1 . Perhaps some girls are wondering whether their kitties can see colors. The simple answer is yes, but the detailed answer is much more interesting.

To help you understand how your cat sees, it’s helpful to understand how our eyes work. It’s the eye and brain working together that turn light into color. Our eyes can react to the light and send signals to the brain. Those signals are translated into colors. The amount of three primary colors — red, blue, and green determines the final color your brain registers. It’s thought that people can see as many as one million colors.

Both people and cats have three different types of cones (视锥细胞), allowing us to see that red, blue, and green. The big difference is that cats have considerably fewer overall cones than people. As a result, they’re not able to see as many different color variations as we are. There’s also a difference in the richness of color they see because they are much less sensitive to changes in light than we are.

Compared with humans, cats tend to see blues, greens, and grays best. Cats can easily tell the difference between these three colors groups. However, reds and pinks, and likely yellows, are difficult for cats to tell. However, cats can see much better in low light than we can. They have more rods (视杆细胞) (responsible for detecting motion) than humans, so they better detect small movements that are significantly farther away. Cats have broader surrounding vision since their eyes are set more on the sides of the head.

Interestingly, cats can’t see well close, right in front of their face. If you’ve been wondering why your cat doesn’t play well when you shake a toy right in front of them, it’s because they can’t see it. They’re using their other senses to figure out where that toy is.

4 . A decade ago, the day before Christmas, my mother announced we were no longer celebrating Christmas. “Boys, go to find a big _________ that we can use as a tree”. My mother said, “We are going to _________ the tree with leftovers for the seagulls to eat. Those guys must get _________ in winter when there isn’t much _________.”

“Mom, we don’t want to _________ you, but does anyone else think it kind of crazy?” One of my brothers asked _________. “You’ll do whatever your mother wants.” My father jumped into _________. Then on the -30°beach, my family gathered around a branch stuck into the _________ with boxes of food to _________ what my mom named “Seagull Day.” Our bodies shook, fingers __________.

Ten years later, with the chill of the air and the __________ of kids, my mom declared, “Find little places on the tree to __________ the snacks. Think of them as beautiful decorations.” My daughters, nieces and nephews __________ immediately with wild joy. When the boxes and bags of snacks were __________, we stood back and __________ our creation. We asked a passer-by to take pictures of us with our tree. “What’s this all about?” She asked __________.

“It’s Seagull Day!” The kids said __________. They were surprised when people hadn’t heard of Seagull Day. To them, it was a(an)__________ — maybe as big as a national — holiday.

My social media posts and pictures have __________ long lines of questions and the “I want to do this next year!” promise. I __________ everyone, “Yes, you do!”

5 . The blue whale holds the current record as the largest creature to live on Earth, but a collection of bones found in Per u might break that record. Researchers have identified a whale species called Perucetus colossus in the publication Nature. Bones from this species, including backbones weighing over 100 kilograms each and ribs measuring nearly 1. 4 meters long, were found by Mario Urbina in 2012 in the Ica desert.

The area where the bones were found was once underwater, making it a rich source of ocean fossils. The find resulted in 13 backbone vertebrae (脊椎), four ribs and a hip bone. The large fossils date back to around 39 million years ago. Alberto Collareta, a lead writer of the study, described the fossils as unlike anything he had ever seen before.

The researchers used 3D scanners to study the bones’ surface and also looked inside. Based on the incomplete skeleton, the team estimated that the ancient creature weighed somewhere between 85 and 340 metric tons. Comparatively, the largest blue whales found fell within that range, at around 180 metric tons. The Perucetus colossus measured about 20meters long, while blue whales can reach 30 meters in length. This means the newly discovered whale was “feasibly the heaviest animal ever,” said Alberto Collareta. But he added, “it was most likely not the longest animal ever.”

Interestingly, the density and weight of the Perucetus colossus’ bones were much higher than those of a blue whale. This suggests that the colossal whale may have inhabited shallower coastal waters, similar to other coastal animals with heavy bones.

Another researcher, Amson, said, without the skull, it is hard to know what the whale was eating to support such a huge body. It is possible that the large creature sought food along the seafloor, the researchers said. Or it could have eaten up tons of smaller sea life in the ocean. Swiesen, a paleontologist, added that he would not be surprised “if this thing actually fed in a totally different way that we would never imagine.”

7 . Eduardo and Mast both badly wanted a puppy. When they got _______, the top of their list in their new life together was to adopt a dog. They stopped by Animal Shelter two days before their wedding and _________ connected with a 4-month-old German shepherd, Daisy. They thought she was _________ for their family. However, they encountered a(n) _______ situation when they learned Daisy would be ready for _______ on a first-come, first-served basis on the same day as their wedding ceremony.

_______ to make Daisy a part of their special day, they decided to _______ the wedding vows (誓言) to 9 a. m.. “Everyone was really _______ and told us, ‘It’s your special day and we’ll be there _______ you’d like,’” Mast said.

On the wedding morning, Mast, in a white dress, and Eduardo, in a black suit ________ vows at a civil celebrant’s (民事神父) home. The excitement of marriage was matched with the ________ to welcome Daisy into their life. Upon finishing saying their “I dos,” they ________ to Animal Shelter.

“We got there about 9:45 and were first in line. When a shelter worker fetched Daisy and carried her in, we were both in ________ at how cute she was,” Eduardo said. “When I grabbed her, she started loving all over us.”

Cavedon, the manager of Animal Shelter, said “I am ________ that the newlyweds step up to adopt the puppy and I witness the tender moment when Daisy ________ them with kisses.

Afterwards they first shared Daisy’s __________ and theirs with people present. The couple’s romance began with friendship in the Marine Corps and ________ evolved into something more serious. After a proposal (求婚) at Great Falls, they ________ for a small civil ceremony and a larger one in the future.

“Now Daisy is learning to be house-broken and has smoothly ________ our apartment,” they said. “She loves to curl up with us in bed at night,” Eduardo added. “She’s ________, adorable and super playful.”

8 . Are there any lakes in your hometown? What color are they? Around one-third of the world's lakes are blue, according to a study in September 2022. But global warming may lead them to turn green or even brown.

Xiao Yang from Southern Methodist University in the US and his team analyzed the color of over 85,000 lakes based on satellite photos taken from 2013 to 2020. They found that lakes in places with cooler average summer air temperatures — below 19°C — were more likely to be blue than lakes in places with warmer summers.

The color of a lake is in part decided by what's in the water. Water molecules (分子) absorb the long wavelengths of sunlight, such as red, orange, and yellow, leaving behind the shorter ones presenting green and mostly blue. Simply put, the cleaner the water, the bluer it looks. In warmer lakes, algae (藻) and phytoplankton (浮游植物) develop easily. These microbes (微生物) contain colors from green to brown and red, giving the lake a different color. If the temperature continues to rise with climate change unchecked, one in 10 blue lakes might change color, according to the study.

Lakes serve as a vital part of nature, with their color being one of the oldest ways to determine the health of an ecosystem. Humans get their drinking water from lakes, streams and ground water. As lakes become greener, people may lose lots of clean water. Because of this, treating the water of such lakes becomes more expensive. For lake animals, the thriving (茁壮成长) of algae and phytoplankton in greener lakes can provide more food resources. However, an increase in these microbes may cause lake animals to die for lack of oxygen.