Earthquakes are something that people fear. There are some places that have few or earthquakes. Most places in the world, however, have them regularly. Countries that have a of earthquakes are usually quite mountainous.

The most-talked-about earthquake in the United States was in San Francisco in 1906.Over 700 people died in it. The strongest one in North America was in 1964. It happened in Alaska.

Strong earthquakes are not always the ones that kill the most people. In 1755, one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded was felt in Portugal. Around 2,000 people died. In 1923, a very strong earthquake hit Tokyo, Yokohama area of Japan. 140,000 people died. Most of them died in fires which followed the earthquake.

One of the worst earthquakes ever was in China in 1976. It killed a large number of people. The worst earthquake ever reported was also in China, in which 830, 000 people were killed. This earthquake happened in 1556.

Earthquakes worry people a lot. The reason is that we often do not know when they are coming. People cannot prepare for them beforehand.

How did the sea horse get its name? It’s not hard to guess. The top half of this fish looks like a small horse. But looking at the sea horse’s tail, you might think “sea monkey” is a better name. Then there’s the sea horse’s pouch (口袋). “Sea kangaroo” might also be a good name for this fish.

Sea horse live in warm ocean waters all over the world. They keep safe from other fish by hiding in plants and grasses that grow under the sea. They can also change colors to match their surroundings (环境). A sea horse in one place for hours at a time by winding its tail around a plant. It feeds on live food, such as small shrimp (虾). For a fish that doesn’t move around much, the sea horse eats a lot—in just one day, a sea horse can eat 3,000 shrimp!

A sea horse keeps the same mate for its whole life, and it’s the male (雄性的) sea horse that gives birth to baby sea horses. How does this happen? Baby sea horse start out as eggs, which come from the female’s (雌性的) body. The male carries the eggs in its pouch for about three weeks until they hatch (孵化). Soon after the babies are born, the female gives her mate a new set of eggs.

Sadly, the number of sea horses is becoming smaller. Why is this happening? Some places where sea horses once lived have been filled in to make new land. Also, many sea horses are caught and sold as aquarium (水族馆) fish. This really is not a good idea because most sea horses don’t live long in aquarium. The best place for a sea horse is the ocean.

At one point or another, you’ve probably heard someone speak with confidence on a topic that they actually know almost nothing about. This phenomenon is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.

In a set of studies, researchers Justin Kruger and David Dunning asked participants to complete tests of their skills in a particular domain. Then, participants were asked to guess how well they had done on the test. 【小题1】This effect was most pronounced among participants with the lowest scores on the test.   

In other words, if someone knows very little about a particular topic, they may not even know enough about the topic to realize that their knowledge is limited. Importantly, someone may be highly skilled in one area, but be influenced by the Dunning-Kruger effect in another domain.【小题2】     

If people who know very little about a topic think they’re experts, what do experts think of themselves? Interestingly, Dunning and Kruger found that although experts typically guessed their performance was above average, they didn’t realize quite how well they had done. They often make a different mistake:【小题3】

What can people do to overcome the effect? Dunning and Kruger once had some of the participants take a logic test and then complete a short training session on logical reasoning. After the training, the participants were asked to assess how they’d done on the previous test. 【小题4】As a result, the participants who scored in the bottom 25 percent lowered their estimate of how well they thought they had done on the initial test.

In short, The Dunning-Kruger effect suggests that we may not always know as much as we think we do. 【小题5】However, by challenging ourselves to learn more, we can work to overcome the effect.