“Beep—beep—beep.” Your phone roars in the dead of night and wakes you up. Adrenaline surges as a low rumble shakes the pictures on the nightstand. Panic threatens, but you remember the earthquake drill you practiced. You drop to the ground, take cover under your desk, and hold on tight. Though the shaking intensifies, relief washes over you because you knew it was coming thanks to the warning. How do we get these precious seconds before an earthquake hits? Enter earthquake early warning systems, life-saving tools that provide a crucial head start for taking cover or evacuating. Operating through a network of
A: Apart from singers Cher, Mary J. Blige, Ozzy Osbourne and Peter Frampton, who else was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? B: The other inductees were Kool and the Gang, Dave Matthews, Foreigner and A Tribe Called Quest. A: All four of those bands are awesome. B: Also, Dionne Warwick received an award for musical excellence. A: Wow! Isn’t she the late pop diva Whitney Houston’s cousin? They both have the greatest voices. A: 除了雪兒、瑪麗J.、奧茲奧斯朋、彼得佛萊姆頓,還有誰入選「搖滾名人堂」? B: 還有庫爾夥伴合唱團、大衛馬修樂團、外國人合唱團、探索一族。 A: 這4個樂團都很棒耶。 B: 狄昂華維克則榮獲「音樂卓越獎」! A: 哇,她不是已故天后惠妮休斯頓的表姊嗎?兩姊妹都是美聲天后。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
At 3:19am on a cold December morning in 1941, a father was jolted awake by violent shaking, loud crashes and the sound of breaking pottery and tiles. And then, a woman’s terrified scream. He instinctively reached for his wife beside him. She was not there. She must have gone to check on their youngest child in the east wing. He tried to stand but was thrown back down. The room shook even harder. Walls cracked open and ceiling beams groaned as pieces of the roof began to fall. Cold December air rushed in the room and fanned the fire
Billy Lezra stood on the edge of a train platform, with her heart pounding and her mind clouded by despair. At 23, she faced her mother’s suicide attempt and spiraled into depression and alcohol addiction. She saw no way out, and just as she was about to take the final step, a stranger __1__ her with an unexpected request: “Excuse me, but would you mind taking my picture?” This simple, unforeseen meeting was enough to pull Billy back from the brink. __2__ that fateful day, Billy has been on a journey of recovery and discovery, determined to understand what drives people