A man was driving when he found a chicken running along the road, beside his car.

He was surprised to see that the chicken was keeping up with him. Looking at his speedometer, he found that he was doing 50 miles per（每）hour （MPH）.

Then he sped up （加速）to 60 MPH, and the chicken stayed right next to him. He sped up to 75 MPH and the chicken still kept up.

The man then found that the chicken had three legs. Growing even more curious （好奇的）, he followed the chicken down a road and into a farm. He got out of his car and saw that all the chickens around him had three legs.

He asked the farmer, “What’s up with the three-legged chickens?”

The farmer said, “Well, whenever we have chicken for dinner, everyone in the family fights over the legs, but there are only two. I have bred （培育）three-legged chickens. They’re going to make me richer.”

“How do they taste?” the man asked. The farmer said, “Don’t know yet. I haven’t been able to catch one.”

Do you like animals? There is a kind of animal in the South Pole (南极). It has wings (翅膀) and feathers (羽毛), but it can’t fly. Its name is penguin (企鹅).

People found penguins in 1488. Hundreds of years later, people gave them this nice name. They are not tall and they are a little heavy. When they walk, they look very funny. They have a lot of black and white feathers. They make penguins look cute and keep them warm. So they can live in the very cold place.

Penguins can’t fly in the air, but they are great swimmers. Penguins spend quite a lot of their time in the water. Sometimes they can stay under the water for eighteen minutes. Are they practicing swimming? No, they are searching for (搜寻) food. What do they usually eat? Little fish are their important food.

North American black bears are shy animals. They are fearful (胆小的) by nature, and will usually run away if they see or hear people. Because of this, it can be difficult for scientists to learn about these animals.

In order to study black bears, researchers from New Jersey, USA, catch bears and use drugs (药物) to help them go to sleep. Researchers then work out the size and the weight of the bear, take blood to test for diseases (疾病), remove a tooth and take it to the lab to find out its age. From these studies, researchers want to find out how many bears live in New Jersey, how long they live, and how many babies they produce.

But in Minnesota, USA, researchers study bears that are completely awake. The bears know the researchers’ voices and they are not afraid of the research team. With the help of a few grapes to keep the bears busy, researchers can touch them to check their hearts, look at their teeth, and do other jobs. Researchers can also walk or sit with bears for hours and make videos to learn about their everyday life.

In both places, the main purpose is the same—to make sure there is a healthy population of black bears. But the research methods and the kinds of information that researchers are able to collect, are quite different.