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.

      Bats are the only “flying animals” in the world. They can't see very well. We often hear “as blind as a bat”. Yet they have no trouble flying on the darkest nights and finding their ways round. How can bats fly and see at night? They fly by radar(雷达).

The bat's radar system(系统) works the same way as the radar in ships and planes. As a bat flies through the air, it makes a sound. If the sound hits things, it will come back and the bat's ears will receive the message. In this way the bat is able to know where the things are. Bats go out for food at night. In the daytime they hang in some dark places. Some people think bats are bad animals. In fact they are useful animals.

    Do you believe that only boys do well in science? Does it seem that girls have better language skills than boys? In your opinion, are boys better at building things? If your answer to each of those questions is" Yes", you are right, according to an article in Current Science. There are exceptions(例外),but here are the facts.

    Usually, boys score higher in tests about math, while girls do better in tests about words, spelling and memory. But these differences may not always be true. In the future, a person's abilities may not be decided by sex. As one scientist says, "Nothing is impossible for a person to be or do."

    A recent study by Jerome Kagan, a scientist at Harvard University is studying the watching ability of children who are 10 months old. Baby boys and baby girls are watching "show" while seated on their mothers' laps. In Act One of the show, an orange-colored ball is lifted from a blue box and moved slowly. Then it is returned to the box. This is repeated six times. Act Six is almost the same, except that the orange ball is smaller. Baby boys do not seem to notice the difference in the size of the ball, but girls immediately become excited and begin to make noises that sound like language.

    It's also known that baby girls usually talk at an earlier age than baby boys do. Scientists believe that the left side of the brain develops faster in girls than in boys. As a result, by the time they start to go to school, little girls have an advantage that boys don't have, but what have the boys been doing in the years before starting school? They have been developing something called aggression. An aggressive person feels strong and independent. He is often the first one to start a fight. It is said that aggression is caused by hormones(荷尔蒙). Scientists believe that hormones are not the only cause. They say aggression in boys is also caused by mothers.