For hundreds of millions of years, turtles (海龟) have struggled out of the sea to lay their eggs on sandy beaches, long before there were nature documentaries to celebrate them, or GPS satellites and marine biologists to track them, or volunteers to hand-carry the hatchlings (幼龟) down to the water's edge lest (for fear that) they become disoriented by headlights and crawl towards a motel parking lot instead. A formidable wall of bureaucracy has been erected to protect their prime nesting on the Atlantic coastlines. With all that attention paid to them, you'd think these creatures would at least have the gratitude not to go extinct (die out).

    But Nature is indifferent to human notions of fairness, and a report by the Fish and Wildlife Service showed a worrisome drop in the populations of several species of North Atlantic turtles, notably loggerheads, which can grow to as much as 400 pounds. The South Florida nesting population, the largest, has declined by 50% in the last decade, according to Elizabeth Griffin, a marine biologist with the environmental group Oceana. The figures prompted Oceana to petition the government to upgrade the level of protection for the North Atlantic loggerheads from "threatened" to "endangered"— meaning they are in danger of disappearing without additional help.

    Which raises the obvious question: what else do these turtles want from us, anyway? It turns out, according to Griffin, that while we have done a good job of protecting the turtles for the weeks they spend on land (as egg-laying females, as eggs and as hatchlings), we have neglected the years spend in the ocean. "The threat is from commercial fishing," says Griffin. Trawlers (which drag large nets through the water and along the ocean floor) and longline fishers (which can deploy thousands of hooks on lines that can stretch for miles) take a heavy toll on turtles.

    Of course, like every other environmental issue today, this is playing out against the background of global warming and human interference with natural ecosystems. The narrow strips of beach on which the turtles lay their eggs are being squeezed on one side by development and on the other by the threat of rising sea levels as the oceans warm. Ultimately we must get a handle on those issues as well, or a creature that outlived the dinosaurs (恐龙) will meet its end at the hands of humans, leaving our descendants to wonder how creature so ugly could have won so much affection.

    Amazing Kids!Wild Jungle Writing Contest

    Amazing Kids!Magazine is proud to announce that we will be hosting a Wild Jungle Writing Contest this fall! Send us your best jungle-themed stories.This contest is open to grades K-12,with three groups of K-3,4-8,and 9-12.

    Three winners from each age group will be chosen to win Amazing Kids!prizes,along with an official certificate verifying their winning entry.All participants will receive a certificate of participation in the contest.

    Submit（提交）all entries by NOVEMBER 30 to be considered!Please look below for rules—if your entry does not comply with（与一致）our rules,it will not be considered in the contest!Email editor@amazing-kids.org or more questions about rules.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Q:What are the age limits?

    A:This contest is limited to grades K-12,with a K-3,4-8,and 9-12 age group.

    Q:How should I format my entry?

    A:Stories should be written in English,with submissions of up to 1,200 words.Stories exceeding（超出）this length will not be considered.Please submit your entry as a Microsoft Word document.Also be sure to include all essential information,including your name,grade,address,phone number(s) and e-mail address in the body of the e-mail.

    Q:How do I submit my entry?

    A:E-mail your submission to editor@amazing-kids.org.Each e-mail submission will receive a return message saying that the essay is received.

    Q:Is there just one prize?

    A:No.Nine separate prizes will be given out,with a cash value of $ 20 for first place,$15 for second place,and $10 for third place in each age group.Certificates of participation will also be awarded to each participant in the contest.

    The nervous-looking young man had waited for a few moments—outside the jeweler's before he got enough courage to enter. He was warmly greeted by a young assistant. James felt a rush of blood to his face as he explained he would be bringing in his future wife to choose a birthday present. The assistant listened carefully and told him he'd better buy a necklace. He wasn't used to buying jewellery and was a little worried about over-spending.

