Myths of the Animal Kingdom (2)

• Do mice love cheese?
• Can dogs see in color?
• How accurate are dog years?

Mice love cheese

Unlike the mice in many children's stories and movies, real mice aren't partial to cheese. Studies show that they prefer foods high in sugar, such as fruit and grain, while cheese disgusts their sensitive noses. Makers of Britain's best-selling mousetrap say peanut butter and chocolate make much better bait.

Dogs can't see in color

While it's true that dogs are colorblind, it does not mean that they see everything in black and white. Like colorblind people, dogs are missing one kind of cone in their eyes, which limits their visible range of color. The shades of blue, yellow and gray that they do see can be very helpful as many are farsighted. 

Dog years 

Our concept that one human year is equal to seven dog years has been fought about for some time. Many canine experts say that overall dogs age 10.5 years per human year their first two years. After that, dogs age four dog years per human year.

As we become better acquainted with our world, we can put all these myths to rest.

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We can make most nouns plural by simply adding an s or es to them. However, some nouns don’t follow the spelling rule when they become plural. They have what we call irregular plurals.

And many of such nouns happen to be animal names, there’re some examples. One mouse, two mice. One louse, two lice. One goose, two geese. One hippopotamus, two hippopotami. One octopus, two octopi.

Another form of irregular plurals are nouns with identical singular and plural. For example, the  plural of sheep is sheep.There’s no such word as sheeps.

That’s right, the next time you have trouble sleeping, you can count sheep. So what are some other examples besides sheep?

Buffalo, deer, moose, bison, swine and most fish.

Okay, that’s right. Most sea creatures, such as salmon, trout,cod, squid and shrimp have no separate plural form. But of course, like many English words there are exceptions, such as sharks, whales and stingrays.

Language Lab

partial adj.

/ˈpɑɚʃəl/
not complete or total;
tending to treat one person, group, or thing better than another
partial to : liking something or someone very much and usually more than other things or people
- Nathan likes all kinds of sports, but he's partial to boxing.
- Many parents criticized the teacher for being partial to students with better grades.

colorblind adj.
unable to see the difference between certain colors
- Tests proved that the little boy is colorblind.
- To many people's surprise, this famous painter is actually colorblind.
treating people of different skin colors equally : not affected by racial prejudice
- The judge claims he always stays colorblind when dealing with court cases.

farsighted adj.
able to see things that are far away more clearly than things that are near
- The girl was born farsighted, so she's been wearing glasses since she was three.
nearsighted
- Jacob became nearsighted when he was in junior high.

overall adv.
in general
- Overall, the economic growth rate of the country is decreasing.
adj.
- After the reform, the overall financial situation of the company started to improve.

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Myths of the Animal Kingdom (1)

• Think you know your animals?
• Camel’s humps store water.
• Chicks touched by humans will be abandoned.

Think you know your animals?

The animal kingdom is amazing, varied and exciting, but many of its citizens are misunderstood.

Camels' humps store water
Take, for instance, the idea that camels' humps contain water. In fact, these humps are large, energy-storing fat deposits, weighing up to 36 kilograms. While this fat can produce water, it cannot hydrate the animal. The camel's low body temperature allows water to be retained by the camel for seven days without a drink.

Chicks touched by humans will be abandoned
Another myth is that leaving our smell on a baby bird by touching it causes its mother to abandon it. The fact that birds hardly use their sense of smell puts this false idea to rest. Adult birds protect their young no matter what creatures come into contact with them.

Bats are blind
Many of us are well aware of bats' ability to navigate by echolocation. They also have remarkable senses of hearing and smell. But they are not "blind as a bat" because their eyes, though sometimes poorly developed, are completely functional.

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One unique feature of English is that it has a special term for almost every kind of baby animal. For example, the word chick can be used to describe a baby eagle.

But there’s actually an even more precise term for a baby eagle, eaglet.

But, let’s face it. Eaglet is not exactly part of everyday English. So while it may be interesting to find out the name of say a baby eel, which is elver by the way, we don’t really need to memorize all the baby animal names.

But, we should know some of the more popular and basic ones.As mentioned, chick can refer to a baby eagle but it can also refer to any young bird or chicken.

Umm. The word calf is useful and that it can refer to a young antelope, cow, elephant, hippo, rhino or even a whale.

Another useful baby animal term is cub, which can be apply to a young bear, panda, lion, tiger even a baby shark.

And since so many people have dogs and cats for pets, we should know the name of a baby dog, which is puppy and a baby cat, kitten.

A few more popular once a baby pig is a piglet, a baby duck is a duckling and a baby rabbit is a bunny.

If you know all the ones we just mentioned, great! But don’t worry, if you can’t remember a particular baby animal name, you could always put the word baby in front of any animal name to describe its young.

