You probably know many of the things that you can do with the hundreds of different muscles in your body. But have you ever thought about how the muscles in an animal's body are different from yours? An animal's muscles are made to do the things that are most important for its life.

    Lions are hunters. They depend on their ability to catch other animals. Lions must be fast in order to catch their prey(猎物). The powerful muscles in their back legs allow them to run at speeds of more than 30 miles per hour. They can also jump a distance of more than 35 feet. The strong muscles in their front legs help them catch their prey.

    Snakes also use their muscles for hunting prey and for movement, but their muscles work in very different ways than lions' do. Because snakes do not have any legs, they use their muscles to push against the ground or other objects to move themselves forward. Their muscles also allow them to eat things that seem much too large. For example, a snake may eat an egg that is larger than the width of its body. How does this happen? The snake's strong neck muscles work together to push the egg down the mouth.

    The elephant's long nose has a lot of muscles. Scientists believe that the nose alone has more than 100,000 muscles! This is because the elephant uses its nose much in the same way that people use their hands and fingers. Even though the nose is large, it can perform surprisingly tasks. For example, an elephant can pick up a small leaf from the ground. The nose can also be a powerful tool. An elephant can use its nose to pick up a tree by its roots or even to lift a baby elephant.

    The great muscles of these animals seem pretty unbelievable. But the muscles in your body work exactly the way you need them to. After all, it might be fun to be able to jump a distance of 30 feet, but as a human being, there is just not much need for it.

    One of the hottest places on the earth is Death Valley. It's a desert valley in North America. The animals in Death Valley don't use technology to keep cool. They have special abilities that help them live there.

    The kangaroo rat is one animal that lives in Death Valley. During the day in Death Valley, it gets hotter than 100°F. The kangaroo rat rests all day in a hole in the ground. It covers the hole with grass to keep out the heat. The kangaroo rat comes out at night when it is cooler. This little rat is also very good at conserving (节约) water. It gets all the water it needs from the food it eats. Some kangaroo rats never take a drink of water in their whole lives!

    The sun makes the desert sand very hot. Animals, like snakes, get too hot if they lie on the hot sand too long. One snake, called the sidewinder, can solve this problem. When it travels, the sidewinder bends (使弯曲) its body into a“W”shape. Then it uses the bottom (底部的) parts of the“W”like legs and walks sideways (向一侧). That way it touches only a little of the sand at a time, so the hot sand doesn't burn the snake. This strange way of moving is how the sidewinder got its name.

    A lot of water in the desert is too salty for most animals to drink. All water has some salt in it. As the desert heat dries up pools of water, the salt is left behind. The remaining water in these pools can be much saltier than the ocean. One kind of fish, the desert pupfish, can live in these salty pools because it can drink the salt water.

    Possible Earth-Like Planet Next Door?

    Scientists say they discovered an earth-like planet outside our solar system (太阳系). It is a planet that could support life.

    This planet is just 4.2 light years away from us. It is so close that space scientists have considered it as a next door neighbor. They say it could be reached by an unmanned spaceship before the end of the century -- in time for people alive today to see it.

    An international team of scientists found the planet moving around the star called "Proxima Centauri". The result came out last month from the scientific magazine Nature.

    Scientists have long thought that a planet with water is important for life. And it has to be neither too hot nor too cold. The newly-discovered planet is a little larger than earth Scientists have named it Proxima B. It moves around its sun, Proxima Centauri, once every 11 days.

    American scientists have been using instruments for years to look for earth-like planets. In 2013, scientists' best guess was that there are about one billion (1,000 million) "earths" in space.

    Alan Boss is the chairman of a group for outer space research. He said that Proxima B not only confirms (确认) the discovery of a planet, but also increases the number of other possible“earths” greatly.

    Boss said it is possible, even likely, that most stars have at least one earth-like planet, which he considers surprising.

    So from the early number of a billion, this new research suggests there may be as many possible earth-like planets as there are stars in the Galaxy (银河系). That is, anywhere from 250 billion to 500 billion "earths".

    This makes the possibility of living things increasingly likely Boss said he believes human beings will be able to show that there is life in places besides earth in his lifetime. "I am 65," he said, "but I expect to still be alive when it happens."

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