A mouse looked through the hole in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a pckage, and he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. Returning to the farmyard, he warned everyone. “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap inthe house! There is a mousetrap inthe house! ”

    The chicken raised her head and said, “Thanks for your warning. Mr. Mouse, but why should I be bothered by a mousetrap?” the pig sympathized, but said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse, I'm sorry for you I can tell this is a great concern to you, but it is none of my business.” The mouse returned to the house, head down and depressed, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

The very night a sound was heard throughthe house—-like that of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a snake whose tailwas caught by the trap, and it bit her. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.

    The farmer killed the chicken to make fresh chicken soup for his wife, but her sickness continued. Frineds and neighbors came to visit her, and to feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. Then she died. So many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow cooked to provide enough meat for all of them.

    The mouse looked upon it all from his hole in the wall with great sadness.

    Helen Monson has always been interested in helping her community. Her first volunteer experience was for the American Red Cross when she was in high school. When she was a school teacher, she also found time to volunteer.

After she retired, she started volunteering to help the old. When her father was older, he was not able to see as well as he used to, which made her sad because he had always enjoyed reading.

    She decided it would be fun to read to elderly people in her community. She also helped one woman write her stories. Ann was almost 100 years old, and Helen wrote down information about her life when she visited Ann. She put the information in a book and got it published. Ann was very excited to share her life story with her children and grandchildren.

    One day Helen read an article in the newspaper about refugees (难民) who needed to learn English. Now, she meets once a week with Sahra, a 38-year-old woman from Somalia. Sahra is learning reading and writing skills. Helen gave Sahra a camera and asked her to take pictures of her daily life. She developed the pictures, and then asked Sahra questions about them. In the end they wrote a book together and used the photos in the book. This helped Sahra learn many new words about her everyday life.

    Helen says, “The most rewarding part of volunteer work is becoming friends with the people I help. They enrich my life as well as I enrich theirs.”

    In a time when ivory poaching（偷猎）has gotten so bad that it threatens to wipe out several animal species,a young Dutch designer is creating "egalitarian（平等主义）jewelry" made of our very own ivory—teeth.

    Lucie Majerus got the idea for her "human ivory" collection after having her wisdom teeth removed.She kept them and soon realized they would make great material for a jewelry collection."Why wouldn't we value our own material instead of the precious material from other species?And what if we mine our own ivory and turn it into pearls?"she asks.

    Her own teeth became a ring,but in order to create a whole collection,she needed more material,and since having more of her teeth removed wasn't a very pleasant choice,she asked her dentist to save his patient's unwanted teeth.Most people choose not to keep their pulled teeth,so they are usually donated to dentistry schools.Majerus also received the lost teeth of two of-her teachers at Design Academy Eindhoven,so she had a nice supply of human ivory to experiment with.

    To turn human teeth into attractive pieces of jewelry,Lucie Majerus first bleaches（漂白）them,and then uses a stone polishing machine to shape the teeth into various shapes.

    Majerus displayed her human ivory jewelry collection at this year's Dutch Design Week,and claims that people's reaction was mostly positive."Surprisingly,most people aren't frightened at the sight of the jewelry,but really like the idea,"Majerus told Fast Co Design."Some regret that they didn't keep their tooth at the dentist and some,who will have teeth taken out soon,are now looking forward to it."

    You may laugh it off if someone told you that extreme weather disasters were actually a child's tricks. But El Nino, meaning “little boy” in Spanish, could be about to cause trouble

    A recent statement from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned ofa strong El Nino event that may be similar to the strongest in modern times. Scientists believe that evidence shows a more than 90 percent chance that it is coming — and it's going to be big. “If this lives up to its potential, this thing can bring a lot of floods, mudslides（泥石流）, and trouble,” said Bill Patzert, a NASA scientist.

