2 . Having a dog as part of the family can be really great. There are so many good things about having a dog. For example, dogs can be wonderful friends and companions. They get you out of the house because they need exercise and you are never lonely if you have a dog. Getting the right dog for you.

Having a dog means that you are completely responsible for another being. So before you start asking your parents or caregivers（看护人）for a dog, you need to do some thinking and some research.

Research the type of dog who would fit in well with your family lifestyle（生活方式）. Look at this site: www.petnet.com.au to find out about different breeds（种类）and sizes of dogs, how much food, exercise, training, etc they will need.

Who is going to take care of the dog, not just for the first week?

How much time will the dog have to be by itself?

What are the costs of having a dog? This includes（包括）buying the dog, food, registration（登记） with the local council, visits to the vet（兽医）for injections（注射）and so on.

What about training the dog? Is there somewhere nearby where you can join a dog training class?

Is there a dog park or beach nearby where the dog can run free, after he has learned to come back when you call?

3 . Can dolphins talk? Maybe they can’t talk with words, but they can talk with sounds. They show their feelings (感情) with sounds.

Dolphins travel in a group. We call a group of fish a “school”. They don’t study, but they travel together. Dolphins are not fish, but they swim together in a school.

Dolphins talk to the other dolphins in the school. They give information. They tell when they are happy or sad or afraid. They say “Welcome” when a dolphin comes back to the school. They talk when they play.

They make a few sounds above water. They make many more sounds under water. People cannot hear these sounds because the sounds are very, very high. Scientists study the sounds of dolphins.

Sometimes people catch dolphins for a large aquarium (水族馆). People can watch dolphin shows. Dolphins are sad and lonely there because they don’t like to be away from their school.

There are many stories about dolphins. They help people. Sometimes they save somebody’s life. Dolphin meat is good, but people don’t like to kill them. They say that dolphins bring good luck. Many people believe this.

4 . Hey, everyone!

This page is all about me! So, read on!

My name is Esha and I live in Sydney, Australia! I only moved here two years ago and I love it! I am 12 years old, and I am in Grade 7 at Park School. I love the colour GREEN! I have no idea why, but I just do! My star sign is Aquarius（水瓶座）and I love playing sports such as tennis and baseball. I also love to read, write and... BLOG! My favourite animals are dogs, pandas and most definitely dolphins! I love dolphins and once I went to a place in New South Wales（where Sydney is）and I was able to swim with a Dolphin! Another thing you should know about me is that I am a CRAZY fan of Harry Potter! My favourite books are the whole Harry Potter series and my favourite movie would have to be all of them, too. My favourite cartoon movie, on the other hand is The Lorax. Well, I think that’s all you need to know about me!

Please feel free to tell me about YOU...and if we have anything in common, see you later!

Now think about this question and answer it.     1     Your answer may show your personality (个性).

    2     This is what we usually see in our life. Now some studies show that the animal lovers are different from each other.     3     Usually, dog lovers like going out with their friends and talking with others. Cats lovers, however, like reading or watching TV at home.     4    

If you don’t think it is right, you can observe (观察) what some animal lovers after dinner.     5     I find some dog lovers also like walking their dogs, but you can’t find any cat lovers walk their cats. Some dog lovers even become friends by walking their dogs and talking about their dogs with each other.

In Canada, you can find dogs, cats, etc. in almost every family.     1     People love these pets and have them as their good friends. They have special animal food stores, though they can get animal food in almost every kind of stores.     2    

When you visit people’s houses, they will be very glad to show you their pets and they are very proud of them.     3     They have a law against killing wild animals. If you kill an animal, you will be punished. If a car runs over an animal, people will be very sad about it.

    4     One of them might be: Their family ties are not as close as ours. When children grow up, they leave their parents and start their own life.     5     But pets can solve this problem. They can be good friends and never leave the old alone.

7 . Cats are as good as dogs at certain memory tests, according to a new study. The study suggests that cats are just as smart as dogs.

The study was done using 49 family cats and different bowls of food. The findings show that cats can recall memories of good experiences, such as eating a delicious food. The experiment was a test of episodic memories（情景记忆）. It was modeled on a similar study about dogs.

Kyoto University psychologist Saho Takagi said that both cats and dogs may have episodic memory similar to that of humans. “Our study may suggest a type of consciousness（意识）in the mind of cats,” Takagi said.

In one phase of the experiment, cats were led to four open bowls of food and were allowed to eat from two of them. About 15 minutes later, the bowls were replaced with empty ones, and the same cats returned to the room in search of food. Here, researchers found that they spent more time finding those bowls from which they had already eaten than others.

That the cats were able to remember “what” and “where” information about the food bowls suggests that they have episodic memory. However, it’s unclear whether cats can experience past memories in the same depth as humans do.

Still, the study’s results may have practical applications（应用）. “It opens the door to new studies, examining how long cats’ memories can be,” Yale university Professor Laurie Santos said, “and whether they also remember richer episodes in their own life as humans do.”