Personal information is like the keys to your house. Giving these keys to the wrong people can be like allowing a stranger to get into your house, and you may not even know it. If someone has your personal information, they could pretend (假装) to be you, find out where you live, or even use your personal information to buy things.

It is said that people now love keeping flat-faced (扁脸的) dogs like French bulldogs as pets, because they are so cute. Some people call these dogs “lazy” because they get sleepy more easily than other dogs during the day. However, according to a recent study, these cute dogs are having a hard time.

Scientists watched 92 family dogs of different kinds while they were sleeping. During the study, the dogs spent about three hours with their owners in the sleep lab. With nothing special to do, the dogs soon fell asleep. At that time, the scientists recorded the dogs’ brain activities with an EEG (脑电图).

The study found that the flat-faced dogs slept more than the other kinds. This is because they don’t get enough sleep at night. Scientists explained that, because of their special head structure, these flat-faced dogs usually have sleep apnea (睡眠呼吸暂停症). During their sleep, they can’t get enough air and may find it difficult to breathe, which makes them repeatedly wake up.

Some French bulldogs may sleep while holding a toy ball in their mouths. Owners may think this is funny. But they’re actually doing it to keep their airways (呼吸道) open so they can breathe more easily.

This, however, is only one of the health problems dogs have because of breeding (培育). According to the website Pet Helpful, a lot of pet dogs are bred based on what people like, such as shorter legs, heavier bodies and larger ears. There is no doubt that bulldog is a victim of it.

Lots of pet lovers are calling for people to respect animals as they are. Breeders must take the health of pets seriously instead of just for cuteness. After all, we are not supposed to build our fun on others’ suffering.

Clouds change every second, bringing nature’s beauty to us. But can you catch it?

Cloud spotting (观察), by its name, is just looking at clouds. Some people do cloud spotting to simply relax themselves.     16     Ji Yun, 36, is a cloud spotting expert in Beijing.

In October 2013, Ji got a message from a friend. It said that some rare (稀罕的) clouds were heading toward southeastern Beijing.     17    

“As soon as I got the information, I rushed out of my home. After guessing where they were likely to head, I took a train to Tianjin.     18     I was so happy!” Ji said. The cloud turned out to be one of the world’s top 10 rarest clouds.

This experience made Ji famous among the cloud spotters. He set up a WeChat group later that year so that people with the same hobby could talk to each other.     19     Together, they became known as the Sky Enthusiasts Association (天空爱好者协会).

    20     Three years after the association was set up, cloud lovers collected every kind of cloud in the International Cloud Atlas. “We made a book with all of these collected photos. Then we published it in 2023,” Ji said. “This is a gift to all those who love clouds.”