Modern Dog
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My new favorite magazine! Beautiful photos, smart and amusing articles, fashion, art, interviews with famous people… All about dogs！Thanks to Modern Dog I now know how to give a dog-friendly party and how to actually get my dog to come when she was called. Surely worth reading.

The koala(考拉) is possibly one of the best known Australian animals, and is found in four states: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

The word “koala” comes from an Australian word meaning “no drink”. Sometimes people call them “koala bears” but koala is not a bear. It belongs to a special group of Australian mammals, called marsupial(有袋类). Female marsupials have a pouch where the baby animals live after they are born.

Koalas have soft, thick, gray or brown fur on their backs. The fur on the stomach is white. The Koala in the south have thicker fur than those in the north because of the cold winters. However, the koalas in the northern part live in warm to hot weather most of the year, so they have thinner fur.A koala has a large nose and round ears. Koalas don’t have tails. Adult koalas weigh between 7kg and 14 kg.

Koalas spend nearly all their time in the trees. They sleep most of the day, but feed and move from tree to tree mainly at night.The reason koala sleep for much of the day is because their food, eucalyptus(桉树) leaves, are so hard that they need a lot of energy(能量;精力)to digest. Sleeping saves energy.

Each koala has a home made up of several trees that they visit regularly. They normally do not visit another koala’s home trees except that a male is looking for a female to mate with.

Just like rice and Noodles are different from bread, snacks in China are a world apart from those in the UK and the US. For one thing, I never imagined that sunflower seeds(葵花籽) would be so popular here. I found people having them while waiting for tables outside restaurants, before dinner and, of course, while watching TV. I also saw that a plate of sunflower seeds is always on tables during the Spring Festival holidays.

I had seldom tried sunflower seeds when I came to China. In the UK, young people love their snacks. In fact, young people in Britain eat more snacks than people of the same age in other European countries. A recent Survey has discovered that 64% of under 20-year-olds snack between meals, according to an article on a British website. In comparison(对比), 58.7% of young people snack in Germany, 53% in France, and only 40.7% in Spain.

In Britain, we always looked forward to our favorite potato chips and chocolate bars after school. In U.S. One of things that I found the most wonderful when I first visited the US was the number of snacks in their supermarkets; I was surprised to find huge shelves just for snacks were bigger than some stores in the UK.   Snack tastes in the US are much the same as in the UK.

All in all, it’s probably best for your health if you like sunflower seeds rather than potato chips and chocolate. But eating these delicious snacks sometimes couldn’t be wrong, could it?

It’s not unusual for us to be together with our relatives on the weekends. But you know that holidays can be the chances for families to get together. Also, it may be a time to break your relationship because of some improper conversations. Now, Deborah Tannen, a Georgetown University professor, offers suggestions to improve communication at the holiday table. Let’s take a look.

A round dinning table is best for promoting a lively conversation because everyone faces one another. So, avoid seating grandparents at the ends of a rectangular(长方形的）table, even though it is the traditional place of honor. The old may feel lonely there because they will be unable to hear or keep up with a conversation. So do female family members because they prefer to face each other when they talk. However, Men might look around at other things. “Guys may be more relaxed looking at the TV or other interesting things.” says Tannen.

When talking, you should notice the people who are not involved in it. If you feel you are doing all the talk, wait to give others a chance to start. If you feel you can’t get a chance to speak, try to make yourself to start talking.

Besides, Some families find that gatherings will go better if they take part in an outdoor activity. Going to a park for a walk may be more enjoyable than sitting around talking.