Alpacas(羊驼) are members of the camel family, having lived in South America for thousands of years. Their fur gives the animals a teddy bear_like appearance. Alpacas are too small to be used as animals of burden but are valued only for their fur. Generally, their lifespan is around 15 to 20 years.

    Alpacas are social animals that live in family groups made up of a male, females and their young. They are gentle, elegant, curious, intelligent and observant. They are safe and pleasant to be around, moving gracefully and slowly around the field, and are therefore unlikely to run into or over anyone, even small children. Occasionally, an alpaca will spit snd kick, but the soft padded(有爪垫的) feet usually do little more than just“get your attention”.

    Because these animals are environmentally friendly and need so little grass and food, you can usually raise from two to eight alpacas on an acre of land with grass or hay. A single, 60 pound bale(大捆) of hay can generally feed a group of about 20 alpacas for one day. Alpacas also require access to plenty of fresh water to drink.

    Alpaca fur is used for making knittedd and woven(编织) items, just as sheep's wool is. These items include blankets, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, a wide variety of textiles(针织品) in South America, and sweaters, socks, coats and bedding in other parts of the world. The fur comes in more than 52 natural colors as classified in Peru, 12 as classified in Australia and 16 as classified in the United States.

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    A city child's summer is spent in the street in front of his home, and all through the long summer vacations I sat on the edge of the street and watched enviously the other boys on the block play baseball. I was never asked to take part even when one team had a member missing—not out of special cruelty, but because they took it for granted I would be no good at it. They were right, of course.

    I would never forget the wonderful evening when something changed. The baseball ended about eight or eight thirty when it grew dark. Then it was the custom of the boys to retire to a little stoop(门廊) that stuck out from the candy store on the corner and that somehow had become theirs. No grownup ever sat there or attempted to. There the boys would sit, mostly talking about the games played during the day and of the game to be played tomorrow. Then long silences would fall and the boys would wander off one by one. It was just after one of those long silences that my life as an outsider changed. I can no longer remember which boy it was that summer evening who broke the silence with a question: but whoever he was, I nod to him gratefully now. “What's in those books you're always reading?” he asked casually. “Stories,” I answered. “What kind?” asked somebody else without much interest.

    Nor do I know what drove me to behave as I did,for usually I just sat there in silence, glad enough to be allowed to reain among them; but instead of answering his question, I told them for two hours the story I was reading at the moment. The book was Sister Carrie. They listened bug-eyed and breathless. I must have told it well, but I think there was another and deeper reason that made them to keep an audience. Listening to a tale being told in the dark is one of the most ancient of man's entertainments, but I was offering them as well, without being aware of doing it, a new and exciting experience.

    The books they themselves read were the Rover Boys or Tom Swift or G.A.Henty. I had read them too, but at thirteen I had long since left them behind. Since I was much alone I had become an enthusiastic reader and I had gone through the books-for-boys series. In those days there was no reading material between children's and grownups'books or I could find none. I had gone right fromTome Swift and His Flying Machine to Theodore Dreiser and Sister Carrie. Dreiser had hit my young mind, and they listened to me tell the story with some of the wonder that I had had in reading it.

    The next night and many nights thereafter, a kind of unspoken ritual (仪式) took place. As it grew dark, I would take my place in the center of the stoop and begin the evening's tale. Some nights, in order to taste my victory more completely, I cheated. I would stop at the most exciting part of a story by Jack London or Bret Harte, and without warning tell them that that was as far as I had gone in the book and it would have to be continued the following evening. It was not true, of course; but I had to make certain of my new-found power and position. I enjoyed the long summer evenings until school began in the fall. Other words of mine have been listened to by larger and more fashionable audiences, but for that tough and athletic one that sat close on the stoop outside the candy store, I have an unreasoning love that will last forever.

    Getting late for a meeting, I need to run,” he said, as he put his coat over the shoulder and rushed out of the house. As he drove away, she came running down the stairs two at a time. “Wait, wait,” she shouted, but he had already left.

    “He forgot to give me a goodbye kiss,” she said in a low, sad voice that shook under the weight of the hurt. She called him and said, “You left without giving me a kiss.” “I am sorry, sweetheart,” he said, his voice shaking. “It is okay,” she said, trying to be all grown-up as she cut the call.

    She ate her breakfast quickly, put on her shoes, picked up her school bag and started to walk out of the door. Her shoulders were slumped(耷拉) and her eyes were filled with tears. As she climbed down the steps, a car came to a stop outside the house. He got out of the car. She ran to him.

    “I am sorry I forgot,” he said, as he picked her up and hugged her. She said nothing. Her jaw ached from smiling.