    After some discussion as to a reasonable price and the type, the assistant showed him dozens of necklaces and helped him to choose. At last James chose one and left the shop promising to return at five o'clock. When, half an hour later than planned, James did return to the shop with his future wife, Laura, the assistant acted as if she had never seen him before. When she was asked to show them some necklaces, she first brought out some inexpensive ones for them to choose, and then gave them the one she had prepared. A choice was soon made and they went away, satisfied. James would certainly come back to buy what he wanted.

    Smoking is harmful. But as soon as you quit the habit, everything will be OK, right? Wrong.

    New research has found that even if you give up smoking, the damage it has done to your genes will stay there for a much longer time. In the research, a team of US scientists studied the blood of 16,000 people. Among them, some were smokers, some used to smoke, and the rest were non-smokers. Scientists compared their genes and found that more than 7,000 genes of smokers had changed--a number that is one-third of known human genes.

    According to NBC News, both heart disease and cancer are caused by genetic changes. Some people may have had the changes when they were born, but most people get them in their day-to-day lives while doing things like smoking.

    When you stop smoking, a lot of these genes will return to normal within five years.

This means your body is trying to heal (治愈) itself of the harmful effects of smoking. But the changes in some of the genes stay for longer. They can stay for as long as 30 years, It's almost like leaving a footprint on wet cement (水泥)—-it will always be there, even when you've walked away and when the cement becomes dry.

    Although the study results may make people unhappy, there is a bright side: the findings could help scientists invent medicine to treat genetic damage caused by smoking or find ways to tell which people have heart disease or cancer risks.

Freelance writers Wanted

    Associated Content is an online publishing platform that enables anyone to earn money by writing articles on the Web.

    Writing for AC is a great work opportunity for students, stay­at­home parents and freelance writers. You can work on your own time and provide papers, reviews, essays, etc. on any topic that you have interest in. This is a job you can do from anywhere—all you need is access to the Internet.

    Here's how you get started:

    ⑴ Go to www.associatedcontent.com/join/hotjobs.

    ⑵ Follow the instructions to register.

    ⑶ Follow in your profile (简介),making note of your previous experience and your areas of experience (if any).

    ⑷ Start providing articles. You'll begin earning money as soon as your articles are published and the amount is based on the page views it receives.

    In addition to our own library of content, we have hundreds of partners (Partner Content Team) who work with AC to obtain high­quality. As such, there are lots of opportunities for our most talented and productive writers to accept "Partner Assignments" on an as­needed basis.

    If you're interested in accepting higher paying Partner Assignments, send us a link to your AC profile once you have provided at least five articles. We will review all articles and pass them along to our Partner Content Team. If selected, you will start receiving special paid assignments from us on a regular basis, which you are free to accept or ignore.

    NOTE: we pay our writers via PayPal daily.

    Any questions ? Email me: demel@asociatedcontent.com

Scientists have long thought about whether each animal species has a different language, much like different human languages that we cannot understand. Language experts agree on the fact that the way animals communicate through various calls does not fit the definition of human languages.

Animal calls are not considered a language because the calls are limited to signals related to food activities, warning about the presence of enemies and so on. They lack the characteristic of productivity that all human languages share. That is — humans create new expressions every day by combining different words to express meanings. Animal calls are fixed in their meanings, while human language goes further and includes expressions of complex ideas that do not have a limit.

However, animals do communicate. People who study humans believe that people speak with their entire bodies. To express a message, one does not always need words. Have you ever shared a private joke with your friends across the table? All you did was to give them a self-satisfied smile, Animals can communicate in much the same way as humans do. Although animals do not have the ability to speak words, they can use other methods, such as gestures, movements, calls and their sense of smell. In short, most of their communication is not related with speech.

If animals can make noises, why can't they talk? Humans and animals both have the necessary organs that produce sounds, such as lungs, throat, voice box, lips and tongue. But the differences lie in the movement and relative position of these organs that make it possible for us to speak.

When humans developed from apes, a lot of our features were improved to better shape sounds along the way. The mouth started getting smaller and the neck grew longer. All other animals, including our closest animal relatives — chimpanzees, have little similarity, which determines humans' ability to speak.