In the library, I found my way into the “Children's Room.” I sat down on the floor and pulled a few books off the shelf at random. The cover of a book caught my eye. It presented a picture of a beagle. I had recently had a beagle, the first and only animal companion I ever had as a child. He was my secret sharer, but one morning, he was gone, given away to someone who had the space and the money to care for him. I never forgot my beagle.

       There on the book's cover was a beagle which looked identical（相同的） to my dog. I ran my fingers over the picture of the dog on the cover. My eyes ran across the title, Amos, the Beagle with a Plan. Unknowingly, I had read the title. Without opening the book, I borrowed it from the library for the summer.

Under the shade of a bush, I started to read about Amos. I read very, very slowly with difficulty. Though pages were turned slowly, I got the main idea of the story about a dog who, like mine, had been separated from his family and who finally found his way back home. That dog was my dog, and I was the little boy in the book. At the end of the story, my mind continued the final scene of reunion, on and on, until my own lost dog and I were, in my mind, running together.

       My mother's call returned me to the real world. I suddenly realized something: I had read a book, and I had loved reading that book. Everyone knew I could not read. But I had read it. Books could be incredibly wonderful and I was going to read them.

       I never told my mother about my “miraculous” (奇迹般地) experience that summer, but she saw a slow but remarkable improvement in my classroom performance during the next year. And years later, she was proud that her son had read thousands of books, was awarded a PhD in literature, and authored his own books, articles, poetry and fiction. The power of the words has held.

    There's no doubt that man is the smartest. But do you know what other animals are smart, too?

Dolphins

    Dolphins are very smart. Most of the “tricks” they're taught to do are actually behavior they would engage in on their own. They love to play, race and generally enjoy their life to the fullest. They speak a language we have yet to completely understand and like all civilized creatures, dolphins' mothers always provide their young children with guidance and possibly, love.

Great apes

    The great ape family primarily consists of gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans. Their brain chemistry is so similar to humans' that NASA once used chimpanzees in place of astronauts during many dangerous missions. Gorillas have been taught sign language and orangutans exist in complex familial relationships.

Elephants

    Everyone has heard the phrase “an elephant never forgets”. Elephants establish long-term friendships, recognizing and remembering their friends years later. If an elephant comes upon a fallen friend, it has even been known to feel sad.

Parrots

    As proved by this list, parrots are very smart. They are also the only animals listed that can actually hold a conversation. Some parrots know hundreds of words by imitating humans. The birds are also capable of remembering words and using them intelligently in response to situations.

    Cyclist Alain Such has been dropped from the Ingotel cycling team for two years after a positive drug test at the Institute of drug Free Sport. “ I was flabbergasted.” Said Didier Garcia, from Team Ingotel. “Alain joined our team last month and we had no idea that he was being examined.”

    It's a story that has become more and more familiar in recent years. Dr. Mohammad Farnood, a leading sports scientist from Cairo, Egypt, said, “ It is thought that some athletes will look for other ways to improve performance in addition to using drugs.”

    However, it has not always been against the law. In the Olympics in 1904, Thomas Hicks won the marathon after using drugs in the middle of the race. In fact, the first one didn't make him feel better for long, so he was given another and, as a result, he fell down soon after finishing and knew nothing. Another one may well have killed him.

    Things are very different today. Some scientists are considering the possibilities of using genetic engineering to further develop athletes' abilities. “If it works with no risk of discovering,” said Dr Farnood, “ then it's likely to become common practice for athletes.”

    Researchers are looking at the possibility of identifying “athletic” genes and correcting weak ones. Put into practice, this would make a person healthier and stronger. Once scientists understand what genes of top athletes look like , it might even become possible to identify “athletic” genes in young people, and then money could be spent on children who have the most promising genes.

    “People are beginning to recognize that genetics can in many ways do good to our society, for example in saving lives and in creating better quality food for people.” Dr Farnood says. “ So, is it fair to use genetic engineering in sport? You could ask if it's fair for some runners to use the latest scientifically developed footwear. The key question is whether it's available to everyone.”

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    Animals, including insects, do not have a language like ours. They do not talk to each other in words and sentences. But if we watch them, we can see that they do have ways of communicating with each other.

    Can you see the rabbits' tail? When rabbits see this white tail moving up and down, they run too. The rabbit has reminded them of potential dangers without making a sound. It has given them a signal.

    Many other animals use this kind of language. When a cobra (眼镜蛇) is angry, it raises its hood (兜帽) and makes itself look fierce. This warns other animals. When a bee has found some food, it goes back to its home. It cannot tell the other bees where the food is by speaking to them, but it does a little dance in the air. This tells the bees where the food is.

