When I was six, Dad brought home a dog one day, who was called “Brownie”. My brothers and I all loved Brownie and did different things with her. One of us would walk her, another would feed her, then there were baths, playing catch and many other games, Brownie, in return, loved each and every one of us. One thing that most touched my heart was that she would go to whoever was sick and just be with them we always felt better when she was around.

One day, as I was getting her food, she chewed up (咬破) one of Dad’s shoes, which had to be thrown away in the end. I knew Dad would be mad and I had to let her know what she did was wrong. When I looked at her and said, “Bad girl,” she looked down at the ground and then went and hid. I saw a tear in her eyes.

Brownie turned out to be more than just our family pet, she went everywhere with us. People would stop and ask if they could pet her. Of course she’d let anyone pet her. She was just the most lovable dog. There were many times when we’d be out walking and a small child would come over and pull her hair. She never barked (吠) or tried to get away. Funny thing is she would smile. This frightened people because they thought she was showing her teeth. Far from the truth, she loveed everyone.

Now many years have passed since Brownie died of old age. I still miss days when she was with us.

Lions are opportunists. They prefer to eat without having to do too much work. When resting in the shade, they are also watching the sky to see what is flying by, and even in the heat of the day they will suddenly start up and run a mile across the plains to find out what is going on. If another animal has made a kill, they will drive it off and take the dill for themselves. A grown lion can easily eat 60 pounds of meat at a single feeding. Often they eat until it seems painful for them to lie down.

The lionesses (母狮) , being thinner and faster, are better hunters (猎手) than the males (雄狮). But the males don’t mind. After the kill they move in and take the test share.

Most kills are made at night or just before daybreak. We have seen many, many daylight attempts but only ten kills. Roughly, it’s about twenty daytime attempts for one kill.

When lions are hiding for an attack by a water hole, they wait patiently and can charge at any second. The kill is the exciting moment in the day-to-day life of the lion, since these great animals spend most of their time, about 20 hours a day, sleeping and resting.

Lions are social cats, and when they are having a rest, they love to touch each other. After drinking at a water hole, a lioness rests her head on another’s back. When walking, young lions often touch faces with older ones, an act of close ties among members of the group.

A．are cruel animals

B．are clever animals

C．like to take advantage of other animals

D．like to take every chance to eat

Endangered polar bears are breeding (繁殖) with grizzly bears (灰熊), creating “pizzaly” bears (灰北极熊), which is being driven by climate change, scientists say.

As the world warms and Arctic sea ice thins, starving (饥饿的) polar bears are being forced ever further south to relieve (减轻) hunger, where they meet grizzlies, whose ranges (范围) are expanding northwards. And with that growing contact between the two come increasing hybrids (杂交种).

With characteristics that could give the hybrids an advantage in warming northern habitats, some scientists guess that they could be here to stay. “Usually, hybrids aren’t better suited to their environments than their parents, but these hybrids are able to search for a broader range of food sources,” Larisa DeSantis, an associate professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University, told Live Science.

The rise of “pizzly” bears appears with polar bears’ decline: their numbers are estimated to decrease (减少) by more than 30% in the next 30 years. This sudden fall is linked partly to “pizzly” bears taking up polar bears’ ranges, where they outcompete (超越) them, but also to polar bears’ highly specialized diets.

“Polar bears mainly consumed (消耗) soft foods even during the Medieval Warm Period, a previous period of rapid warming,” DeSantis said, referring to fat meals such as seals. “Although all of these starving polar bears are trying to find alternative (可替代的) food sources, like seabird eggs, it could be a tipping point fo r their survival.” Actually, the calories they gain from these sources do not balance out those they burn from searching for them. This could result in a habitat ready for the hybrids to move in and take over, leading to a loss in biodiversity (生物多样性) if polar bears are replaced.

“We’re having massive impacts with climate change on species,” DeSantis said. “The polar bear is telling us how bad things are. In some sense, ‘pizzaly’ bears could be a sad but necessary. compromise given current warming trends.”