    El Nino is a climate event occurring in the Pacific Ocean. The wind usually blows strongly from east to west due to the rotation（旋转）of the Earth. This causes water to pile up in the Western Pacific and pulls up colder water from the boom in the eastern part. However, in El Nino years, the winds pushing the water get weaker and cause the warmer water to shift back toward the east. This warms the ocean as it travels before finally reaching the shores of North and South America. In an El Nino event, the waters of the eastern Pacific can be up to 4 degrees Celsius warmer than usual.

    Most El Ninos last from 9 to 12 months and their effects are felt around December. They don't happen every year though, usually between every two to seven years.

    Last seen in 1997-98, El Nino caused severe droughts in Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia, as well as deadly floods in Peru and Ecuador. The world also heats up during an ElNino-1998 became the warmest year on record at the time. If the current trend continues, 2015 is almost certainly to become the hottest year yet again.

    A strong El Nino also affects hurricane seasons around the planet. The warmer the Eastern Pacific is, the more hurricanes it gets. The Western Pacific, on the other hand, tends to see more and stronger typhoons.

    The weather isn't the only thing that's affected. Warmer surface waters in the Eastern Pacific make the cold-water fish swim away and damage the fishing industry in much of Latin America.

    Gardening is a very popular hobby. And it is one that produces wonderful results – food for your dinner table and flowers for your home! Gardens themselves can be very beautiful. So you would think that a garden path is a great place to be. Well, in conversation, it is not. Leading someone up the garden path means you are trying to trick them. You are not trying to show them your beautiful flowers.

    Speaking of beautiful flowers, gardeners love to see small buds (芽) forming on their plants. Besides plants and flowers, people can bud, too. If a child is good at drawing and painting, we can call him a budding artist. So “budding” describes something that is beginning to develop.

    On the opposite end, you stop something from growing if you nip it in the bud. This is a common expression when we talk about stopping something bad and preventing it from continuing. It's good to nip small problems in the bud before they turn into big problems.

    Now flowers that bloom （开花）are beautiful to see – even garden-variety flowers. “Garden-variety” describes anything that is common and not so special. You can have a garden-variety cold—not a serious illness.

    Now, a problem that many gardeners have is weeds. Weeds grow easily and can quickly take over a garden. In conversation, we sometimes use “weeds” to mean too many details. So, if you are in the weeds, you are taken over by too many details.

    As we said, weeds grow quickly. So do children. So, we like to say a child grows like a weed. This expression compares a child's fast growth to that of a weed.

    Scientists in New Zealand have found fossilized (化石的) leg bones from a penguin believed to have been about the size of an adult human. The previously undiscovered giant penguin species likely stood about 1.6 meters tall and weighed up to 80 kilograms.

    The penguin existed about 60 million years ago. The bones are believed to be from the oldest of several species of giant penguins that lived after dinosaurs died out. A fossil hunter found the bones last year in the Waipara River bed near the city of Christchurch. The bones are from the animal's legs and feet. Scientists confirmed that the bones came from a newly discovered species.

    Paul Scofield is senior curator (馆长) at New Zealand's Canterbury Museum. He co-wrote a paper on the discovery. He said that the bones are an important find. They show that the species is similar to another giant penguin found in Antarctica in 2000. The latest discovery, he said, helps show a clear connection between the two areas during the Paleocene period. This period lasted from 66 million to 56 million years ago.

    Scofield said the penguins were able to grow larger after entering a new development period following the extinction of dinosaurs, sea reptiles and huge fish. Scofield added that the giant penguins became extinct within 30 million years, as large mammals began to rule the waters.

    John Cockrem is a penguin expert at the country's Massey University who was also not involved in the research. He said the discovery helps add to what we know about giant penguins. He said it also confirmed New Zealand as the penguin center of the world.

    New Zealand is believed to have been home to many giant bird species that later disappeared. These included the world's largest parrot, a giant eagle and an emu-like bird called the moa. Recently, Canterbury Museum announced the discovery of an unusually large parrot believed to have lived about 19 million years ago. Scientists say the bird stood about one meter tall.