I didn’t sleep well for several days, worrying about the wildfires in several parts of Chongqing. Chongqing had witnessed several forest wildfires this summer due to the worst heat wave and drought since 1961, when such statistics were first recorded.

Like most people from Chongqing, I felt I must do something to help stop the fires spreading. Although forest firefighting forces from three provinces arrived to help, the local government called for volunteers and disaster relief materials for different fire scenes around the city.

Thousands of people from all walks of life quickly responded to the call. Many delivered various materials needed for fire rescue work, such as bottled water, food, fire extinguishers, helmets, lights, chainsaws and medical supplies. Hundreds of people with related skills and experience signed up as volunteers.

Facing challenging weather and mountainous terrain, young men felled trees and helped put the fires out. Women organized supplies, while motorcyclists transported firefighters and materials on newly formed unpaved mountain paths that were used as fire barriers.

I cannot ride a motorcycle, and do not have any medical skills. I decided to do everything I could for the hard-working volunteers, which included taking them cold fruit tea. When I arrived at an assembly (集合) point at the foot of Jinyun Mountain at noon, hundreds of volunteers wearing yellow vests and helmets, with towels soaked in cold water on their necks, were waiting for orders.

I met one of my friends, who had been working day and night to cut down trees to make fire barriers. He was told to go home to take a rest the next morning, but he returned to the assembly point in the afternoon after having a brief lunch. “I cannot sit at home and watch the fire approaching our man-made barrier,” he said.

Most earthquakes occur within the upper 15 miles of the earth's surface. But earthquakes can and do occur at all depths to about 460 miles. Their number decreases as the depth increases. In comparison with the total number of earthquakes each year, the number of disastrous earthquakes is very small

The extent of the disaster in an earthquake depends on many factors. If you carefully build a toy house with an erect （直立的）set, it will still stand no matter how much you shake the table. But if you build a toy house with a pack of cards, a slight shake of the table will make it fall. An earthquake in Agadir Morocco, was not strong enough to be recorded on distant instruments, but it completely destroyed the city. If a building is well constructed and built on solid ground, it will resist an earthquake. Most deaths in earthquakes have been due to faulty building construction or poor building sites. A third and very serious factor is panic. When people rush into narrow streets, more deaths will result.

The UN has played an important part in reducing the damage done by earthquakes. It has sent a team of experts to all countries known to be affected by earthquakes. Working with local geologists and engineers, the experts have studied the nature of the ground and the type of most practical building code for the local area. If followed, these suggestions will make disastrous earthquakes almost a thing of the past.

There is one type of earthquake disaster that little can be done about. In certain areas, earthquakes take place beneath the sea. These submarine earthquakes sometimes give rise to seismic sea waves. The waves are not noticeable out at sea because of their long wave length, but when they roll into harbors, they pile up into walls of water 6 to 60 feet high. The Japanese call them "tsunamis", meaning "harbor waves", because they reach a sizable height only in harbors.

Tsunamis travel fairly slowly, at speeds up to 500 miles an hour. An adequate warning system is in use to warn all shores likely to be reached by the waves, but this only enables people to leave the threatened shores for higher ground. There is no way to stop the oncoming wave.

The weather forecast calls for a slight chance of thunderstorms, but you can only see a few white clouds overhead.【小题1】You spend a few minutes warming up and then wait! Is that thunder you hear? Was that a lightning flash?

What do you do? Keep playing until the thunder and lightning get closer? Go sit on the metal bench(长椅)under the trees to see what happens? Or get in your car and drive home?Correct answer: If no substantial, non-concrete shelter is nearby, get in your car and wait out the storm. Why?

【小题2】Although the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are less than 1 in a million, some factors can put you at greater risk. Lightning most often strikes people who work outside or engage in outdoor recreational activities. 【小题3】Florida is considered the “lightning capital” of the country, with more than 2,000 lightning injuries over the past 50 years. From 2009 to 2018,lightning caused an average of 27 deaths per year in the United States. 【小题4】

·If the weather forecast calls for thunderstorms, postpone your trip or activity.

·When thunder rolls, go indoors. Find a safe, enclosed shelter. Safe shelters include homes, offices, shopping centers, and hard-top vehicles with the windows rolled up.

·【小题5】After you see lightning, start counting to 30. If you hear thunder before you reach 30, go indoors. Suspend activities for at least 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder.

·If you are caught outside with no safe shelter nearby，crouch(蹲下)down in a ball-like position with your head tucked(收拢)and hands over your ears.