Sound travels very well through water-much better, in fact, than it does through air. So it shouldn't be surprising that many ocean animals make noise. They use sound to communicate and hunt. As biologist Brandon Southall says, “Their whole world is related to sound.”

    Dolphins whistle, organizing hunts. Lovesick whales sing so loudly they can be heard hundreds of miles away. But these days they aren't the only ones sounding off. They have more and more competition from human machines.

    Every day, thousands of huge container ships sail across the world's oceans. On top of the engine noise, the ships' propeller (螺旋桨) make a loud noise all the time. All that can make it hard for ocean animals trying to listen out for friends, or dinner. Animals swimming nearby a ship can be deafened or even killed.

    Underwater construction can also be dangerously loud. When construction machines called pile drivers were used during repairs to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, dead fish appeared.

    Geologist (地质学家) pound on the seafloor too, trying to find oil wells and map Earth's surface. The results are useful lo science, but all that hammering probably gives ocean animal a headache.

    As people realize how important sound is to ocean animals, they are looking for ways to reduce human noise. Ships could get quieter just by slowing down. Engineers are also trying to find quieter propeller ships.

    Now some companies are using a simple invention called a bubble curtain, which makes sound waves passing through it lose energy and gel quieter. It seems to work - when bubble curtains were fixed on the San Francisco bridge project fish deaths dropped.

    We still have a lot to learn about sound in the oceans, but together we can help keep the sea a quieter place.

    As countless unmade beds and unfinished homework assignments prove, kids need rules. Yet how parents make demands can powerfully influence a child's social skills, psychologists at the University of Virginia recently found after the conclusion of a study investigating the transition from adolescence to adulthood.

    Initially 184 13-year-olds filled out multiple surveys, including one to assess how often their parents employed psychologically controlling strategies, such as inducing guilt or threatening to withdraw affection. The kids rated, for example, how typical it would be for Dad to suggest that “if I really cared for him, I would not do things that caused him to worry”or for Mom to become “less friendly when I did not see things her way.”

    The researchers followed up with the subjects at ages 18 and 21, asking the young adults to bring along a close friend and, later, a romantic partner if they had one. These pairs were asked to answer hypothetical (假设的) questions that were purposefully written to inspire a difference of opinion. “We wanted to see whether they could navigate a disagreement in a healthy way, ”says study leader Barbara Oudekerk, now at the U. S. Department of Justice's bureau of statistics.

    In the October issue of Child Development, Oudekerk and her colleagues report that the 13-year-olds who had highly controlling parents struggled in friendly disagreements at age 18. They had difficulty stating their opinions in a confident, reasoned manner in comparison to the kids without controlling parents. And when they did speak up, they often failed to express themselves in warm and productive ways.

    The researchers suspect that pushy parents ruin their child's ability to learn how to argue his or her own viewpoint in other relationships. Although parents do need to set boundaries, domineering strategies imply that any disagreement will damage the bond itself. Separate findings suggest that parents who explain the reasons behind their rules and turn disagreements into conversations leave youngsters better prepared for future arguments.

    The consequences of tense or domineering relationships appear to get worse with time. This study also found that social difficulties at 18 predicted even poorer communication abilities at age 21. Psychologist Shmuel Shulman of Bar-Ilan University in Israel, who did not participate in the work, thinks these conclusions convincingly reveal how relationship patterns “carry forward” into new friendships.

    In recent years, much of the sea ice that polar bears use as a hunting platform for seal meals has melted, forcing some bears — particularly young males — farther north or onto land, where they are not as skilled at hunting. When stuck on land for months, a polar bear typically is forced to survive on its own fat reserves.

    The bears were listed earlier this year as a threatened species under the U. S. Endangered Species Act as populations have declined. Meanwhile, snow geese are booming near the western Hudson Bay, and there are in fact too many of them. Their eggs can be a good food source. The geese nest on tundra (冻原；苔原) that some bears have retreated to.

    "Over 40 years, six subadult (接近成年的) male bears were seen among snow goose nests, and four of them were sighted after the year 2000," says Robert Rockwell. "I've seen a subadult male eat goose eggs whole or press its nose against the shell, break it, and eat the contents."

    Ice is melting, on average, 0.72 days earlier each year in the region studied. Snow geese are hatching eggs about 0.16 days sooner each year, according to Rockwell and his graduate student Linda Gormezano. Current trends indicate that the arrival of polar bears will correspond to the average hatching period in 3.6 years, and egg consumption could become a viable option, which the researcher concluded in a statement released today.

    A polar bear, the largest land carnivore (食肉动物), would need to consume the eggs of 43 nests to replace the energy gained from the average day of hunting seals, but Rockwell and his colleagues figure that while many polar bears may starve in coming years, the resourceful animals just might survive disappearance.

    Polar bears survived a warm period about 125,000 years ago, when sea level was 12 to 18 feet higher than it is now and trees lived above the Arctic Circle, the scientists point out.  "They've been through the warm period before，" Rockwell said.

