Winter can be a hard time for animals.The weather may be very cold. Food can be hard to find under the snow. How do animals live in this season? Let’s have a look.

In fall, when the weather gets cool, some animals go away from cold places. Some birds fly south (南方) together. They move south because the weather there is warm and food there is easy to find. When spring comes, they will return.

Many animals store (储存) food before the cold days. That is what a pika does. A pika looks a little like a rabbit, but with round ears. Pikas live in high mountains where winters are long and cold. In summer, they prepare lots of grass (草) to eat in winter. By the end of summer, a pika may store 22 kilos of grass.

Some animals change themselves to live in winter, like snowshoe rabbits in America. In summer, the rabbits’ fur (毛) is brown. But they grow (长出) new, white fur in winter. The new fur keeps them safe in snow. In fall, they eat and eat to get fat (脂肪), because the fat can also help them keep warm in winter.

Other animals sleep all winter long and they don’t eat at all. Before winter, these animals eat a lot to grow fat. When winter comes, they go to sleep. Black bears in cold areas make warm beds to sleep in. Some of them can sleep for seven months. By the time spring comes, they have lost most of their fat.

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No matter where you live, you can see some birds in your gardens, schools or parks. Let’s find out more about them.

	With their red breast and face, robins are easy to find, though they are only around 13 cm long. Robins can be seen in gardens throughout cities, towns and villages. They lay 4—6 eggs yearly. You will often hear them sing “tic tic tic” song in the evening.
	Blackbirds are usually black with an orange or a brown beak (mouth of the birds). They are larger than robins, around 25 cm long. They can be found in fields. You can hear them sing in the evening with their tuneful song, “tuk tuk tuk”.
	Although they are of small sizes, around 9 cm long, and weighing as much as a coin, wrens are not the smallest birds in the world. They’re good at hiding in trees. Adult wrens lay 5-8 eggs. If there are wrens around your house, you are likely to hear loud “teck teck teck” songs.

Sit up to do math

What subject do you worry about the most at school? Many students worry about math. Some students can’t sleep well the day before a math exam. Others may feel very nervous during the exam itself. But there might be a way to make the subject less stressful.

“For people who are anxious about math, posture (姿势) makes a big difference,” Erik Peper from San Francisco State University told the Daily Mail. That’s right—sitting up straight can help you do better on math exams.

Scientists tested 125 college students. They asked them to do a simple math quiz while sitting in a slumped-over (趴倒的) position, or sitting up straight. After the test, 56 percent of students said the exam was easier to do if they were sitting up straight.

Slumping over is a defensive posture. It can trigger (激发) negative (消极的) memories in the body and brain. This can stop you from thinking clearly, Peper said.

Students who were not nervous about taking the math exam did not necessarily benefit from better posture. But they did find that doing math while slumped over was more difficult, Science Daily reported.

Good posture isn’t just helpful for taking math exams. Athletes, musicians and public speakers can all benefit from better posture. When you feel stressed out, you can also try to sit up straight or stand tall. It can help you feel more positive and focus better.