If you visit the animal shelter in Salinas, California, you'll see huge wood cutouts(剪下的图形) of a dog and a cat. These signs were placed in front of the building to catch people's attention. The supersized cut outs make people curious and encourage them to visit the shelter— and maybe even adopt(收养) a pet. Each year, the Salinas shelter takes in around 2,000 dogs and 2,000 cats. The animals are either strays or are dropped off by people who couldn't take care of them. Of the 4,000 animals, some of them are finally adopted into new homes. Some animals are moved to other shelters. And, unluckily, some cannot be saved because they are too sick or are considered dangerous.   

   Animal shelters provide food, medicine, and a safe place for animals to sleep. But they are not ideal homes. The shelters are loud, and the animals stay in small cages. The people who work at shelters do their best to care for the animals, but the animals do not always get the attention or exercise they need.  

   To prevent so many animals from becoming homeless, pet owners should take care of their pets. One of the best ways to care for pets is to spray or neuter them. This surgery prevents cats and dogs from having more babies. And that reduces the number of homeless animals that end up in shelters.

Look up in the sky. Do you see any clouds? What do they look like? Some clouds are fluffy(绒毛状的) and white, like cotton balls. Others are dark almost black, and make you hold an umbrella. At sunrise and sunset, clouds can look red, purple, or yellow—as if they were colored with crayons. But what are clouds anyway?

    You can't reach out and touch the clouds, but you can make your own in a bottle.

    You need

    * an adult helper

    * a huge, empty glass jar

    * a metal strainer(过滤器)

    * hot water

    * ice

    Do these

    Step1. Have your helper fill the jar with hot water, leave it there for two minutes, then pour out most of the water. Leaving just an inch or two at the bottom of the jar.

    Step2. It's your turn, put the strainer over the mouth of the jar, fill the strainer with ice. Watch the jar.

    What happened?

    A cloud formed in the jar! Some of the hot water at the bottom of the jar turned into hot water vapor(蒸汽). The water vapor rose and met with the cold air coming off the ice. When the water vapor condensed, it formed a cloud. Hot air rises and carries with it lots of water vapor, the higher the air rises, the more it cools down. Soon the cold air can't hold all the water vapor so it starts turning into tiny water drops, and becomes a cloud.

阅读理解

    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.

C

Why Are They Left-handed（左撇的）?

What do Napoleon, Clinton and Wang Nan have in common(共同的)? They are all left-handed. Today about 15% of the number of people is left-handed. But why are people left-handed? The answer is the way the brain(大脑) works. The brain has two halves—the right half and the left half. The right half controls(控制) the left side of the body and the left controls the right half of the body.

    So right-handed people have a strong left brain, and left-handed have a strong right brain. The two halves of the brain are about the same size. But each side controls different things. The left side controls language, maths and logic(逻辑). When you remember new words or when you put things in order, you use your left side. The right side of the brain controls your love of art, colour and music. It is also good at recognizing(认出) faces. This does not mean(意思是) that all artists are left-handed and all accountants(会计师) are right-handed. Some right-handed have a strong right brain, and some left-handed have a strong left brain.

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