It’s a good idea to buy from local nursery(苗圃)to get a variety of plants that grow well in your region. Here’s our latest list of plant and garden events in the L. A. area in February.

California Native Container Plants, a class about growing native plants in pots—taught by Flora Ito, nursery sales manager at the Payne Foundation nursery, 10459 Tuxford St. in Sun Valley, from 9 to 10:15 a. m. Feb 4. Participants must have proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of the class. Register online, $25, or $20 for members.

Secrets of a Healthy Vegetable Garden, a free workshop sponsored by the Orange County Organic Gardening Club and taught by Julie Bawden-Davis, master gardener and author of “Southern California Vegetable Gardening, ”at 7:30 p. m. Feb 8 in the Orange County Fairgrounds Silo Building, 88 Fair Drive in Costa Mesa.

Camellia Society’s 49th Camellia Show at Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, from 1 to 5 p. m. Feb. 12. The show is free to visitors after $29 admission to the gardens ($24 for seniors 65 and older, $13 ages 4-11. Members and children under age 4 enter free. ) Masks are required indoors.

Payne Foundation Winter Plant Sale at the foundation’s nursery, 10459 Tuxford St. in Sun Valley, from 8:30 a.m.to 4 p.m.Feb. 15-19. The sale includes native seeds, books and other merchandise(货物), as well as one of the region’s largest selections of native plants. Members receive a 15% discount, and nonmembers get a 10% discount on all plants and seeds.

Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

Recently, in the quest for a selfie(自拍), a woman climbed over the concrete barrier of a Jaguar(美洲虎) enclosure at Wildlife World Zoo, Arizona. The jaguar ripped into her arm. Bystanders pulled her away before the animal could injure her further. She's fine-so is the jaguar.

This isn’t the first time a story of a person acting rudely to get close to a wild animal made headlines. Last year. a man jumped into a lion enclosure at a zoo for a close-up photo. 【小题1】Multiple tourists in Yellowstone National Park have been attacked by bison(野牛) when they’ve gotten too close for a photo.

It's common sense not to get close to wild animals that can hurt you. It's why zoos have barriers -sometimes multiple walls-to keep people separated from animals. Signs posted everywhere state the obvious warning. Keep your hands off the cage.

"Yet animals have become less real to us, " says an environmentalist. We see exotic animals most frequently in managed settings like zoos. 【小题2】 People are trying to take advantage of their rarity to show off on social media and ignore their fierceness.

Media often normalize interaction with dangerous animals. Seeing a man like "Lion Whisperer" Kevin Richardson regularly play-fight with lions on TV, may send the message that these animals aren't so dangerous after all.

Social media are also perfectly positioned to contribute to the rise of animal selfies. Getting likes and comments provide instant satisfaction. Your self-esteem actually gets a temporary boost. To hold onto that feeling, people may go to more and more extremes to showcase the most exciting versions of themselves. It may not be enough to get a photo of a beautiful, dangerous animal from outside a cage. 【小题3】

People' s careless approach can put the animal's safety at risk as well. Zoo animals often must be killed to protect the person who’s entered their space. In fact, thrill-seekers actively endanger the lives of animals. 【小题4】with the zoo environment, they take it for granted that animals are there for people, ignoring the fact that animals and humans are both equal existents in the nature.

This is a story of a penguin that swims 5,000 miles to a beach in Brazil every year in order to visit the man who saved his life. It sounds like something out of a fairy tale (童话故事), but it’s true!

Joao Pereira de Souza is a 71-year-old retired worker and part-time fisherman. He lives in an island village just outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He found the small penguin lying on rocks at his local beach in 2015.

The penguin was starving and covered in oil. Joao rescued the penguin, naming him Din Din, cleaned the oil off his feathers and fed him fish to rebuild his strength.

When Din Din recovered, Mr. de Souza set him free into the sea, never expecting to see his new friend again.

The little guy wasn’t gone long though, and just a few months later, he was back at the same beach. He found Joao fishing and followed him home, staying with him for the rest of the year.

Amazingly, this cycle has continued over the past five years. Each year Din Din spends about eight months with Joao and is believed to spend the rest of the time breeding(繁殖) on the Patagonia coasts of Argentina and Chile.

“I love the penguin like he’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,”Joao told Globo TV. “No one else is allowed to touch him. He attacks them if they do. He lies on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed(喂养) him fish and to pick him up.”

Professor Krajewski, a biologist who interviewed the fisherman for Globo TV, said: “I have never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well.”