During the old times, children didn’t have smart phones, iPads or computers to play. They thought of interesting games to play in their childhood.

●Stone (石头) balls

During the Qing Dynasty, kicking (踢) a stone ball around was a popular sport in the northern part of China, and it was often played in the winter to keep warm. Children made stones into small balls and kicked along with feet.

●Flying kites

Kites have quite a long history. The earliest kites were made of wood (木), not paper. These days, the three most famous kites are the Beijing kite, Tianjin kite and Weifang kite, which each is very special. The swallow-shaped kite is the most popular Beijing style.

●Hide-and-seek

Hide-and-seek is a traditional game for children, popular around the country. There are two ways to play: Cover a child’s eyes and ask him to catch the other kids while the other kids run around him. Or, more commonly, the children hide (躲) and one child must try to find them.

●Watching shadow plays (皮影戏)

The closest thing to watching a film or television for fun during the old times was going to see a shadow play. The artists manipulate puppets (操纵木偶) behind the screen, telling stories with music. During the Qing Dynasty, shadow play art was the most popular, and was played for every important time.

The words “protect animals” appear everywhere in books and on screens, because some animals are even in danger of dying out. But sometimes the reality（现实）can be a little different from what people read or watch.

People hunt about 300 black bears in Florida, the US, in 2015. It was the first bear hunt after 1994. Because the number of the black bear grew to 3,500 and become a menace to local people. In the past two years, bears have hurt at least four people in Florida.

Months ago, the Swiss government allowed（允许）people to kill a wolf. This was because the wolf killed 38 sheep, and it was a great loss to some local farmers. Months ago in China, three old men killed a serow（鬣羚）, a kind of protected animal. They said they killed it because it ate the plants they grew.

However, these stories don’t always mean that animal protection stops because of human interests（利益）. A man named Zhou Weisen set up a wild animal base（基地）in Guilin, Guangxi. He saved over 170 tigers and about 300 bears. His base also offered jobs to local people.

“There may never be a certain answer to the question: Should we choose the environment or human development?” said Robert May, a British expert（专家）at Oxford University. “But we shouldn’t push either one to the side, as the future is uncertain.”