    Some animals say things by making sound. A dog barks, for example, when a stranger comes near. A cat purrs (猫的呜呜声) when pleased. Some birds make several different sounds, each with its own meaning. Sometimes we human beings speak in the same way. We make sounds like “Oh” or “Ah!” when we are frightened or pleased or when we drop something on our toes.

    But we have something that no animals have — a large number of words which have the meanings of things, actions, feeling or ideas. We are able to give each other all kinds of different information in words and sentences, which no other animals can do. No other animals have so wonderful a language as we have.

Harry, the first camel to arrive in Australia in 1840, was an unlucky beast. He was imported from the Canary Islands by explorer John Horrocks. On an expedition (探险), Horrocks picked up his gun in order to shoot “a beautiful bird to be added to the collection.” Perhaps Harry was an ecologist —- he lurched (突然倾斜), and the gun discharged, shooting Horrocks in the face.

    Horrocks not surprisingly died of his injuries, and his treatments ordered Harry to be shot. The first importation of a camel into Australia came to naught.

    In 1860, 24 camels arrived in Australia to be part of an expedition by explorers Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills. It was an unlucky expedition. The pair made one mistake after another, and ended up eating most of their camels, before starving to death.

    Six years later, more than 100 camels and their Afghan minders, arrived in Australia. This time it succeeded and thousands more camels followed.

    Sir Thomas Elder set up the first camel studs (种畜场) in South Australia, while others were set up in Western Australia. This time the camels bred (繁殖) like wildfire. They were used for working, rather than exploring expeditions.

    The imported Afghan cameleers were just as hardy and vital, leading camel trains across the cruel interior (腹地) of Australia, where few dared to go. The camels carried heavy packs of wool and supplies and opened up the desert areas as none had managed to do before. The train that does this crossing today is called The Ghan, in their honor.

    Motorization put these camel trains out of business, and many camels were turned loose. The camels loved Australia, and multiplied in amazing numbers. What is to be done with them?

    Not surprisingly they have become quite a tourist attraction and you can take a camel ride in the desert as the Afghan cameleers once did. But the fact is that camels create quite a problem in areas where they have taken over, as they damage local vegetation, muscle out native animals competing for food, and create chaos when they wander into settled area.

    The new social robots, including Jibo, Cozmo, Kuri and Meccano M.A.X., bear some similarities to assistants like Apple's Siri, but these robots come with something more. They are designed to win us over not with their smarts but with their personality. They are sold as companions that do more than talk to us. Time magazine cheered for the robots that "could fundamentally reshape how we interact with machines." But is reshaping how we interact with machines a good thing, especially for children?

    Some researchers in favor of the robots don't see a problem with this. People have relationships with many kinds of things. Some say robots are just another thing with which we can have relationships. To support their argument, roboticists sometimes point to how children deal with toy dolls. Children animate (赋予…生命) dolls and turn them into imaginary friends. Jibo, in a sense, will be one more imaginary friend, and arguably a more intelligent and fun one.

    Getting attached to dolls and sociable machines is different, though. Today's robots tell children that they have emotions, friendships, even dreams to share. In reality, the whole goal of the robots is emotional trickery. For instance, Cozmo the robot needs to be fed, repaired and played with. Boris Sofman, the chief executive of Anki, the company behind Cozmo, says that the idea is to create "a deeper and deeper emotional connection ... And if you neglect him, you feel the pain of that." What is the point of this, exactly? What does it mean to feel the pain of neglecting something that feels no pain at being neglected, or to feel anger at being neglected by something that doesn't even know it is neglecting you?

    This should not be our only concern. It is troubling that these robots try to understand how children feel. Robots, however, have no emotions to share, and they cannot put themselves in our place. No matter what robotic creatures "say", they don't understand our emotional lives. They present themselves as empathy machines, but they are missing the essential equipment. They have not been born, they don't know pain, or death, or fear. Robot thinking may be thinking, but robot feeling is never feeling, and robot love is never love.

    What is also troubling is that children take robots' behavior to indicate feelings. When the robots interact with them, children take this as evidence that the robots like them, and when robots don't work when needed, children also take it personally. Their relationships with the robots affect their self-esteem (自尊). In one study, an 8-year-old boy concluded that the robot stopped talking to him because the robot liked his brothers better.

    For so long, we dreamed of artificial intelligence offering us not only simple help but conversation and care. Now that our dream is becoming real, it is time to deal with the emotional downside of living with robots that "feel".