    The polar bears' potential movement to a diet of more eggs brought to mind a quote by Ilkoo Angutikjuak, an Inuit who lives in the Canadian province of Nunavut, in the February 2008 issue of Natural History magazine, Rockwell said. Angutikjuak said: "The animals will adapt. I've heard that because they depend on sea ice, polar bears will disappear, but I don't believe it. They are very adaptable. As the sea ice changes, polar bears might get skinnier and some might die, but I don't think they will disappear."

    I spend half of my life with my mother and the other half with my father. My father lives with a twenty-pound cat named Tofu. He calls me his favorite daughter. I am an only child.

    My father's apartment is quite different from any other person's living space. Except for my room, there is no furniture. He doesn't like sofas or any comfortable chairs, so he has only a drawing table, a desk and his bed. He spends a lot of time lying on the studio floor. That's how he thinks, he says. Then he does yoga

    He has a big kitchen, and on top of the refrigerator is an old clock he winds every week for good luck. The last time the clock stopped, my father's car was towed(被警察拖走) and some other terrible things happened, so he has become very superstitious (迷信的) . When he goes out of town, he hires someone to feed Tofu and wind the clock so it won't stop.

    The one thing he has plenty of is house rules. You have to take off your shoes when you come in. He won't allow anyone who wears a baseball cap into his house. He says only baseball players should wear baseball caps and only the catchers should wear them backward. Every time I go to stay in his house, he makes up a new rule. "House rule number 579, no television programs with laugh tracks!" he will say. But then be can never remember the numbers, so they change constantly.

The rule that he always enforces is the one that requires me to write a two-page essay anytime I want something. He didn't speak English until he was sixteen, and he had a hard time learning to write it, so he wants me to become a good writer at an early age. This ritual(仪式)started when I asked him if I could have my ears pierced when I was nine. He said it was very cruel and told me I couldn't do it until I was thirty-five. But l kept asking him, and he finally said that if I wrote an essay and I could persuade him in writing why I wanted holes in my ears, maybe he would say okay. I wrote my first essay for my father, and after one month of writing and rewriting, he finally gave me his permission.

    Maybe it's because it was our first purchase as homeowners. The salesman must have spotted just how green we were, so he began persuading. And soon he led us to a classic leather chair. All these years later, I remember he used words like rich and handsome, the thing every living room needed.

    We believed him. So we bought that chair — just less than $100, a great deal in the 1970s for a young couple!

    How we loved that chair! It always occupied a place of honor in our various living rooms, moving with us from our first tiny house to our beloved new house.

    Somehow, conversations were better on that chair, and life was more fun around it. Three daughters spilled their secrets on it. Old friends seemed to be attracted by it on those wonderful occasions. Crazy as it sounds, that leather chair seemed to have — well, powers. All for good.

    At first, we didn't really care that the leather was showing signs of wear or that it had lost its sheen (光泽). But in our most recent move, when the chair was moved in our new living room, it suddenly looked terribly lonely sitting close to newly painted walls and a couple of shiny new tables.

    My husband and I tried but still we couldn't ignore the rough spots. Our chair had a skin disease. Even our adult kids raised eyebrows, urging us to at least remove the chair to some dark comer of the room. Neither of us could imagine such a retirement for it.

    So we had an inspired idea. We'd call in an upholsterer (修理工) to give our old chair a whole new life. Our friend Joe studied the chair and then took out a simple leather conditioner. He explained that although it wouldn't work miracles, it would definitely get our weary chair looking younger again. It certainly doesn't look new, but its seat and back are shining, and some of its deeper wrinkles have lightened.

    Best of all, it's back in the living room, looking like a wise old friend to the furniture around it. And, yes, there it will stay.

    Because some things, like some people, just deserve a happy old age.

15 years ago, Erin Merryn met a kitten who needed a home when she was a college student.

He jumped into her arms and refused to let her go.

"I was attached immediately and decided that I would take a risk and try hiding a kitten in my college dorm where animals are obviously not allowed," Erin recalled.

A week later she was caught and given 48 hours to remove the cat. After several phone calls, Erin was able to find an old lady to take Bailey, the kitten. But Bailey did not get along with his new housemate. As soon as Erin learned that he would be sent away, she immediately offered to take him back. "I plotted for a month to convince my parents to let me keep him." said Erin.

Six years ago, Erin had Abby, her beautiful daughter. She didn't know what Bailey would think about the new addition when she brought her home from the hospital.

"But it was love at first sight." Erin said. Bailey stayed by Abby's side, guarding and showering her with love and purrs. As Abby grew, he became her protective brother, watching over her every step of the way. Abby picked up a book one day and tried to read it with Bailey by her side. He became her perfect audience, and the sweet boy was completely attracted by Abby as she told him stories of wonder.

A video showing Abby reading to Bailey went viral on the Internet in 2018. Numerous people followed Erin on social media platforms.

Unfortunately, on December 8, 2018, just months after becoming famous, the 14-year old cat passed away from kidney failure.

A full month after Bailey's passing, Erin still got cards and gifts from caring individuals. It is this love that Erin hopes Bailey's fans hold on to. She wants her furry "first-born" to be remembered as a symbol of compassion that inspires others to treat the world with love.