I was never very neat, while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled (贴标签 ) everything. I always, looked for everything. Over time, Kate got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.

    War broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. ,Soon, I heard her screaming, "Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!" Deafened, I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.

    The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it. From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled (爬 ) under her covers, sobbing.

    Obviously, that was something she should not go through phone. All of a sudden ,a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart,

    Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bed, cleaned the socks and swept the floor, even on her side. I got so into my work that I even didn't noticed Kate had sat up.

    She was watching, her tears dried and her expression one of disbelief. Then, she reached out her  hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me. "Thanks."

    Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn't always agree, but we learned the key to living together: giving in, cleaning up and holding on.

Movie

Pete's Dragon

    Pete, played by Oakes Fegley, ventured into the water with his dragon pal, Elliot, in the new movie Pete's Dragon. The film brought an animated dragon, Elliot, and his human best friend, Pete, together. Shooing it took a lot of imagination for Oakes Fegley, the 11-year-old actor who played Pete, and Oona Laurence, the 13-year-old actress who played Natalie. She discovered Pete and Elliot in the woods.

    Kubo's Great Quest(寻找)

    The movie was about a young boy named Kubo, who live with his mother in a quite village in ancient Japan. After accidentally calling for a vengeful spirit from the past, Kubo set off on a heroic quest to find a magical suit of armor(盔甲) once worn by his father. Along the way, he gained two animal companions, Monkey and Beetle. Their journey was filled with magic, music, and the telling of many stories.

    Ice Age: Collision Course

    When the original Ice Age film was released in 2002, an animated herd of prehistoric animals took the world by storm. Fast-forward 14 years and the fifth movie in the Ice Age franchise(获特许经营权的企业)was hitting theaters. Ice Age: Collision Course followed those same beloved mammals that moviegoers have watched grow up. This time around, it isn't global warming that threatened the herd, but a big planet that's headed toward Earth.

    Finding Dory

    In Finding Dory, the forgetful blue tang, Dory, suffered from short-term memory loss. On Dory's journey to reconnect with her mom and dad, she made some new friends.

阅读理解

    In the famous fairy tale, Snow White eats the Queen's apple and falls victim to a curse（诅咒）;in Shakespeare's novel, Romeo drinks the poison and dies; some ancient Chinese emperors took pellets（药丸）that contained mercury（水银）, believing that it would make them immortal, but they died afterward.

    Poison has long been an important ingredient in literature and history, and it seems to always be associated with evil, danger and death. But how much do you really know about poison?

    An exhibition, The Power of Poison, opened last month at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, intended to give the audience a more vivid understanding of poison.

    The museum tour starts in a rainforest setting, where you can see live examples of some of the most poisonous animals: caterpillars（毛毛虫）, frogs and spiders. Golden poison frogs, for instance, aren't much bigger than a coin, but their skin is covered with a poison that can cut off the signaling power of your nerves, and a single frog has enough venom to kill 10 grown humans.

    "Poisons can be bad for some things," Michael Novacek, senior vice president of the museum, told NBC News. "Yet they can also be good for others."

    A poisonous chemical found in the yew tree is effective against cancer, which is what led to the invention of a cancer-fighting drug called Taxol.

    The benefits from natural poisons are not limited to just medicine. Believe it or not, many substances（物质）that we regularly ingest（摄入）-chili, coffee and chocolate-owe their special flavors or stimulating（提神的）effects to chemicals that plants make to poison insects.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    People aren't walking any more—if they can figure out a way to avoid it.

    I felt superior about this matter until the other day I took my car to mail a small parcel. The journey is a matter of 281 steps. But I used the car. And I wasn't in any hurry, either, I had merely become one more victim of a national sickness: motorosis.

    It is an illness to which I had thought myself immune（免疫的）, for I was bred in the tradition of going to places on my own two legs. At that time, we regarded 25 miles as good day's walk and the ability to cover such a distance in ten hours as sign of strength and skill. It did not occur to us that walking was a hardship. And the effect was lasting. When I was 45 years old I raced—and beat—a teenage football player the 168 steps up the Stature of Liberty.