Language Lab
myth n.
an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true
- Many people believe the myth that bulls hate red. Actually bulls are easily agitated by sudden movements.
- Contrary to the common myth, women are not bad drivers, but more cautious.

retain v.
to continue to have or use (something) : keep
- If left covered with a thick cloth, these rolls can retain heat for hours.
- The hotel still retains its art deco look of the 40's.

hydrate v.
/ˈhaɪˌdreɪt/
hydrated adj.
- stay hydrated
- Remember to stay hydrated. [=to drink enough water]

abandon v.
to leave and never return to (someone who needs protection or help)
- The police are still looking for the parents who abandoned this baby.
to stop doing or having (something) : to give up (something) completely
- Our company had to abandon this project due to insufficient funds.
abandoned adj.
- Sherry felt abandoned after her boyfriend dumped her.

functional adj.
working properly
- The alarm system in this building is fully functional.
designed to have a practical use
- The furniture is not only fashionable, but also very functional.

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The American Bald Eagle (2)

Did you know?
The bald eagle is one of America's largest birds of grey and has keen vision, spotting objects a mile away.
The birds mate for life and usually return to the same nest every year. Their nests, some of the world's largest, are often cone-shaped. In the spring, the female will lay one to three eggs. Then she and her male take turns warming the eggs and guarding the nest.
It is believed that at one time there were half a million eagles in North America. By 1963, though, their numbers had dropped to 417 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states. There were many causes, but the major reason was the use of the pesticide DDT. In 1972, the U.S. forbade the pesticide, and bald eagles now number around 9,800 nesting pairs.
While bald eagles are no longer endangered, there are still laws that provide protection for them. People everywhere hope this proud bird will fly free in the skies for many years to come.

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The American Bald Eagle白頭鷹
1.白頭鷹沒有禿頭，它的頭頂有白色羽毛，故稱之。
2.白頭鷹可以抓起同體重的獵物，帶回窩裡享用。
3.白頭鷹是傑出的工程師，它會花上幾年時間建造它的窩。有時因窩太重，讓樹枝承載不住而折斷，它會再重新建造另一個窩。因這種不屈不撓的精神，使它成為美國國鳥。  

Grammar Gym
it is believed that
- It is believed that at one time there were half a million eagles in North America.
- It is believed that this bakery was the first one to sell this special kind of cake.
- It is believed that the hero in the story came from this town.  

Language Lab
vision n.視力；願景、洞察力
- Janet's vision improved a lot after she began wearing eyeglasses. Janet自從開始戴眼鏡之後，視力進步很多。
- My dad has 20/20 vision.
我爸爸的視力是2.0/
- Hank is a man of vision.
Hank是一位有遠見的人

cone n.圓錐體、圓錐形
- The driver of the car that had broken down put cones on the road as a warming sign.
拋錨車的車主在馬路上放置圓錐筒，當做警告標誌。

forbid v.禁止  forbade/forbidden
- Tanya's parents forbade her to go out on weekdays because of her falling scores.
Tanya的父母禁止她週間外出，因為她的成績退步。
- The company forbids employees from making personal phone calls.
公司嚴禁員工打私人的電話

protection n.保護、警戒
protect v.保護
- The software provides good protection against most computer viruses. 這個軟體能夠有效的保護防禦大多數的電腦病毒

The American Bald Eagle (1)

America's national symbol draws crowds
On a cold winter morning, I boarded a bus in Tennessee's Reelfoot Lake State Park. Thousands of tourists visit the park each year because of its unique beauty and interesting history. The lake was formed in 1812 when a very strong earthquake struck. Because official records weren't kept then, no one knows exactly how strong it was. But two things are certain. The landscape was changed completely and Reelfoot's 18,000-acre lake was formed.

Winter's guests of honor
On this day, though, everyone arrived to see something other than the lake - the bald eagles. During the winter, hundreds of eagles fly south to Reelfoot Lake from the northern U.S. and Canada. They're searching for water where they can get their daily supply of fish. Eagles eat one half to one pound of food a day, and fish is their favorite.
Most of the visiting eagles will fly north again when spring arrives. But for a few short months, tourists flock here to see America's national bird.

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national symbol 國家象徵物，
如國旗、國花、國鳥、國歌、國家獨特的建築物等。
American bald eagle 白頭鷹(美國國鳥)
national anthem  國歌
Great Wall 萬里長城(中國的national symbol)
Egyptian Pyramid 埃及金字塔(埃及的national symbol)
Statue of Liberty 自由女神(美國的national symbol)

Language Lab
tourist n.觀光客
tour v.觀光
tourism n.旅遊、觀光、觀光業
- The town attracts thousands of tourists every weekend.
這個小鎮每個周末都吸引上千名遊客

landscape n.風景、景色
- The photographer loves to shoot landscapes of different deserts.
這位攝影師喜歡拍攝不同沙漠的風景
- The rugged landscape of the mountain was breathtaking.
這座山陡峭的景色令人屏息

honor n.榮耀
- The doctor was invited to be the guest of honor of this award ceremony.
這位博士受邀成為頒獎典禮的貴賓
- The ambassador is the guest of honor at tonight's banquet.
大使是今天晚上派對的貴賓

flock v.聚集、群聚  n.群、人群
- Sport fans flocked outside the auditorium asking for players' autographs.
運動迷們在體育館外聚集，請球員們幫他們簽名。
- Flocks of tourists waited for their buses outside the park.
一群群的觀光客在公園外等著他們的巴士