Living and dealing with kids can be a tough job these days, but living and dealing with parents can be even tougher.

    If I have learned anything in my 16 years, it is that communication is very important, both when you disagree and when you get along. With any relationship, you need to let other person know how you are feeling. If you are not able to communicate, you drift apart. When you are mad at your parents, or anyone else, not talking to them doesn't solve anything.

    Communication begins with the concerns of another. It means that you can't just come home from school, go up to your room and ignore everyone. Even if you just say “Hi”, and see how their day was for five minutes, it is better than nothing.

    If you looked up the word “communication” in a dictionary, it would say “the exchange of ideas, the conveyance (表达) of information, means of communication such as a letter or a message”. To keep a good relationship, you must keep communication strong. Let people know how you feel, even if it's just by writing a note.

    When dealing with parents, you always have to make them feel good about how they are doing as a parent. If you are trying to make them see something as you see it, tell them that you'll listen to what they have to say, but ask them politely to listen to you. Yelling or walking away only makes the situation worse.

    This is an example: one night, Sophie went to a street party with her friends. She knew she had to be home by midnight after the fireworks, but she didn't feel she could just ask to go home. That would be rude. After all, they had been nice enough to take her along with them. Needless to say, she was late getting home. Her parents were mad at first, but when Sophie explained why she was late, they weren't as mad and let the incident go. Communication is the key factor here. If Sophie's parents had not been willing to listen, Sophie would have been in a lot of trouble.

    Communication isn't a one-way deal: it goes both ways. Just remember: if you get into a situation like Sophie's, tell the other person how you feel—listening is the key factor to communication.

    The following is a timetable in Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.

    I was asked by a reader recently why so many animals seem to have pink ears, when their bodies are all different colours? The truth is that most animals actually don't have pink ears. Let us explain.

    Near the equator (赤道), where the climate is hot, animals are likely to have darker skin, including on their ears. Think of the African elephant, which has quite dark ears. In colder climates, skin colour is usually lighter and often pink.

    Why is skin colour different in different climates？Skin pigmentation, which is what gives skin its colour, can protect against sunburn and skin cancer (癌症). When animals live in colder parts of the world, they don't need it as much to survive. Light-coloured skin also helps animals stay warmer because it reduces heat loss, which is useful if you're in a colder climate.

    For most animals, the colour of their fur or other body covering has generally developed as camouflage. That allows animals to mix into the background and avoid being eaten, or for predators (捕食者) to remain hidden during hunting. One example is the sandy-coloured coat of the desert fennec fox, which uses camouflage for both hunting and hiding.

    By the way, in many animals, ears come in many different shapes and sizes. For example, in bats, the serval (a type of African wildcat) and the fennec fox, the ears are large compared to their body size—this helps them hear better because it allows them to sense more sound waves. Naked mole-rats have tiny ears because they need to dig a lot. Big ears would get in the way. The other downside of big ears is that you can lose a lot of body heat. That's why animals that live in really cold places, like the Arctic fox, have quite small ears.

    In most people's opinion, the tiger is not an animal that we would ordinarily think of as being chicken. However, one tiger, which lives in an English zoo, turned out to be more cowardly (胆小的) than his keepers could ever have imagined.

    Tanvir, a two-year-old Bengal tiger, got stuck at the top of a new 5m-high activity tower in the zoo, after climbing it for the first time.

    The wooden tower had been designed to provide mental exercise for Tanvir by testing his ability of dealing with troublesome situations, but after climbing it in just a few seconds, he lost his courage when it came to coming back down. Tanvir went on to spend nearly two days at the top of the tower trying to collect the courage to attempt to get down.

    A spokesperson for the zoo said that several days before Tanvir had taken half an hour to get down a lower tower only 1.5m high, and the taller tower had clearly been too much challenging for him.

    "Every time he got to the edge, he looked out, put a paw over, and thought, 'no, I cannot make it!" 'laughed Samantha Cordrey, Tanvir's keeper. In the end Tanvir's hunger defeated his fear, and after almost 48 hours he made his way down. Burying himself in a big meal just like a hungry pig, Tanvir seemed to forget such a shameful experience for a while.

    It appears that his experience would not be the worst in Tanvir's life if he continued to act like a chicken. It is not known whether he will take courage to go back up his exercise tower again.

    The whole episode (插曲) only serves to show the difficulties faced by zoo staff in creating environments that will improve animals' living ability in enclosed space.

    Next autumn when you see wild geese heading south for the winter flying in a V formation you might think about what scientists have discovered as to why they fly that way.

    As each bird flaps(拍打) its wings, it creates an uplift(升力) for the bird immediately following. By flying in V formation the whole group adds at least 71% greater flying range(航程) than if each bird flies on its own.

    People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going more quickly and easily because they are traveling on the push of one another. When a wild goose falls out of the formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance(阻力) of trying to go alone and quickly tries to get back into the formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front. When the head goose gets tired, it flies back into the formation and another goose flies to the front. It is wise to take turns doing difficult jobs whether it be people or wild geese flying south.

    Wild geese honk(发出雁叫声) from behind to inspire those up front to keep up their speed. When a wild goose gets sick or wounded by gunshots, and falls out of the formation, two other geese will fall out with that goose and follow it down to lend help and protection. They will stay with the fallen goose until it is able to fly or until it dies, and only then will they go on with their own or with another formation to catch up with their group.

    The booking notes of the play “The Age of Innocence”:

    Price:$10

    BOOKING

    There are four easy ways to book seats for performance:

--in person

    The Box Office is open from Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m.—8 p.m.

--by telephone

    Ring 01324976 to reserve your tickets or to pay by credit card(Visa, MasterCard and Amex accepted)

--by post

    Simply complete the booking form and return it to Global Theatre Box Office.

--on line

    Complete the on-line booking form at www.Satan-fiedtheatre.com

    DISCOUNTS:

    Saver: $ 2 off any seat booked any time in advance for performances from Monday to Thursday. Savers are available for children up to 16 years old, over 60s and full-time students.

    Supersaver: half-price seats are available for people with disabilities and one companion. It is advisable to book in advance. There is a maximum of eight wheelchair spaces available and one wheelchair space will be held until an hour before the show.

    Standby: best available seats are on sale for $ 6 from one hour before the performance for people eligible (suitable) for Saver and Supersaver discounts and thirty minutes before for all other customers.

Group Bookings: there is a ten percent discount for parties of twelve or more.

    School: school parties of ten or more can book $6 standby tickets in advance and will get every tenth ticket free.

    Please note: we are unable to exchange tickets or refund money unless a performance is canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.