In the summer vacation, 14-year-old Wen Jiayi made a good friend. He is not a person, but a panda! His name is Jingke. Wen spent three days with him, learning how he ate, slept and played.

Wen worked as a volunteer at the Wolong China Panda Garden in Sichuan that summer. Every year, volunteers go to the garden to take care of its pandas. People aged 12 to 65 can apply (申请) for the volunteer program. Each volunteer works for at least one day.

Wen cleaned the panda’s home every morning while she was volunteering. “We have to collect the pandas’ feces (粪便), as it can tell us whether they are healthy or not,” she said. Wen got to do this as well. She carefully analyzed the feces. “We check to see what is in the feces and what color it is. For example, if it is green, it means the panda has been eating bamboo leaves,” she said.

The experience also helped the volunteers better understand pandas. When Wen fed Jingke, she touched its fur.

“It was not soft, but hard. It was like touching needles (针)!” Wen said. “Pandas were not only cute but also dangerous. They like to be left alone. They may fight to protect their home.” Wen added.

If you have a dog, you probably feel a strong bond (纽带) with it. A recent study found that this bond may not only be important to kids, but also be important to dogs.

Researchers at Oregon State University studied the relationship between kids and dogs. To do the study, they recruited (招募) 30 young people aged 8 to 17, who have dogs to do an experiment. The kids were asked to bring their dogs to an empty room. In the room, a kid was asked to walk around the huge space, sometimes stopping or changing the direction. “And the dog was left to do whatever the dog wanted to do.” says Monique Udell, one of the study’s authors.

But most of the time, the dog didn’t do any of those things. Instead, it stayed close to its owner and moved similarly to its owner. The dogs did this far more often than you would expect them to do it by chance.

What does this mean? Udell explains that this is a dog’s way of building a relationship with a human, “Dogs always stay close to kids, even though adults are usually the ones who feed and care for them. The kid may play a sibling (兄弟姐妹) role in the life of the dog,” Udell says. “This shows that the relationship between kids and dogs is of great importance to the dogs.”

So far, Udell’s team’s study has just focused on dogs. Udell wonders if the animal-human bond is important to other kinds of pets as well. Researchers say that more studies will be done.

The task of fixing climate (气候) change is important. It needs work from different governments and countries. It seems impossible that the common person can make a difference. Should you just give up? No! Change starts with you. Here are just a few things you can do to save the Earth.

	Level 1: Things you can do from your sofa ● Save electricity by turning appliances (电器) off completely when they are not in use. ● Stop paper bank bills and pay your bills online. ● Share; don't just like. If you see something interesting on the Internet about climate change, share it so that circle of your friends can see it, too.
	Level 2: Things you can do at home ● Air dry. Let your hair and clothes dry naturally, instead of using a machine. ● Take short showers. Bathtubs (浴缸) need much more water than a ten-minute shower. ● Recycle paper, plastic and glass. ● Replace old appliances with energy-saving models.
	Level 3: Things you can do outside your house ● Bike, walk, take a bus or an underground. ● Use a glass or plastic water bottle and china coffee cup. This can cut down on waste and maybe even save your money. ● Bring your own bag when you shop. Pass on the plastic bag. ● Give away what you don't use. Local community will give your used clothes, books and furniture a new life.