People already know a lot about animals. However, there are still some things about animals that may surprise you. Here are {#blank#}1{#/blank#}about animals you probably didn't know.

    Cows do have best friends and feel stressed when they are separated. Scientists have found that cows are very social animals and that a cow always {#blank#}2{#/blank#}other cows. When a cow is with its friends, it feels relaxed, compared with when it is alone.

    During a breeding season, a male penguin will offer a small stone to a female penguin as a gift. If she takes it, they will become partners. When the female penguin lays an egg, she and her partner may carry it {#blank#}3{#/blank#}, because some penguins don't build nests.

    Crocodiles (鳄鱼) swallow (吞) stones. Crocodiles always swallow their food instead of eating it like other animals. They swallow stones which break the food into very small pieces in their stomachs. These stones may stay in their stomachs {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    Elephants use plants to treat pain or other illnesses. Scientists once found a pregnant (怀孕的) elephant in Africa who ate a kind of plant which was not part of her normal food. Four days later, she {#blank#}5{#/blank#}a baby elephant. The same plant was used by the local pregnant women.

I was not surprised when my 89-year-old father called me and said that he wanted to come to my farm. He always liked1and being busy.

He asked, “Peg, I hear you are going to pull sick cows out of the cowshed (牛棚) for2. Do you think I can help pull them out?” He asked me twice after my long silence. I just didn't want to3him, so I had to reply, “Dad, you can come over here and try it.”

We continued to do work on our cows. When there were three left, my father4. I helped him put on the protection suit. For an old man, it was a really5task, but he finally made it. I noticed Dad's tears sparkling in his eyes, which were the tears of6that he still managed to pull three cows out.

My workers were all moved and admired him very much. I also felt7that I had such a great father. During those years, my father worked as a pilot, a pilots' trainer, a husband and a father. He treated everything8. He set an example to me that I should create a better life with hard work,9and responsibility. Bearing this in mind, I went from an ordinary farm worker to an able farm10. I owed all this to my father.

I'm forty. I left school 22 years ago. I don't regret many things about my school days but there are a few things I wish I'd known earlier as a girl. So here is my list of three things I'd learned at school.

□As a young child you try many new things. If you fail, you try again until you learn. Then you start school where you are usually only praised for doing things correctly. So what happens? You stop trying new things in case you get it wrong. I always remind myself: I won't give up halfway until I make it.

□I always wanted to be the best and one way of feeling good about myself was to see how much better I was than others. There was only one problem with this. When I saw they were better than me, I felt terrible. Now I compare me with myself. I asked myself if I did things as well as I could.

□How much time do you spend worrying about the future? I used to worry a lot. Now I know most things you fear usually never happen. If they happen, then they will most often not be as bad as you expected. In 6 months you probably won't remember most of the things you worry about now.