My Dad’s Best Flower

I remember my first home was a small apartment on the second floor with a lovely and spacious balcony. When my mom was busy in the kitchen, she let me stay on the balcony watching the kids playing in the street. On that balcony I played sometimes with my elder sister, Maria. She was seven years old and when my mom was absent, she was like a mother to me. The balcony was a great hobby place for my father. After his work he used to grow carnations(康乃馨) in flower boxes. His carnations were red, pink and white, and everyone appreciated them for their beauty.

He took care of them with so much love and devotion. He dealt carefully with his flowers like a mother taking care of her baby. Many ties I sat on the floor of the balcony for hours observing him and his lovely flowers with patience. He was always doing something on that balcony. He was watering them every day, cleaning the balcony floor, changing the potting soil and when the stems were thick, strong and high enough, he started his improvement operation attentively like a doctor.

My dad took a tiny knife and with his left hand he held the stem of the carnation and measured the height. Then he made a small mark on the stem with his finger. Afterwards he made a sharp cut with the knife, just enough to fit in again of barley (插穗的芽).Then he bandaged the stem with a small bandage. His job was then to water the plants and to take care of them. “No one should touch them,” he said to Mom. Every day, when he came home from work he went straight to the balcony.

Mom used to tell us, “Do not touch Daddy’s flowers.” For us it was a fascinating experience to watch how the small stems were growing and making flowers. When the carnations had grown big enough, my dad enjoyed watching them every day. We the kids did too.

Paragraph1：One day, my elder sister, who loved Dad very much, had a great idea.

Paragraph2：When my dad arrived, he went as usual, straight to the balcony and saw his flowers lying on the floor like dead animals.

It was the old lady’s birthday. She got up early to be ready for the post. From the second floor of the flat, she could see the postman when he came down the street, and the little boy Johnnie from the ground floor often brought her letters if there was any.

Today she was sure there would be something. Myra wouldn’t forget her mother’s birthday, even if she seldom wrote to her. Of course Myra was busy. Unluckily, Enid, the daughter the old lady loved most, died two years ago. Since then Myra had come to see her mother three times, but her husband, Harold, had never come.

The old lady was eighty today. She had put on her best dress. Perhaps—perhaps Myra might come. She hadn’t seen her for a long time and missed her very much. After all, eighty was a special birthday. Even if Myra did not come, she would send a present. The old lady was sure of that. Her face had lightened up because of happiness. She was excited like a child. She would enjoy her day.

Yesterday Mrs. White, the cleaner, gave the flat an extra cleaning, and today she had brought a card and a bunch of flowers when she came to prepare the breakfast. The little boy, Johnnie, had been up with a packet of candies, and said he wouldn’t go out to play until the post came. “I guess you’ll get lots and lots of presents,” he said.

What would she receive? Maybe a pair of slippers or a new coat. A coat would be lovely. Blue is such a pretty colour. Or a table lamp, a book, a travel book with pictures, or a little clock with clear black numbers. So many lovely things. The old lady was smiling when she thought about this.

She was now standing by the window and watching.

She immediately opened the envelope.

Hibernation is a time when animals “sleep” through cold weather. With true hibernation, the animal can be moved around or touched without knowing it. Some animals only go into a temporary sleep time and can get up quickly like bears. We are going to use the word “sleep” sometimes, but hibernation is different from regular sleep. With normal sleep, the animal moves a little, has an active brain, and can wake up very quickly while with true hibernation, the animal appears as if dead.

During the fall, hibernating animals eat more food than usual. Their bodies will live off their body fat as they “sleep” through winter. The animal will use up the body fat it stores and not lose any muscle. This causes the animal to come out of hibernation thinner but still as strong as it was in the fall. The animals get their winter nests, and dens ready. Different kinds of animals hibernate in different kinds of safe spots. When they go into hibernation and their bodies slow down, enemies can get them more easily. They try to pick the safest place to spend the winter away from these enemies.

Hibernation is the way that animals adapt to the climate and land around them. Animals must be able to live through extreme cold or die. Animals hibernate-or go into a deep sleep-to escape that cold. They also do this because it is really hard to find food during the winter.

When an animal begins to hibernate, its body temperature drops to a very low degree so that it almost matches the temperature outside. The animal's heartbeat and breathing rate slow down, too. This is when that stored fat that the animal packed on in the fall comes in handy. This stored fat lasts long because their bodies are slowed down so much that they don't need much energy.

It was a Monday and Khan, a pet dog had joined the family the previous Friday. He had already decided that two-year-old Charlotte was-his No.1 girl. The dog had seldom left her side since arriving at his new home.

Khan was next to Charlotte when Catherine took her into the garden for some fresh air. “I was just in the house doing boring mother things and Charlotte wanted to go outside and run around,” she says. “We were just walking around the garden looking at flowers and all that good stuff. Khan was with her.”

Charlotte was soon tired of playing in the garden and then went to play the padlock on the gate. “She was beating the padlock and it was banging on the gate,” Catherine recalls. She thought Khan, who was naturally right next to Charlotte, might be disturbed by the loud noise, but he seemed undisturbed by it. That was until, entirely without warning, he became very upset indeed.

“Khan suddenly started making this noise from the depths of his chest, this growl,” she says. “His whole chest puffed up, his hair stood up, and he lowered his head. He continued to make this growl.”

As Catherine watched, Khan seemed to double in size. “He kept trying to push her. I was right next to Charlotte—no more than a metre away and I thought, ‘He’s going to hurt her’. His chest was bigger than he was long,” she says.

Time seemed to slow down as Catherine rushed desperately to save her daughter. But Khan got to Charlotte first. He grabbed her by the back of her clothes and threw her over his shoulder into the garden. “I turned and looked and she was just sitting there in a pile of grass.” Still not certain whether Khan’s strange behaviour was some sort of attack on her child, Catherine raced to pick up Charlotte, who was completely unharmed, and take her inside to safety. Just as she turned to run into the house, Catherine saw a big brown snake bite Khan right in the chest and slid away quickly.

Khan screamed in pain and at the same moment, Catherine understood all.

Khan needed immediate medical help, so Catherine called a vet (兽医) in no time.