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    Are you nervous? Maybe you should sit in a blue room. Are you always cold? Maybe you should sit in a room painted in a "warm colour" such as soft orange. Are you often sad? Maybe you should sit in a yellow room. Some researchers believe that colour has the power to influence our feelings. They believe that colours affect(影响)everyone in the same way.

    One study was in a workplace. The researchers painted heavy boxes white and light boxes black. They want to see how colour affected the workers' feelings. Which boxes do you think were more difficult to lift? The heavy white ones? No. The white boxes were heavier but they looked light. The researchers think that this is because light colours seem light.

    Another study was at school. Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, studied children with behaviour problems in their classroom. When the walls were brown and yellow, the children's heart rate went up and they were over-active. However, when the walls were dark blue, the children's heart rate was slower and the children were much calmer. If this is true, we can think carefully about the colours around them--not just in our homes, but also in offices, in schools, in hospitals, in gyms, in museums, in restaurants and even in prisons.

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    Do you know some great inventors and their inventions?

    What factors (因素) are needed for their success?

    Well, good timing for a start. You can have a great idea which the public simply doesn't want … yet. The Italian Giovanni Caselli invented the first fax（传真）machine in the 1860s. Although the quality is excellent, his invention quickly died a commercial(商业的) death. It was not until the 1980s that the fax became very common in every office… too late for Giovanni Caselli.

    Money also helps. The Frenchman Denis Papin (1647-1712) had the idea for a steam engine （蒸汽机）almost a hundred years before the better-remembered Scotsman James Watt was even born… but he never had enough money to build one.

    You also need to be patient (it took scientists nearly eighty years to develop a light bulb which actually worked)… but not too patient. In the 1870s, Elisha Gray, a professional inventor from Chicago, developed plans for a telephone. Gray saw it as no more than “a beautiful toy”. However, when he finally sent details of his invention to the Patent Office(专利局) in February，1876, it was too late. Almost the same invention had arrived two hours earlier and the young man who sent it , Alexander Graham Bell, will always be remembered as the inventor of the telephone.

    Of course what you really need is a great idea—but if you haven't got one, a walk in the country and a careful look at nature can help. The Swiss scientist, George de Mestral, had the idea for Velcro(魔术贴) when he found his clothes covered in sticky seed pods after a walk in the country. During a similar walk in the French countryside some 250 years earlier, Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur had the idea that paper could be made from wood when he found an abandoned wasps' nest(蜂巢).

    You also need good commercial sense. Willy Higinbotham was a scientist doing nuclear (核能的)research in the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, USA. In 1958 the public were invited to an exhibition in the Laboratory to see their work, but both parents and children were more interested in a tiny 120cm screen with a white dot which could be hit back and forth over a “net” using a button and a knob. Soon hundreds of people were ignoring the other exhibits to play the first ever computer game—made from a simple laboratory instrument called an “oscilloscope”. Higinbotham, however, never made money from his invention: he thought people were only interested in the game because the other exhibits were so boring!

    Many animals do strange things before an earthquake. This news may be important. Earthquakes can kill people and knock down homes. The animals may help to save lives.

    Some animals make a lot of noise before an earthquake. Farmers have told about this. Dogs that are usually quiet have started to bark (吠). Horses on farms have run around in circles. Mice have left their holes and run away. Cows have given less milk.

    In a town in Italy, cats raced down the street in a group. That happened only a few hours before an earthquake. In San Francisco, a man kept tiny pet frogs. One Sunday, the frogs jumped around more than ever. They made loud noises, like bigger frogs. That night, an earthquake struck the city.

    People want to know when an earthquake is coming. Then they could get away safely. Right now, there is no sure way to know ahead of time. Maybe the best idea is watching the animals.

    There are millions of different animals in the world, but some are in danger, and some may soon die out. People can never see them again. Mark and David wanted to find some of these rare animals, so they climbed mountains, crossed rivers, and walked through rainforests.

    A Bat, a Cat or a Squirrel?

    Mark and David found the aye-aye. The aye-aye has bright eyes. It has ears like a bat, a body like a cat and a tail(尾巴) like a squirrel. Some people think the aye-aye brings bad luck. They killed(杀死) many of them, and cut down a lot of trees where the aye-aye lives as well.

    A Strange Parrot

    Mark and David found the biggest parrot in the world that cannot fly. Many years ago, some animals came to the place the parrots lived in, and killed many of them. Now there are only a few left.

    Another Special Animal

    Mark and David went looking for a manatee. A manatee looks like a seal and a hippo. In some places where manatees live, the water in the river gets low. Then the manatee swims to the place where there is more water. Many get stranded(搁浅), and some are killed by other animals and people, too.

    After Mark and David returned, they made a film about these animals. They want to show the world these strange but interesting animals. They want the world to know there are not many of them left, and they all have a place in our world.