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.

    A farmer grew some vegetables in his garden. One day his wife was ill and he had no money. He had to sell some cabbages and carrots in the market. The next morning he took two baskets of vegetables to town, but it was raining hard that afternoon and there were few people in the street. When his vegetables were sold out, it was dark. He bought some medicine and hurried to his village.

    On his way home he saw a person lying on the ground. He placed his baskets on the ground and was going to help the person to get up. At that time he found it was a dead man and there was much blood on his body. He was so afraid that he ran away quickly, without taking his baskets.

    The next afternoon the farmer was sent to the police station. Having shown the baskets, an officer asked, “Are these yours? ” “Yes, sir. ” The farmer answered timidly（胆怯地）. “Have you killed the man?” “No, no, sir.” The farmer said in a hurry. “When did you see the dead man?” “About seven last evening. ” “Did you see who killed the man?” “No, sir. ” The officer brought out a knife and asked, “Have you seen it yet?” “No, sir. ” The officer became angry and told the policemen to beat him up and sent him into prison.

    That evening the officer went on trying. Pointing to the knife, he asked again, “Have you seen it yet?” “ yes, sir.” The officer was happy and asked, “When and where?” “I saw it here this afternoon, sir.”

    On the morning of September 7th, 19- year- old Ryan Harris and 40-year-old Stonie Huffman, two Sitka, Alaska residents, took off on their 28-foot boat in search of fish. Two miles into the ocean, their boat began to have some problems. They managed to fix the problems, but decided to head back to shore anyway. However, before they could call for help or grab a life jacket, an eight-foot wave slammed hard against their boat and overturned it, throwing both men into the cold Alaskan waters.

    Stranded, they began to look around to see what they could grab onto and saw a couple of the empty fishing boxes from the boat, floating around. Ryan managed to climb inside one. Stonie, however, was not as lucky and managed to only grab onto the lid of the box. Soon, they both started drifting apart.

   While Ryan continued to bob up and down in the box, the waves started carrying Stonie away. But as luck would have it, he caught sight of one of the life suits from their boat floating in the ocean and managed to grab it. Though putting it on and hanging onto the lid at the same time was not an easy task, Stonie managed it and then began his long swim back to shore. He ended up on a deserted patch of land about 25 miles northwest of Sitka, where he had to wait until Saturday morning almost 24 hours after the fishing trip began, for rescuers to find him. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Ryan continued to drift around the ocean trying to stay alive and hoping someone would find him. The brave teenager repeated himself over and over again, “I'm Ryan Hunter Harris and I'm not going to die here.” He was sure he would be rescued.

    Two hours after his friend was rescued and able to guide the Coast Guard and, 26 hours after the adventure began, Ryan was finally found and brought back to shore. What was amazing was that besides a few scratches, the youngster was in perfect health. Will he ever venture out on a fishing trip again? Only time will tell!

    Everyone wants to win, and everybody knows it. Take the case of Olympic athletes, who train hard each day for years to reach the top of their sport and hopefully win a gold medal. Since every competitor's goal is to win, we assume that the silver medalists would be less happy than gold-medal winners, but still happier than those in third place. Common sense says that our levels of happiness should have something to do with our levels of achievement – except that often this isn't the case.

    Researchers found that bronze medalists actually appeared on the whole to be happier than silver medalists. How could that be? The answer, in a word, is gratitude. Silver medallists, who compared themselves to the gold medalists, experienced disappointment at having been close to winning the gold, but falling short. The bronze medalists, on the other hand, were thankful to have won a medal at all, comparing themselves to all those who didn't even reach the Olympic platform.

    If happiness, then, is the aim of life, perhaps our achievement-centered culture is getting it all backwards. We focus on what we want rather than on what we have. We forget to be grateful, and as a result we forget to be happy.

    We're from a culture that teaches us to envy others – another person achievements – and that is always looking forward to what comes next. Yet in a better society, might we not look at what all of our earlier nexts have already earned us?

    I encourage any person who struggles with frustration （挫折）in their life to take out a notebook and a pen each evening before bed, and to write down all the things that they have gratitude for. It's not a cure for dissatisfaction, to be sure, but many people quickly discover that, when they actually stop to think about it, they have things pretty good and happiness comes.

    Those bronze medalists, after all, can't be wrong.

    Do you find it difficult to put down your mobile phone?

    If yes, you're not alone. These days, many people suffer from the stress of FOMO (fear of missing out). They reach of their mobile phones when they wake up in the morning, and for the rest of the day, they constantly check their social media apps for the latest updates.

    Despite the convenience smart phones bring, many people struggle with their digital habits. This is why Google introduced an app called Dashboard for Android operating system. This new app includes well-being functions that aim to help users manage the time they spend on their digital devices.

    It all starts with a bird's-eye view. Dashboard allows users to look at all the details of their phone habits. For example, a user can see how many times they're unlocked their phone and how many times they're checked their social media apps, as well as how much time they spend on each app every day.

    Once the users see this information, they'll be able to make some changes. With the App Timer function, users can set a time limit for how long they can use each app for every day.

    But even if users become more mindful of their usage, they're still likely to be drawn in by notification（通知）. Such feature automatically（自动地）silences incoming calls and notifications when a user puts their phone face down.

    If people truly want to make full use of their free time instead of losing hours using their smart phones, these new functions are just one way of doing that.

    The easiest answer would be just to use your willpower.

  A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic

Genre: Fantasy

Number of Pages: 320

What's the basic story line?

Kai and Leila have never met, but their seemingly dull lives will be drawn together in unbelievable ways. Each girl is vacationing—Kai in Texas and Leila in Pakistan. Each girl finds a copy of a book called The Exquisite Corpse. Each book is blank, but when Kai writes a sentence, the book magically begins a story. When either girl writes another phrase, the book shows more. Whatever the girls are doing when they write—getting attacked by a dog, hunting for a rare species, accidentally buying a goat—helps to develop the plot of The Exquisite Corpse. It also makes reading A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic even more enjoyable.

Are the characters believable? Many aspects of the characters are realistic. Readers see that the characters, like all of us, can sometimes fail. Also, both characters have some unflattering (不讨人喜欢的) qualities, even though they're represented as "the good guys" in the story.

Who would like this book? Any lover of fantasy and stories about magic would enjoy this book. Readers who enjoy knowing things the characters don't, or who like being shocked by a huge plot twist (曲折的情节),will like this book.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this book? I would rate A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic a perfect 10, because of the creative story idea and the crazy plot twists that keep the reader turning page after page. I, for one, did not want the story to end.