Indoor plants are a beautiful way to    1    (bright) up your home, especially in the gray    2    (month) of winter. But there can be a dark side to houseplants if you have children or if children visit your home. It is important that you know which plants are poisonous to children.

Gardening expert Jessica Damiano    3    (recent) wrote about the issue for The Associated Press. She said she often pointed out houseplants in homes that should     4    (keep) out of children’s mouths. Last week, Damiano    5    (visit) her cousin’s home and saw a Dieffenbachia plant in the kitchen. Her cousin told her that her young son,    6    had just begun crawling, had shown interest in     7    leaves. Damiano had to explain to her cousin that eating a small amount of the plant’s stem could cause temporary     8    severe pain. The plant parts can cause throat and mouth swelling. The plant’s sap can cause nose, skin and eye pain. Damiano wrote that parents should teach their young children not to put non-food plant parts into their mouths. “Parents should also educate     9    (they),” she said. She urged parent store search whether the plants in their homes are safe to grow around children. She also suggested     10    (learn) the official botanical names of any houseplants so that they can be able to provide that information quickly to a poison control expert, if needed.

Three pandas at Japan’s Wakayama park return to China

SHIRAHAMA, Japan - Eimei, a giant panda    1    has lived in Japan for 28 years, left western Japan’s Wakayama park along with his twin    2    (daughter) to fly back to China on Wednesday morning.

    3    30-year-old male panda, along with his eight-year-old Japan-born twin daughters Ouhin    4    Touhin, has left their current home at the Adventure World, a theme park in the town of Shirahama in Wakayama prefecture.

Later in the day, the three giant pandas were scheduled    5    (take) a flight from the Kansai International Airport to a facility in southwest China’s Sichuan province.

Prior to their departure, a farewell ceremony    6    (hold) at the park on Tuesday, where about 2,000 visitors    7    (say) goodbye to the three pandas.

Eimei, or Yong Ming in Chinese, is a 30-year-old male panda and the    8    (old) giant panda living in Japan.    9    (come) from China in 1994, it is the father of 16 giant panda cubs born at the Adventure World, setting the world record for being the oldest giant panda to have    10    (successful) fed in captivity.

6 . Over the past three decades, an 81-year-old Chinese man has been operating a small zoo. The zoo in Enshi, Hubei Province, is called the “world’s loneliest zoo” because few people visit it. Most of the animals there are unhealthy.

Luo Yingjiu began keeping animals at home in the 1980s. After seeing wild animals kept in cages for sale at a market, Luo bought them and took them home to give them medical treatment. He released (释放) those able to live on their own into the wild and continued to raise those that could not live independently. There were so many animals in his house that the local government suggested he open a zoo. With the government’s financial aid, the zoo was opened in 1989, the only one in the city at that time. During its peak time, the zoo had some big animals, including a tiger and a lion. The business later became worse because visitors were not interested in the zoo’s “old, weak, sick and disabled” animals.

Using his pension (退休金) to operate the zoo, Mr. Luo refused to listen to other people’s advice to close it. “It is not just a zoo; it provides the habitat for the animals,” he explained. “If the zoo is closed, where can these animals go? They cannot even survive in the wild.”

As he operates the zoo, he keeps on rescuing animals. A black bear with one paw injured was saved 17 years ago. A dog named Dianzi was saved when its former owner planned to abandon (遗弃) it. A monkey that has been at the zoo for nearly 30 years is almost blind because of camera flashes from visitors who took photos. For those animals that died, Luo buried them on the nearby mountain.

Luo said he remembers every animal’s name. “Animals and humans are born equal,”he said. “We should respect their right to survive.”

9 . Harry Smith has a dog, Sarah Jane. They are best friends and love to take walks together. One day when they _________ in a park, the two of them _________a beautiful lake. Although Harry used a wheelchair, this usually wasn't a problem for him. _________ when his wheels got stuck that day, he quickly found himself thrown into the _________

As the 81-year-old, not being able to _________, screamed(尖叫)for help, Sarah jumped into action-she barked(吠叫)as _________ as possible. Luckily, the dog’s bark caught two men’s attention and they made their way over. One of the men, Edward Suhling, _________ in the water. And they got _________ from a police officer who just happened to be nearby. Together, the three of them _________ Harry out of the water as quickly as possible.

“I am __________ to Sarah and the three passers-by that helped __________ my life!” Harry wrote on the Internet. “And the __________ remains true-a man's best __________ is his dog.” Needless to say, Harry made sure to __________ his best friend of seven years how grateful he was in a way that every __________ loves: with food.

10 . Depths of our Earth hold great wonders. Below we explore four deepest places on Earth.

Its entrance is located 2,285 meters above sea level. In 2018, scientists reached its bottom at 2,212 meters down. They squeezed through tiny openings to get from one cave to another. Rockfalls and floods waited secretly at every turn. Scientists could develop new medicines from microorganisms found in cave samples. Caves also record ancient life and past climates.

The Mariana Trench, with the maximum depth of 11,034 meters, is the deepest part of Earth’s surface. Pressure there is intolerable, but creatures like sea cucumbers (海参) still exist. Scientists exploring it can gain deeper insights into how plates move and why earthquakes and volcanoes occur.

The Dead Sea is the lowest point on land at about 1,400 feet (about 400 meters) below sea level. It’s nearly ten times saltier than ocean water, so you literally can’t sink in the Dead Sea! Scientists think it could go dry in a few decades. Despite its name, the Dead Sea holds life. A few kinds of algae (藻类) and bacteria love its salty water.

At the depth of 1,642 meters, Lake Baikal is the deepest inland body of water. The Baikal seal is the only known seal that lives in this world’s deepest freshwater lake. Scientists study the lake not only for the solid stuff beneath it that records climate history but because it’s in a zone where a plate is splitting apart, causing earthquakes.