Monarch butterflies from eastern Canada make the most amazing journey in the insect world. Each year, this butterfly travels about 3000miles to its winter home in central Mexico(墨西哥). How can it fly so far? And why does it make this long and dangerous trip? Scientists still don't have an answer.

 For many years, people in Mexico wondered where the orange-and-black butterflies came from every winter. Then, in 1937, a scientist started to follow and study the butterflies. For the next 20 years, he discovered that one butterfly started its journey in Canada. Four months later, it arrived in Mexico.

 The length of the butterflies find their way back to the same place? Another amazing thing is that the butterflies always return to the same area in central Mexico.

 How do the butterflies find their way back to the same place? This is an interesting question because only every fourth generation(代) makes the trip south. In other words, the butterfly that travels to Mexico this year is the great-great-grandchild of the butterfly that traveled there last year.

 Each year, four generations of a Monarch butterfly family are born. Each generation of the family has a very different life. The first generation is born in the south in late April. It slowly moves north, reproduces(繁衍), and then dies. On the trip north,two more generations are born, reproduce, and die. Each of these generations of butterflies is born. This generation has a much longer life. It lives for about eight months. This generation of butterflies makes the amazing journey back to the winter home of its great-great-grandparents. The butterflies spend the winter there, and in the spring they reproduce and then die. Their offspring will be the first generation of the next circle of life.

 Today, people are still studying the Monarch butterfly. But they are not clear about everything.

Soon computers and other machines will be able to remember you by looking at your eyes! The programme works because everyone's eyes are different. So in the future you won't have to remember a number when you want to use a machine or take money out of a bank. You'll just have to look at the machine and it will be able to tell who you are.
The eye-recognition programme is already being tested in shops and banks in the USA, Britain, Spain, Italy and Turkey. Soon, this technology will take the place of all other ways of finding out who people are.
However, scientists are working on other systems. Machines will soon be able to know you from the shape of your face or hand or even your smell! We already have machines that can tell who you are from your voice or the mark made by your finger.
Eye-recognition is better than other kinds because your eyes don't change as you get older, or get dirty like hands or fingers. And even twins have different eyes, so the programme can be up to 94％ correct, depending on how good the technology is. Some programmes may only be right  51％ of the time. In Britain, it was found that 91％ of people who had tried it said that they liked the idea of eye-recognition. In the future your computer will be looking you in the eye. So smile!

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    American Sign Language, often called ASL, is used by most people with hearing problems in the United States and Canada.

    Besides ASL, there are more than fifty sign languages used throughout the world today, including Mayan Sign, British Sign, Israeli Sign, and Chinese Sign. Like spoken languages, sign languages are different from each other. But all sign languages are based on sight instead of sounds.

    Sign languages have several main visual (视觉) parts that work together to express meaning. The first part is the shape made by the hands. Movement is also important. Moving the body or organs (器官) like hands affects the meaning of the shape. The place where the sign is made and the direction the hands face are crucial as well. Other visual clues (线索), such as the expression on a person's face, can sometimes change a sign's meaning. For example, a change in a smile can show whether a signer is happy, very happy, or overjoyed. Raising the eyebrows can mark a question.

    In sign languages, the visual parts are combined (结合) in different ways to create signs.

These signs stand for things, actions, feelings, and ideas. ASL has about 4,000 different signs. Like spoken  languages,  sign  languages  cannot  be  translated  word-for-word.  

    For English word may be represented by a series of signs in ASL. Or several English words may be

represented by a single ASL sign. Unlike spoken languages, the signs are organized according to sign-language grammar and the most important word or idea is signed first.

    In ASL, the letter signs are made with one hand. Signers would rarely, if ever, spell out all the words they are signing. That would be as awkward and slow as speakers spelling each spoken word. However, American Sign Language does not have signs for proper names, so signers may use the alphabet to spell these. Also, sign languages often borrow words from other languages. They may spell words using finger spelling which is done with a set of hand shapes that stand for letters of the alphabet.

    Sign languages  develop  naturally  when  people  with  shared  culture  and  needs  want  to communicate with each other. Signers are closely linked to each other, perhaps more than to speaking people in their own communities. Signers share points of view, values, needs, and problems,as well as languages.

    Lately, people have entered the forests where chimpanzees live. The chimpanzees have been getting sick because of people's diseases. In addition, people are hunting chimpanzees. Their number is becoming smaller and smaller.

    Chimpanzees live in the plains and forests of Africa. They eat many kinds of foods, from plant leaves and seeds to insects and even other small animals. Chimpanzees' favourite food is fruit.

    Chimpanzees are very clever and they can use tools well. They can catch bugs by using sticks, and break nuts by using rocks.

    The world's forests are much smaller than they were before. Roads were built in deep forests, so people start to enter the forests where chimpanzees live. That may lead to many problems. One problem for chimpanzees is that they can easily catch people's diseases and die.

Chimpanzees are much closer to people than monkeys.

    As it's easier for people to enter forests, they hunt more often. Young chimpanzees are caught to be pets or for scientific research. The young ones are taken away from the forests, and the adults are killed. Chimpanzees are likely to disappear in the future.

The kites in Weifang never disappoint. Every year the Weifang International Kite Festival amazes visitors with creative kites, as "paper birds" of varied designs keep appearing in the sky.

Kites in China can originate from the Warring States Period when Mozi made the first "wooden kite". Kites didn't actually become popular until the Ming Dynasty. By the middle of the Qing Dynasty, artists who were good at kite making began to appear in Weifang. In 1984, the first Weifang International Kite Festival was held.

Kites were used in China during the wars at the very beginning. For example, they can be used to record wind readings, similar to ship flags at sea. Over time, kites became connected with relaxing activities, and were often flown during festivals and holidays.

Today, kite-flying is a popular activity in China, and the Weifang International Kite Festival is one of the largest kite festivals in the world. In 2024, 622 kite artists from 59 countries and areas took part in the event. Zhang Xiaodong,74, has attended all the festivals. In the early days, he only brought traditional kites to take part in the competitions, but this time, he used sound and light to make the story of Chang'e flying to the moon come "alive".

The festival is a great platform to share kite-making skills. It also brings the people of China and other countries closer. As one citizen put it, "No matter how far away kite lovers go, there is always a 'thread' in their heart that can pull them together."