What Is Your Pet Trying to Tell You
Animals want our attention, and sometimes they're quite obviously about asking for it. Unusual behaviors are often our pets' way of telling us to stop what we're doing and play with them. It's why Fido constantly chases his tail and why Kitty keeps rolling around. A desperately bored pet may have "bad" behaviors to get a reaction - even a negative one!
Feed me.
Sure, your dog loves you, but that's not why he's licking (舔) your face. A puppy learns to lick his mother's mouth to get a little leftover food, so Spot isn't kissing you in our sense of the word; he just wants a snack.
I'm stressed.
Cat owners also misinterpret their furry friends'kisses. While a cat might lick you to show love, sometimes she'll do it to ease herself. One way to tell if her licking is stress-related is to see if it goes on for an extended period of time. Birds also over clean when they feel anxious. Some will even drag out their own feathers.
My tail tells all.
Dogs wag (摇) their tails to the right when they see something or someone they want to approach, and to the left when they see something they want to avoid. When frightened, dogs curl their tails in, while cats wrap theirs around themselves. And if a cat's tail looks like a question mark, she's eager to play.
Holidays are not necessarily for fun or rest. Doing something meaningful can also gain special pleasure. When the final bell rang, the students were reminded that there was no school on Monday—the Labor Day.(劳动节) "Enjoy your extra day off," said the teacher to her class. An extra day of fun suited Kayla just fine. She loved breaks. She wanted to go out to play with her friends. When the school bus dropped Kayla off, she ran into the house happily.
"How was school, Kayla?" asked her mom.
"It was great, Mom. I am excited about no school on Monday."
"You just started back to school two weeks ago. Already in need of a break, huh?" asked Kayla's mom with a laugh.
Kayla slept in the next morning. Saturday was her favorite day of the week. It rained most of the day, so Kayla enjoyed playing video games inside. On Sunday, her friends came over and they played basketball for several hours. Then it was Labor Day, you know, the extra day off that Kayla was so looking forward to. But Kayla was awakened early that morning by her dad. He told Kayla that in honor of Labor Day, the family would be cleaning both inside and outside the house. Kayla couldn't believe it. This was a holiday. A day when she was supposed to be enjoying freshly squeezed lemonade while playing in her tree house. As Kayla wiped her eyes, she began to wonder if this was just a bad dream.
"Kayla, your breakfast is ready. We have a lot of work to do today. Let's get a move on," said Kayla's mom. As she sat down at the kitchen table, Kayla asked her parents, "Are you serious about working today? Isn't Labor Day a holiday?"
"Yes, Kayla. It is," replied her dad. "But your mom and I thought working hard today would make you appreciate why Labor Day was celebrated in the first place."
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At first, Kayla felt disappointed at her parents' plan for the holiday.
Thanks to this new hands-free suitcase, carrying around heavy luggage may soon become a thing of the past. Designed by an Israeli company NUA Robotics, this "smart" suitcase will follow you everywhere you go.
The carry-on suitcase, currently a prototype (雏形), connects to a smart phone app via Bluetooth. It has a built-in camera sensor that can "see" you and follow you around on flat surfaces like airport floors. It comes with an anti-theft alarm to prevent someone carrying it away when you're not looking and it has a backup battery that you can use to charge all your devices.
"It can follow and carry things for people around while communicating with their smart phone, and avoiding obstacles," explained Alex Libman, founder of NUA Robotics. "We're combining sensor network, computer vision, and robotics. So if you download our app, press the follow-me button, the luggage recognizes the specific user and knows to follow and communicate."
NUA is still testing the device and trying to improve features like speed and customization (定制), but they hope to make the suitcase available to customers in a year's time. If it proves successful, they want to use the Bluetooth pairing technology to automate lots of other devices, like shopping carts at the supermarket. These devices are especially meant to be useful to the physically disabled and elderly. "Any object can be smart and robotic," Libman said, "We want to bring robots into everyday life."
The Israeli tech company made it clear that the finished product will look just like a regular suitcase. They're planning to partner with a carry-on luggage maker, since the device that makes it "smart" weighs just 2.5 pounds and can be fitted on old-fashion luggage.
With NUA's smart suitcase, carrying round heavy luggage isn't a burden. But how their invention will handle tough obstacles like stairs? It will be interesting to wait.
Bamboo is called "poor people's material" and even in China it is not (wide) accepted as a modern building material. But bamboo makes nearly the lightest houses, which (become) better than "modern" materials at surviving earthquakes over the years.
And unlike the "Tofu" buildings that may (destroy) in just several seconds in some earthquakes, bamboo makes a much (safe) building. That is why it is suggested as a replacement(替代品)by International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR).
INBAR notes that number of people who do not have safe and healthy shelter will increase with population growth if no proper action is taken.
Study shows that bamboo is excellent in (strong) and is as strong as wood. Besides, because the lightweight and good elasticity(弹性)of bamboo, bamboo buildings are very good at resisting(抵抗)earthquakes. For example, all of the 30 bamboo houses survived without any damage in the 7. 6 magnitude earthquake in Costa Rica in 2012.
Ancient Chinese people preferred living in houses (make) of bamboo. In Yunnan Province, some locals still live in bamboo homes which can protect (they) from rain and wind. And in Zhejiang Province, bamboo is plentiful, local officials have been encouraging architects to design buildings using bamboo.