Several days ago, Brenda had a car accident that led to one of her legs being cut off. Since then she didn't talk to anyone."I wish I could bring her friends to visit her," said Brenda's mother. "But it's a long bus trip." The nurse smiled, "Don't worry. We have a plan."Later that day, the nurse had taken Brenda to another room. "Here's your new roommate, Annie Wiggle-Do," the nurse introduced a dark-hair teenager on the other bed.

    As soon as the nurse left, she jumped out of her bed with her only foot and sat at the other end of Brenda's bed, "I lost my leg from bone cancer," she said. "What happened to yours?" Brenda was so shocked that she couldn't say a word. "You're lucky." Annie continued. "You've still got your knee. They had to take mine."

    "I'd like to have a chat with you, but my friends are coming any time now, so I have to get ready." Annie said when she took off her hair! Her head was completely bald(秃头的).

    "Oh, I forgot to tell you, the medicine they gave me to kill the cancer also killed my hair." Annie looked out her wigs(假发), brown and yellow, short and long, straight and curly."That's why I thought up 'Annie Wiggle-Do'." Annie smiled. "Get it? Any wig will do? Annie Wiggle-Do?" "When Annie's friends came, she introduced Brenda to them all. Before long, Brenda started chatting with Annie and her friends. They didn't make her feel like a strange person at all!

    The girls shared their names with each other. When it was time to go to bed, Brenda said, "Good night, Annie-Wiggle-Do. Can't wait till morning."

（自然生态）If you travel in New Zealand， you may find some very interesting things. It is called "New Zealand Four Strange Things". 

In a high mountain area in central Utah stands the world's oldest, heaviest and largest tree, Pando. And it's dying!

Pando means "I spread" in Latin and it's a name that makes sense. Pando is a big group of trees that all grow from the same roots(根). They look separate but are all joined underground by their roots. With all these roots joined, the whole group of trees can share water and food. 

    ▲    . In summer, animals(mule deer and cattle) feed on the new leaves, making it difficult for the trees to grow. The number of mule deer has even increased because their natural enemies(mountain lions, bears) have disappeared. The second problem is from people. Hikers and campers like this area because of the colourful leaves in autumn. But getting too close and stepping on the new growth has made Pando smaller and thinner over the last 50 years. 

Protecting Pando is challenging. Putting fences(栅栏) around it to keep animals away has helped new growth. But deer are smart, and they've found ways to get through the fences. Other efforts have included cutting or burning part of Pando to encourage new growth. Pando grows back very quickly after a forest fire, and these fires do not reach temperatures that would kill its root system. 

Michael Grant, one of the scientists who helped name Pando, warns if the trees are in trouble, the whole ecosystem will be in danger too. We need to make people understand the long-term effects of our actions. 

The Yangtze River dolphin is one of the most endangered animals on Earth. You can only find the dolphins in the Yangtze River in China. They are so rare that they are often called the Giant (巨大的) Panda under water. They like to live in groups and can grow up to 2.5 metres long. Along the Yangtze River, there were many fishing villages in the past. And overfishing put these dolphins in great danger. What a pity!

Toucans are colourful birds with big beaks (鸟喙). They live in rainforests in Central and South America. They are endangered because people keep cutting down trees. They have no place to live. What's more, people are catching them as pets.

The island of Madagascar is home to aye-ayes (指猴). They are dark brown or black and have very large eyes. Aye-eyes spend their lives in trees and don't come down. People in Madagascar think the aye-aye is a symbol of bad luck. So they often kill aye-ayes when they see them. There are only a few thousand aye-eyes left.