Many people say dolphins are intelligent. They seem to be able to think, understand, and learn things quickly. But are they as smart as humans, or are they more like cats and dogs? 【小题1】.But scientists say dolphins and humans are alike in some ways. How?

Like humans, every dolphin has its own ”name.“ The name is a special whistle(哨声).Each dolphin chooses a whistle for itself, usually by its first birthday. Dolphins are like people in other ways, too. They “talk” to each other about a lot of things—such as their age, their feelings, and possible danger. 【小题2】. Understanding dolphin conversation is not easy for humans. No one ”speaks dolphin" yet, but some scientists are trying to learn.

【小题3】. They often join other dolphins to play games and have fun together, just like people. Sometimes they run after other dolphins carrying objects and throw these objects back and forth. Scientists believe playing together is something only intelligent animals do.

Dolphins and humans are similar in another way: 【小题4】. In the seas of southern Brazil, for example, dolphins use an intelligent method to get food. When there are fish near a boat, dolphins signal to the fishermen to put their nets in the water. With the dolphins’ help, the men can catch a lot of fish. Why do dolphins help the men? There is an advantage for the dolphins: 【小题5】.

Jack was born without eyes. He was very lucky as he grew up having other kittens(young cats) to socialize with, and was used to people from the moment he was born. However, when it came time to find the kittens homes, no one knew where Jack would end up.

That's when I got an email from my friend. All she asked was “Do you still want one of the kittens? There's one here with no eyes and no one would like to take him.” Without thinking, I told her that I did want the kitten.

When we first brought him home, Jack stayed mostly in my room. After about a day he had no issues running around and climbing on everything. At times he gets lost in the house, he'll stop. But we just call him and talk to him and it isn't long before he finds his way back to us.

A few weeks after getting Jack, we got a new farm cat named Bear. Jack and Bear have   become best friends. It doesn't matter that he can't see. He always knows when Bear is around. He'll run across the yard straight to Bear and wrap his front legs around his neck in a big hug. They run after each other around and wrestle. They'll lie down in the grass together when tired.

Jack is truly an inspiration. I've owned lots of kittens in my life, but Jack is the happiest and most playful. He doesn't feel sorry for himself. He doesn't need pity. I think Jean, owner of Gumbo, another eyeless cat, said it best when she told me that cats don't have disabilities, they have adaptability.

For a long time, beef has been a target of environmentalists because of cattle farming’s contribution to global warming. But what about ordinary shrimp(小虾) and prawns(大虾)? When compared with cows, it turns out the tasty shrimp are just as big an environmental problem. The issue is not so much their life cycle: shrimp do not emit methane(甲烷) the way cows do. But shrimp farms tend to occupy coastal land that used to be covered in mangroves(红树林).

Draining mangrove swamps to make way for aquaculture(水产养殖) is even more harmful to the atmosphere than cutting down rainforest to provide grassland for cattle. A study conducted in 2017 by CIFOR, a research institute, found that in both these instances, by far the biggest contribution to the carbon footprint of the resulting beef or shrimp came from the clearing of the land. As a result, CIFOR concluded, a kilo of farmed shrimp was responsible for almost four times the greenhouse-gas emissions of a kilo of beef. Eating a surf-and-turf dinner of prawn cocktail and steak, the study warned, can be more polluting than driving across America in a petrol-fuelled car.

Eating wild shrimp is not much better: catches are declining around the world as a result of overfishing. Fishing boats can pull as much as 20kg of the unwanted fish and other creatures from the sea for every kilo of shrimp.

Most of the world’s shrimp and prawns come from Asia. The continent accounts for 85% of the farmed sort and 74% of the wild catch. Global sales were around $45 billion in 2018 and are thought to be growing by about 5% a year.

But the industry is controversial(有争议的), not just because of its part in global warming. Destroyed mangroves also leave coastal regions defenceless against flooding. Many shrimp farms are unsanitary(不卫生的); ponds often have to be abandoned after a few years because of problems with disease and pollution.

All this has given one Singaporean company a brain wave. “Farmed shrimps are often bred in overcrowded conditions and literally swimming in waste water. We want to change that by providing farmers with technology that is cleaner and more efficient,” says Sandhya Sriram, one of the founders of Shiok Meats.

The firm aims to grow artificial shrimp, much as some Western firms are seeking to create beef without cows. The process involves producing shrimp cells in a nutrient-rich solution. Since prawn-meat has a simpler structure than beef, it should be easier to reproduce in this way.

Moreover, shrimp is eaten in lots of forms and textures: whole, minced(切碎的), as a paste and so on. The firm is already making shrimp mince which has tested in Chinese dumplings. It hopes the by-product of the meat-growing can be used as a flavoring(调味的) for prawn crackers and instant noodles. Eventually it plans to grow curved “whole” shrimp—without the head and shell, that is.

The problem is that producing shrimp in this way currently costs $5,000 a kilo. Shiok Meats thinks it can bring the price down dramatically by using less rare ingredients in its growing solution.

People want to know more about where their food comes from and how it is harvested, argues Ms Sriram. “Cell-based technology is one of the ways to answer those questions.” And even ordinary shrimp, whether farmed or fished, come at a heady price.