    Such enterprises today are regarded by many middle-aged persons as bad for the heart. But a well-known British physician, Sir Adolphe Abrhams, pointed out recently that hearts and bodies need proper exercises. A person who avoids exercise is more likely to have illnesses than one who exercises regularly. And walking is an ideal form of exercise—the most familiar and natural of all.

    It was Henry Thoreau who showed mankind the richness of going on foot. The man walking can learn the trees, flower, insects, birds and animals, the significance of seasons, the very feel of himself as a living creature in a living world, He cannot learn in a car.

    The car is a convenient means of transport, but we have made it our way of life. Many people don't dare to approach Nature any more; to them the world they were born to enjoy is all threat.To them security is a steel river thundering on a concrete road. And much of their thinking takes place while waiting for the traffic light to turn green.

    I say that the green of forests is the mind's best light. And none but the man on foot can evaluate what is basic and everlasting.

    Buster used to be a lovely dog playing and running on a farm all day. His life had a big change after his handler Will's presence because Will found he did extremely well in sniffing tests. Will thought Buster had a special talent and decided to let him become a member of RAF police working dogs. Buster began working with Will in 2007, and the pair was sent to Afghanistan's deadly Helmand province. There, Buster saved countless lives by sniffing out explosive devices (IEDs), as well as weapons. He joined his comrades repeatedly on foot patrols hunting Taliban terrorists and tracking down bombs. He also acted as a useful diplomatic tool, due to his friendly approach to local children. The RAF soon had a long train of children in tow, as Buster drew in his crowd and entertained them.

    After his glittering service with the RAF, Buster retired in 2011,and died in 2015 at the age of 13 at the home of his handler, Will, in Lincolnshire where he had been enjoying retirement with his handler Will, his wife Tracy and their two dogs who will inherit (继承) their father's career.

    Over the course of his career, Buster is thought to have saved more than 1,000 lives. He also helped patrol British bases and searched vehicles at check points, and upon retirement was made the official RAF Police mascot (吉祥物). Buster's brave exploits were even documented in Will's book, which was published in January and soon became a best-selling one.

    Buster completed five tours of duty in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Iraq and earned a row of campaign medals, and it was because of his great efforts in these austere environments full of wars and confrontations that he would be remembered. It was the saving of countless lives by searching out IEDs that saw the honor of official lifetime mascot of the RAF Police bestowed (授予) upon Buster. The RAF police are now planning to commemorate Buster as part of a special event to celebrate RAF Police Working Dogs.

I was asked by a reader recently why so many animals seem to have pink ears，when their bodies are all different colours? The truth is that most animals actually don't have pink ears. Let us explain.

Near the equator (赤道), where the climate is hot, animals are likely to have darker skin, including on their ears. Think of the African elephant, which has quite dark ears. In colder climates, skin colour is usually lighter and often pink.

Why is skin colour different in different climates? Skin pigmentation, which is what gives skin its colour, can protect against sunburn and skin cancer. When animals live in colder parts of the world, they don't need it as much to survive. Light-coloured skin also helps animals stay warmer because it reduces heat loss, which is useful if you're in a colder climate.

For most animals, the colour of their fur or other body covering has generally developed as camouflage. That allows animals to mix into the background and avoid being eaten, or for predators (捕食者) to remain hidden during hunting. One example is the sandy-coloured coat of the desert fennec fox, which uses camouflage for both hunting and hiding.

By the way, in many animals, ears come in many different shapes and sizes. For example, in bats, the serval (a type of African wildcat) and the fennec fox, the ears are large compared to their body size—this helps them hear better because it allows them to sense more sound waves. Naked mole-rats have tiny ears because they need to dig a lot. Big ears would get in the way. The other downside of big ears is that you can lose a lot of body heat. That's why animals that live in really cold places, like the Arctic fox, have quite small ears.