学进去

Katie was waiting for Gulliver’s calls. Instead, she just heard sparrows making noise in the bushes. “Maybe Gulliver missed the harbour.” Dad said. After breakfast, Katie took her camera to the harbour. All the colourful boats made pretty pictures, but not the one she wanted most.

Katie waved to Ernest, her uncle’s neighbour, on the boathouse. The gull’s name, Gulliver, was given by him. The gull’s size and his single leg made the bird itself different. But Ernest told Katie what Gulliver did that first summer Katie and her dad came caught everyone’s attention. Young Katie lay in her stroller (婴儿车) on the floating dock (码头) when Uncle Ralph and Dad were repairing boats nearby. The waves from the passing boat made Katie’s stroller shake strongly. “Kee-aah! Kee-aah!” Gulliver made the loudest cry. Dad and uncle rushed to Katie and stopped the stroller from falling into the water. They kept a close eye at Katie after that. Another summer Katie was three years old, she liked to touch everything. But Dad didn’t watch her every minute when she tried to catch small ducks around or fish from water. “Kee-aah! Kee-aah!” The gull’s cry brought Dad back in time. He stopped Katie as she tried to follow the small ducks running towards water. Several summers passed, and Gulliver continued to call out as Katie tried new things.

This summer Katie did the usual by-the-sea things she’d learned to do. One day, she rowed a boat out but was trapped on a rock by a storm. As she looked up and tried to catch the last warmth of the sunshine through dark clouds, she saw a single white feather. A gull feather? She searched the sky for an answer. Putting her arms around knees, she closed eyes to hold in the tears (眼泪). “Kee-aah! Kee-aah!” Katie sat up. “Katie! Katie!” Soon, Dad and Uncle Ralph appeared. “How lucky! We heard Gulliver as we came around the rocks,” Uncle Ralph said, “At least… it sounded like him. Strange, he was nowhere in sight.” Katie remembered the feather. “I thought I heard him, too.”

—Adapted from the story by Gillian Richardson

Pet parrots that are allowed to make video calls to other birds show signs of feeling less isolated, according to scientists.

The study, which involved giving the birds a computer that they could use to make video calls, found that they began to engage in more social behaviors including preening, singing and playing. The birds were given a choice of which “friend” to call on a touchscreen computer and the study showed that the parrots that called other birds most often were the most popular choices.

Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas, of the University of Glasgow and a co-author of the study, said that video calls had helped many people feel less isolated in the last few years. She added, “There are 20 million parrots living in people’s homes in the USA, and we wanted to explore whether those birds might benefit (受益) from video calling too. If we gave them the chance to call other parrots, would they choose to do so, and would the experience benefit the parrots and their caregivers?”

Their study of 18 pet parrots suggested that there were, indeed, benefits for the birds. In the wild, many species of parrots live in large groups, but as pets they are, kept alone or in a small group. Living alone can cause birds, to develop mental problems, which include rocking, walking back and forth, or self-harming behaviors such as feather-plucking.

The parrots first learned to ring a bell and then touch a photo of another bird on the screen of a computer to make a call to that bird, with the help of their owners. In total the birds made 147 calls to each other during the study, while owners took detailed notes on the birds’ behavior and the researchers later reviewed the video footage.

Jennifer Cunha of Northeastern University said that the parrots “seemed to know” that they were communicating with other birds. “All the bird owners in the study said they valued the experience, and would want to continue using the system with their parrots in the future,” she said.

“I was quite surprised at so many different behaviors,” said Hirskyj-Douglas. “Some would sing, some would play around and go upside down, others would want to show another bird their toys.”

China will have 75 percent of its wild animals on land under the national key protection system by 2025, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration（国家林业和草原局）said. Its announcement took place on Sunday, which happened to be the International Day for Biological Diversity（多样性）.

The administration said that part of China’s achievements in protecting wild animals lie in setting wild animals into nature reserves（保护区）after human breeding（繁殖）. It said that nine milu deer（麋鹿）recently came into the world in the Daqingshan National Nature Reserve in Inner Mongolia. They are babies of the milu deer, or Pere David’s deer, who were set into the wild in September following human breeding in Beijing and Jiangsu province.

According to the administration, human breeding has helped to increase the population of some animal kinds that had before disappeared in the wild, such as milu deer and Przewalski’s horses. There are now around 10,000 milu deer and around 700 Przewalski’s horses. As for other wild populations, the giant panda population has increased from 1,114 in the 1980s to 1,864. The number of wild Asian elephants has increased from about 180 to 300 over the same period.

The administration plans to improve the protection of wild animals—including giant pandas, Siberian tigers, Asian elephants, and snow leopards.

At the same time, the government has made more efforts to punish unlawful trading in wildlife, which also helps with the increase of wild animals.

Hi, everyone! My name is Benson. As you can see in the photo, I’m a fashion star (时尚明星).

Five years ago, Vivian and Rick r1． me from the street. After I arrived at my new home, I soon fell in love with my humans and their tuna (金枪鱼).

One day, Rick pointed his camera at me. I stopped moving and sat q2． to let him take my picture. I am a smart and patient cat, by the way. After a while, Vivian bought me some nice c3． and then even some hats. I like to wear glasses, but I hate shoes very much. It kills me to have a4． kind of shoes or socks put on my feet!

Now I have all kinds of clothes for each s5．. When it’s a cold winter day, Vivian often dresses me in a coat with a cute hat. In h6． weather, you can see me in a beach shirt with a pair of cool sunglasses. I enjoy taking pictures in these interesting clothes. Do you like them too?

Where do you get your family name? Most of us have the same family name as our fathers. In some societies, however, both family names and property(财产)are passed down from mother to daughter. They are called matriarchal societies(母系社会). Here are some of them.

Mosuo, China

About 50, 000 people live in Mosuo. Women there don’t have husbands. Even if a woman chooses to have a partner, she won’t live with the man.Children often don’t know who their father is. In fact, there is no word for husband or father in this society.

Bribri, Costa Rica

Bribri is made up of about 12, 000 people. As an old story there goes, the gods turned a woman into a cacao tree(可可树).Therefore, only women can prepare the cacao drink for ceremonies(仪式). They are seen as more sacred(神圣的)than men.

Minangkabau, Indonesia

In the 1300s, the king of Minangkabau died. He left behind three wives with three baby sons. His first wife ruled the people because her son was too young. Since then, this place has gradually become the largest matrilineal society in the world. It now has more than four million members.