A Smart Dog

    Rico is a dog who lives in Germany,{#blank#}1{#/blank#}When his owner says the name of a certain toy, Rico can find it. In fact, he seems to know the names of 200 toys!

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. They put his toys in a room and then told him to go in the room and find a certain toy. Since nobody was in the room with Rico, he had no help from anyone finding the right toy. The researchers did this test forty times. Rico found the right toy thirty-seven times!

    Then the researcher tried something else. They put seven of Rico's toys in the room and one new toy that Rico had never seen before.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. This new toy had a name Rico had never heard before. Rico found the right toy seven out of ten times.!

    Researchers cannot really say that Rico know words or languages.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}They believed Rico can think about what he hears and thin about what he knows. In fact, Rico seems to thin and remember thins as well as three-year-old child.

    From these tests, animal researchers know one thing for sure. Rico has given them a lot to think about.

    The robin (知更鸟) stood on an old climbing plant, and sang his most beautiful song. Suddenly the wind made the plant move, and Mary saw something under the dark green leaves. The thick, heavy plant was covering a door. Mary's heart was beating fast and her hands were shaking as she pushed the leaves away and found the keyhole. She took the key out of her pocket, and it fit the hole. Using both hands, she managed to unlock the door. Then she turned round to see if anyone was watching. But there was no one, so she pushed the door, which opened, slowly, for the first time in ten years. She walked quickly in and closed the door behind her. At last she was inside the secret garden!

    It was the loveliest, most exciting place she had ever seen. There were old rose trees everywhere, and the walls were covered with climbing roses. She looked carefully at the grey branches (枝条). Were the roses still alive? Ben would know. She hoped they weren't all dead. But she was inside the wonderful garden, in a world of her own. It seemed very strange and silent, but she did not feel lonely at all. Then she noticed some small green shoots coming up through the grass. So something was growing in the garden after all! When she found a lot more shoots in different places, she decided they needed more air and light, so she began to pull out the thick grass around them. She worked away, clearing the ground, for two or three hours, and had to take her coat off because she got so hot. The robin hopped around, pleased to see someone gardening.

    Once there was a small hotel whose keeper was always caring about money.

    One day, a businessman arrived. The keeper looked at the man's thick wallet and thought, "Oh, I wish that all the money could be mine!" The businessman didn't notice that, so he ordered the most expensive room and went to his room to dress for dinner.

    Around the hotel, there were some beautiful ginger(姜) plants. Many people said that eating the buds(芽) of ginger would make a person forgetful.

    The keeper thought, "If I serve some buds of ginger to the businessman, he may be forgetful to take his wallet!" Then she went to the kitchen.

    Soon, businessman came downstairs and asked for dinner. The keeper was very excited as she served the dish to him. "Delicious!" said the rich man. When dinner was finished, he went to bed happily.

    In the next morning, the keeper saw the businessman leaving from the front door. As soon as he was out of sight, she ran up to his room. She looked all over the room for the wallet, but she couldn't find it. Suddenly, she noticed a piece of paper on the floor. It was the businessman's bill(账单). He had forgotten to pay it! She ran down the stairs, out of the front door, and across the road until she was out of breath, but the businessman was already far, far away. "I'm so silly!”" cried the keeper.