    Fifteen years later, no one would remember he was late for a meeting, but a little girl would never ever forget that her father drove all the way back home just to kiss her goodbye!

    What is more important, work or family? Some parents always put work before everything. But some put family first. Remember, the company will run the same without you and your colleagues(同事) may forget you soon after you leave. But you are everything to your children.

    Imagine putting a seed in a freezer, waiting 30,000 years, and then taking the seed out and planting it. Do you think a flower would grow?

    Amazingly, scientists have just managed to do something very similar. They found the fruit of an ancient plant that had been frozen underground in Siberia—a region covering central and eastern Russia—for about 31,800 years. Using pieces of the fruit, the scientists grew plants in a lab. The new blooms have delicate white petals. They are also the oldest flowering plants that researchers have ever revived from a deep freeze.

    “This is like regenerating a dinosaur from tissues of an ancient egg,'' said Jane Shen-Miller, a biologist of University of California, Los Angeles.

    The plant has a long history. Back when mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses walked on the land, an Arctic ground squirrel buried seeds and fruits in an underground chamber near the Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia. The ground became pennafrost, a layer of soil that stays frozen for a long time.

    Recently, Russian scientists dug out the old squirrel hole and found the plant remains 38 meters below the surface. Back at the lab, the team fed nutrients to tissue from three of the fruits to grow shoots. Then the scientists transferred the shoots to pots filled with soil. The plants produced seeds that could be used to grow even more of them.

    It's important for scientists to know that plant tissues can still be revived after being frozen for a long time. That's because many researchers are trying to preserve the seeds of modem plants by freezing them and then storing them in giant lockers at various spots around the globe. One such endeavor, an underground facility in Norway, is called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. It stores hundreds of thousands of frozen seeds. If a plant ever goes extinct, scientists could bring it back by taking its seeds from the Svalbard or other storage lockers.

    "No one knows how long they are able to live for, but freezing is basically the format for many plant conservation attempts nowadays," Jane Shen-Miller said. It's a good thing that at least some plants are tough enough to survive in the experience.

    It's best to plan ahead and there is no better way than to prepare for an emergency before it happens. For example, the time to plan for a fire emergency is before it happens. This is when everyone is calm and clear-thinking. This is when decisions about safe escape routes can be discussed and made. Have a family talk. Don't delay. Planning won't help after a fire starts.

    Knowing ahead of time how to get out during a fire can save needed seconds. The best way out in a fire is the route you use to go in and out every day. Yet, in a fire this route may be blocked. Be sure to plan other escape routes.

    Take each person to his or her room and describe what to do in case of fire. Give everyone a job. Older children should take care of younger ones. Plans may have to be made for anyone who cannot escape without help. Adults who can't walk should sleep on the first floor. Small children should sleep near older persons who can help them. Only healthy, able persons should sleep in hard-to-reach places such as attics or basements.

    Practice your escape plan at night when it is dark. Be sure that your plan is good and will work. For example, make sure that a child can actually open the window he is supposed to use for his escape. Teach children to close their bedroom doors. Tell them to wait by an open window until someone can reach them from outside. If an adult cannot be wakened, children should understand that they must leave by themselves.

    Choose a meeting place outside. This way you can tell if everyone is safely out of the building. Know where nearby telephones or fire alarm boxes are found.

    If you live in an apartment, try to get everyone out. Learn where the fire alarm is in the building. Your family should know what the fire alarm bell sounds like. They should know what to do when they hear it. Try to get the other families in your building together to have fire drills. Write down the telephone number of the fire department. Stick the number to each phone.

    Early warning is the key to a safe escape. It has been shown time and time again that a family can escape if warned early enough.

    When Boris left school, he could not find a job. He tried hard and he wrote letters to many companies until he could not afford to buy any more stamps. Boris began to lose his confidence, then depressed. Still he went on trying and still he failed. He began to think that he had no future at all.

    "Why don't you start your own business?" one of his uncles told him. "The world is a money­locker. You'd better find a way of opening it."

    "But what can I do?"

    "Get out and have a look round." advised his uncle. "See what people want; then give it to them, and they will pay for it."

    Boris began to cycle around the town and found a suitable piece of waste ground in the end. Then he set up his business as a cycle repairer. He worked hard, made friends with his customers and gradually managed to win his good fame. A few months later, he found that he had more work than he could deal with by himself. He found a number of empty shops but they were all no good: in the wrong position, too expensive or with some other problems. But at long last, he managed to find an empty shop in a new place where there were plenty of customers but no competition.

    Boris and his assistant taught themselves how to repair motor­cycles. Slowly but surely the profits increased and the business developed. At last, Boris had managed to open the money­locker and found bank notes and gold coins inside.