Ever since Grumpy Cat first appeared online, the Internet can't get enough of her.But attention is not the only thing that this cat is getting. Her fortune is estimated at $100 million, more than many famous actors and musicians earn.

So how did it all start?

Grumpy Cat's owner Tabatha Bundesen was working as a waitress when her brother Bryan decided to take a photo of her funny­looking cat and post it on Reddit, a social news site. In a matter of hours, she became a sensation (轰动)．

It got 1 million views on Imgur in 48 hours.

Grumpy Cat's real name is Tardar Sauce and she actually has a condition called dwarfism, which makes her constantly frowning. But that unique frown turned out to be worth millions of dollars.

Tabatha, who lives in Arizona in the U．S., isn't complaining. She still remembers that September 22, 2012, when her life turned upside down.

Since her cat became a worldwide phenomenon, she was able to quit her job and devote her life to managing her cat's modeling career. Sounds unbelievable, but it's true. She says that her only job now is to book Tardar's photo shoots, commercials (商业广告), and other appearances.

What are the other benefits of owning a million­dollar cat?

Apart from not having to work, Tabatha can travel all the time. She has time and money to visit her family more often and enjoy her life. She never could have imagined just how huge her cat would become, but she always knew Tardar was very special. And she is glad to see her cat bringing joy to so many people around the world.

As for the millions of dollars Tardar has earned, they come from all the products, commercials and a best­selling book. She even has her own movie Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever.

   Winter begins in the north on December 22nd. People and animals have been doing what they always do to prepare for the colder months. Squirrels (松鼠), for example, have been busy gathering nuts from trees. Well, scientists have been busy gathering information about what the squirrels do with the food they collect.

They examined differences between red squirrels and gray squirrels in the American state of Indiana. The scientists wanted to know how these differences could affect the growth of black walnut (黑胡桃) trees. The black walnut is the nut of choice for both kinds of squirrels. The black walnut tree is also a central part of some hardwood forests.

Rob Swihart of Purdue University did the study with Jake Goheen, a former Purdue student now at the University of New Mexico. The two researchers estimate that several times as many walnuts grow when gathered by gray squirrels as compared to red squirrels. Gray squirrels and red squirrels do not store nuts and seeds in the same way. Gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time in a number of places. But they seldom remember where they buried every nut. So some nuts remain in the ground. Conditions are right for them to develop and grow the following spring. Red squirrels, however, store large groups of nuts above ground. Professor Swihart calls “death traps for seeds”.

Gray squirrels are native to Indiana. But Professor Swihart says their numbers began to decrease as more forests were cut for agriculture. Red squirrels began to spread through the state during the past century.

The researchers say red squirrels are native to forests that stay green all year, unlike walnut trees. They say the cleaning of forest land for agriculture has helped red squirrels invade Indiana. Jake Goheen calls them a sign of an environmental problem more than a cause.

   Dogs will do absolutely anything for the people they love，and for one North Carolina dog，that meant _________his own life in order to save his best friend.

This past Saturday morning，a deadly fire _________in an apartment building that left multiple families and their beloved pets _________inside waiting for help to arrive. "My wife got a phone call and it was very  very _________because she had her on the speakerphone and my daughter was very  very _________ and she was screaming that the apartment was on fire，"said Mare Martinez，whose daughter Karina was _________in the apartment when the fire started.

Karina had no _________ that her life was in danger until her dog，a 2-year-old German Shepherd named Riddick，woke her up with his panicked _________."Her dog wouldn't settle down so she called him up on her bed to cuddle（依）him，"Martinez explained." _________，he was still sitting up and __________barking at the wall."

After __________there was a fire，Riddick helped guide Karina to safety. "She went down the landing（楼梯平台）because there were already flames，but the dog got __________and went back up and would not come down，"said Martinez __________，she couldn't get Riddick to come back down and he __________before firefighters could rescue him." He was her best friend，they were __________and he did what he was supposed to do. He __________and took care of her when she was in danger.”

"The great Greenville Fire and Rescue department of the city did us very  very __________.They made this even just a little bit more tolerable，"said Martinez，who was __________when they went into the building and got back Riddick's __________ so they could give him a proper __________.

   Many years ago in a zoo，I was shocked by finding that chimpanzees could behave in a more civil manner than youths. Great apes（类人猿）are always one of the favourite attractions in any zoo. The main reason for this is that they are so similar to us.

This similarity has persuaded a group called the Great Ape Project（GAP）to campaign for these animals to be afforded“human rights”.

This has resulted in laws in New Zealand，which could mean that great apes would become the first animals in the world with basic rights protected by the law.

Not everybody is happy with this idea，however. Scientists using animals for scientific research fear that this is just the first stage in a process that will lead to a ban on using all animals for research.

The GAP declaration claims great apes should have“human rights”due to scientific evidence about their abilities. But if we compare the abilities of humans and great apes，then why not the abilities of great apes and monkeys，monkeys and lemurs，and so on until insects are granted“human rights”？This is not foolish. There are people without basic human rights. How long ago，for example，did women not have the right to vote？

Yet another argument by those who don't support GAP is that the human-like qualities of great apes have been exaggerated（夸大）for certain reasons，and that this has led people to exaggerate the similarities but ignore the differences between humans and great apes.

In a fascinating book entitled What It Means to be 98% Chimpanzee，Jonathan M. Marks points out that，although a human and a daffodil（水仙花）share the common ancestry and their DNA matches more than 25% of the time，it is plainly ridiculous to claim that we are one-quarter daffodils.

He goes on to demonstrate that，if looked at from one angle，it is true that we are apes phylogenetically. But also fish from another angle！“It doesn't sound quite so profound now，does it？”

The Beagle Brigade

Return to the United States from a trip abroad ,and your luggage will get inspected by the Beagle Brigade, a team of beagles and their human partners. Working with human partners, the beagles sniff out potential threats to American agriculture.

An orange or apple, for example, might have a Mediterranean fruit fly. Hams could carry a disease such as hog cholera. These and other pests could destroy farmers' crops and livestock. " Once we introduce something   that   is not part of the environment, there may not be any controls of it in the environment," notes Lisa Davis at the National Dog Detector Training Center in Orlando, Florida. "The best thing for us to do is prevent it from coming across the border and becoming established. "

When a beagle sniffs specific food smells, it signals its partners by siting there. The human officer then investigates. When the dog is right ——which happens 90 percent of the time ——it gets an edible（可食用的） treat.

"The dog is not out there working," explains Davis. " It's out there playing. It's a game to the dog. "The handlers give the beagles plenty of food and love. They make sure they get first-class medical attention, too. When the dogs finally retire after 9 to 11 years ,they will find caring homes for them. It's a dog's life indeed!

Their people partners work and study somewhat harder. As specialized quarantine（检疫） officers,most hold degrees in the biological sciences or related sciences.

How well does the Beagle Brigade do its job? " On average," notes Davis, " each year our 54 teams prevent around 75,000 prohibited , restricted items. Since even one infected item could cause widespread destruction, that's a great result for America's agricultural environment.