl y a few addreses. A l ist of the brave m en and the wom en woul d fill a li brary. A li st of al those kil l ed wil l never be made. Am azi ng as i t m ay seem , Wednesday ni ght was a qui et ni ght. There were no crowds. The poli cem en sai dnothing。 even thei r horses were qui t. There were no shouts or peopl e doi ng crazy thi ngs. In al those terri bl e hours I saw not one wom an who cri ed, not one m an who was excited. Before the fires, through the ni ght, thousands and thousands of peopl e who had l ost thei r hom es l eft for safety. Som e were covered in bl ankets. Som etim es whol e fam il i es put everythi ng they owned and coul d save into wagons. They hel ped one another cl imb the high hil l s around the city. Never in al l SanFrsncio’s histroy were her peopl e so ki nd as on that terri bl e ni ght. Uni t 5 Elias’ story My nam e is El i as. I am a por worker i n SouthAfri ca. The tim e when I first m et N el son Mandel a was a very di fi cul t peri od of m y l ife. I was twel ve years ol d. It was i n 1952 and Mandel a was the bl ack lawyer to whom I went for advi ce. H e offered guidance to poor bl ack peopl e on thei r l egal probl ems. He was generous wi th hi s tim e, for whi ch I was grateful. I needed hi s hel p because I had very l i tl e educati on. I began school at si x. The schol where I studi ed for only two years was three kil om eters away. I had to l eave because m y fam il y coul d not conti nue to pay the school fes and the bus fare. I coul d not read or wri te wel . After tryi ng hard, I got a job i n a gol d mi ne. H owever, thi s was a ti me when one had to got to have a passbook to li ve i n Johannesburg. Sadl y I di d not have ways si mi lar to Laos, although i t has twice the popul ati on. At another i nn, we talked wi th a teacher who tol d us that hal f of the peopl e i n her country coul dn’t read or write. H er vil lage coul dn’t even afford to buil d a school , so she had to teach outside under a l arge tent. When we sai d goodbye, we al l fel t very l ucky to have studi ed i n col l ege. Back on the road, we passed between m any hil ls and forests. Then we cam e to the pl ai ns and entered Phnom Penh, the capital of Cam bodi a. In m any ways i t l ooked l i ke Vientiane and H o Chi Mi nh Ci ty。 i t al so had wi de strets wi th trees in rows and ol d French houses. Unl ike Vi enti ane, shi ps coul d travel the Mekong Ri ver here. In the center of the city we visi ted the pal ace and a beauti ful whi te el ephant. It can onl y be seen outsi de the pal ace on speci al days. We ate an earl y supper and went to see a great tem pl e wi th fl ors m ade of sli ver. The next m orni ng our group slept l ate. We were very ti red from the l ong bi ke ri de the day before. Cycl i ng i n the hi l s had been di ffcui l ow our coui ns had the chance to m ake jokes about Wangwei and m e. Perhaps,they sai d, they were the strong ones!We had l unch at a ni ce outdoor cafe, then rode out of the ci ty. Two days l ater we crosed the border into Vietnam. We began to see many more people,but I wasn’t surpri sed . I read i n an atlas before our trip that Vi etnam has alm ost seven ti m es the popul ati on of Cam bodi a. We m et a farm er who gave us directi ons and tol d us that he grows a new ri ce crop four tim es every year so he can feed m ore peopl e al so tol d us that the northern part of hi s country has many m ountai ns and i t i s m uch cool er than here i n the south, where it i s fl at. Al though the fl at delta m ade it easi er for us to cycle. we got warm very qui ckl y. So we drank l ots of water and ate l ots of bananas. Soon the del ta separated i nto ni ne sm al l er ri vers. Two days l ater, after we had passed thousands of ri ce fi el ds, we came to the sea. We were ti red but al so i n hi gh spi ri ts: our dream to cycl e along the Mekong Ri ver had fi nal y e true. Unit 4 A NIGHT THE EARTH DID’T SLEEP Strange thi ngs were happeni ng i n the countri si de of northest H eBei. For there days the water i n the vil lage wel ls rose and fel l, rose and fel . Farm ers noti ced that the wel wal s had deep cracks i n them. A sm el y gas came out of the cracks. In the farm eryards, the chickens and even the pi gs were too nervous to