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.

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    Research proves that nearly half of the cancers diagnosed(诊断) in the UK each year-over 130, 000 in total- are caused by life choices that include smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things.

    Tobacco(烟草) is the biggest factor, causing 23% for cases in men and 15.6% in women, says the Cancer Research UK report. Next comes a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in men's diets, while for women it is being overweight. Lead author of the report, Professor Max Parkin, said: "Many people believe cancer is related to fate or in the genes(基因), and that it depends on luck whether they get it or not. Looking at all the evidence, it is clear that around 40% of all cancers are caused by things we mostly have the power to change."

    For men, the best advice appears to be: stop smoking, eat more fruit and vegetables and cut down on how much alcohol you drink. For women, again, the best advice is to stop smoking, but also watch your weight.

    In total, 14 lifestyle and environmental factors, such as where you live and the job you do, cause 134, 000 cancers in the UK each year.

    Some risk（风险） factors are well founded, such as smoking's link with lung cancer. But others are less well recognized. For stomach cancer, a fifth of the risk comes from having too much salt in the diet, data suggests. Some cancers, like mouth and throat cancer, are caused almost entirely by lifestyle choices. But others, like gall bladder cancer(胆囊癌), are largely unrelated to lifestyle.

    Public Health Minister, Anne Milton, said: "By making small changes you can cut your risk of serious health problems- giving up smoking, watching you drink, getting more exercise and keeping an eye on your weight."

    Can plants eat people? Maybe not, but there are many plants that eat meat. Some of them are big and they can eat small animals. One famous meat-eating plant is the Venus flytrap(捕蝇草).

    The Venus flytrap is a very strange plant. It grows in dry parts of the United States. Its leaves are like the pages of a book. They can open and close very quickly. The fly (苍蝇) cannot get out. In about half an hour, the leaf presses (压) the fly until it is dead. Then, the plant covers(覆盖) the fly. Slowly, the plant eats the fly.

    Why do plants do it? Most plants get what they need from the sun, the air, and the ground (地面). In some places, the ground is very poor. It doesn't have all these important things, especially nitrogen(氮.). Animal meat has a lot of nitrogen, so many plants eat meat to get what they need.

    Let's hope that some of the bigger plants don't get the same idea!

    "Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell."

    This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown person who lived in Rome in AD 53 wrote it.

    We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives.

    But have all these developments really improved the quality of our lives?

    Picture this: You're rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, and the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night to get it done. How calm and happy do you feel?

    Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have no telephones, no cars, not even any electricity(电) often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they lead simple lives.

    Our family in the UK went "back in time" to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today. The grandparents, with their daughter, and grandsons Benjamin, 10 and Thomas, 7, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.

    The grandmother, Lyn, said, "It was hard physically, but not mentally." She believed life was less materialistic(物质的). "The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes," she said. The boys said they fought less. Probably, they said, because there was less to fight over, such as their computer. Also Lyn changed from being a "fashionable, beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things."

    Here are some simple ways to beat the stress often caused by our inventions!

    Don't be available all the time. Turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day.

    Don't check your emails every day.

    Don't reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets boring.

    Make sure you spend some time talking to your family. Set aside one evening a week when you don't turn on the television. Play cards and chat instead.

    Get a low technology hobby. Every day, do something in the old way, such as walking to have a face-to-face meeting instead of using the email or telephone.

    Don't worry too much about life—laugh more.

    Have you ever been ill? When you are ill, your body becomes hot, and there are pains all over your body. You must be unhappy because of it. You don't want to work. You stay in bed feeling sad.

    What makes us ill? It's germs. Germs are everywhere. They are very small and you can't find them with your eyes, but you can see them with a microscope (显微镜). They are very, very small and there could be hundreds of them on a very small thing.

    Germs are always found in dirty water. When we look at dirty water under the microscope, we can see them in it. So your father and mother will not let you drink dirty water.

    Germs aren't found only in water. They are found in the air and dust (灰尘). If you cut your finger, and if some of the dust from the floor goes into the cut, some of the germs will go into your finger. Your finger will become big and red, and you will have much pain in it. Sometimes the germs will go into all of your body, and you will have pain everywhere.

    In England, people often talk about the weather because you can experience four seasons in one day. In the morning the weather is warm just like in spring. An hour 1 black clouds come, and then it rains hard. The weather gets 2 cold. In the late afternoon the sky will be clear, the sun will begin to shine and it will be summer at this time of a day.

    In England, you can also have summer in winter, 3 have winter in summer. So in 4 you can swim sometimes, and in summer sometimes you should wear warm clothes.

    When you go to England, you will see some English people take umbrellas or rain-coats with them on the 5 morning, but you shouldn't laugh at them. If you don't take an umbrella or a raincoat, you will regret later in the day.