I was coming home from school on the bus when I got a text message from Mike. He wanted to meet me at the Market Cross at 7 o’clock that evening and it was something urgent (紧急的) . It was a bit unusual. We’d planned to meet after school on Friday to prepare for our birdwatching as usual.

My name’s Don. I’m fifteen and I go to Blueway Comprehensive School. Mike is the same age and goes to the local grammar school, but we’ve been friends since junior school. We’ve been birdwatching together since we were 11. We do it every week, read about it and use the Internet to learn about birds and we’re members of a club for birdwatchers, too.

At 6. 45, I walked to Market Cross. Soon I saw him standing on the side of the road.

“Hi, Mike. What’s this about?” I asked at once.

“After this week of good weather followed by last night’s storm, I thought there might be some good birds about,” he said.

“And were there?” I asked. A smile played over Mike’s face. “Yes, osprey (鱼鹰). ”He said very quietly. “What!”, I shouted. “Osprey, and we’d better keep it secret.” he said again. I sat looking at him with my mouth open.

An osprey is a big hunting bird, which catches fish. There weren’t any in Britain because they’d been hunted too much. In 1954 a pair nested (筑巢) in Scotland. They were protected by a society because lots of people wanted osprey eggs for their collections. We’ve never seen one in our village.

Mike continued, “So, shall we go birdwatching tomorrow morning?”

“But do you think it’ll be there?” I asked.

“Birdwatcher!” he said. By which he meant that if I was a birdwatcher, I should know that nobody could say what a bird would or wouldn’t do at a particular (特定的) time.

“So, are you coming?”

“Oh…oh…alright,” I said, knowing my parents would be very angry. They thought I spent too much time birdwatching.

There are many kinds of animals in the world. Let’s learn about some animal families. It’s interesting!

Many people like animals. Now a lot of people keep animals as pets. People usually like to keep dogs, cats, fish and other small animals. Many young people keep animals because they think these animals are interesting. Some old people keep pets because they don't live with their children.

Jack lives at No. 25 Garden Street. He is a doctor, but he often helps dogs. So people usually call him the Dog Doctor. When their dogs get sick (病), they call him on the phone. He goes to the people's houses and helps them. He gives the right medicine (药). Wherever he goes, he is always welcome.