Have you ever looked at a cat’s face and wondered what it is thinking?

Well, according to a new study, cats have many different facial expressions, which show how they are feeling.

The research was carried out by the scientists at the University of California, in the US.

They visited a local cat café over several months to record videos of 53 cats, collecting 194 minutes of videos.

They found that the cats have 276 different expressions. “Each expression was a mixture of different facial movements, which included licking (舔) their nose, opening their mouth, or widening the pupils of their eyes,” said the scientists.

They also found cats use 26 of these facial movements in total, which can be mixed to express how they are feeling.

Dogs use 27 facial movements and humans use a total of 44.

Out of the expressions they recorded, 45% were friendly and 37% were angry.

“A friendly cat moves its ears and whiskers forward and closes its eyes. However, an angry cat often flattens its ears to its head, makes its pupils smaller and licks its lips,” said the team.

Although the researchers aren’t sure what the cats were trying to communicate with each other using their faces, they plan to study cats in other places to improve their understanding.

They also hope that the research could help animal shelters (收容所) improve the way they look after the cats.

Some pet owners even suggest the researchers develop an app for them to find out what their cats’ facial expressions really mean.

N: Dr. Taylor, I’m Nick from Popular Science. Nowadays people are easily distracted (分心的). How come?

T: It’s “the monkey mind”. You feel it hard to stay focused, like a monkey 51 from thought to thought.

N: Yeah. Many people get mad with 52 for having so many thoughts.

T: It’s 53 to feel like this because humans have around 6,000 thoughts per day. So 54 it and make friends with your monkey mind. What if your monkey mind isn’t a 55? Perhaps it can remind you to be curious and kind towards your mind.

N: Umm, I see. 56 that, what else can we do to calm our brain?

T: When the monkey mind is getting busy, give it a job to do. Use your 57, like watching a flower, listening closely to the birds, smelling the air or taking deep breaths. Notice 58 your thoughts and feelings change.

N: That’s to say, try to focus our attention first. When our mind is calm, we can 59 our work again.

T: That’s true. In the daily life, developing habits helps make your brain stronger. Try drawing, reading, playing chess or else and see what 60. Then keep practicing to strengthen your brain’s power.

William Shakespeare was born more than 450 years ago. He is 61 regarded as one of the greatest writers in history and is still influencing artists today.

However, his language is too old-fashioned and difficult 62 because his time was quite different from today. This has 63 to a discussion: To update (更新) or not to update Shakespeare?

Some people think updating Shakespeare is necessary. They say Shakespeare’s plays are great, but what is the point if they cannot be understood?

So many 64 modern writers have rewritten Shakespeare’s plays in the way people speak today. This makes 65 clearer for today’s audiences (读者).

At the same time, audiences would still get as much 66 from the plays.

Some people 67. They think Shakespeare’s works are beautiful and timeless. The richness of the language and the playful use of words should be celebrated. There are good reasons why the plays are still being 68 today.

Many of Shakespeare’s expressions are still used, for example, “All that glitters (发光) isn’t gold.” His works tell us what it 69 to be human. Topics such as love, kindness and friendship last through the 70.

What do you think? Should Shakespeare be updated?

Taking a great photo is not easy and there are lots of things to consider. How do you choose and organize your subjects within your photo?

71 Here are some tips from the art, design and photography experts.

Find a focus. When taking a picture, ask yourself, “What’s the focus?” If you are taking a picture of a crowded street, choose a subject which draws your eye. 72

73 It’s a bit boring to put your subject right in the middle. Place it a little on the left or right of your photo. Imagine your photo is divided into a three-by-three grid (网格) of boxes. One of the corners of your central square is where your focus should be.

Create colorful contrasts (对比). Color in a picture is more easily noticed if it has a contrast. 74 They will stand out more if they are taken beside a grey stone wall, or photographed against a bright blue sky.

Try different angles. To add more interest to a photo, try taking it from different angles. This means you need to move around, taking photos from different sides, from above or from below. For example, if you photograph a building from a plane it looks tiny but a photo of the same building looking up from the street makes it look huge.

75 Practice makes perfect. Try everything for the perfect shot.

Humans have long tried to predict (预测) the weather.

From the hunters of ancient times to today’s pilots, predicting rain or shine can shape people’s life and make a difference.

In 650 BC, the Babylonians tried to predict the weather based on the appearance of clouds.

Around 340 BC, Aristotle, a famous Greek thinker and scientist, wrote Meteorologica. It introduced the types of weather, such as rain, cloud and lightning. Aristotle believed that there was water, air and fire around the Earth. It was almost 2,000 years before his ideas were replaced by new ones.

By 300 BC in China, a calendar divided the year into 24 festivals gradually, each festival related to a type of weather, like the Rain Water (the start of the spring rains), the Waking of Insects (the spring thunder awakens sleeping insects) and so on. That was useful for farmers to plan when to plant and harvest (收获).

People used lots of ways to predict the weather over the centuries. You might have heard the expressions like “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight”, which suggests a red sky in the evening is followed by good weather. This has a basis in science, as does telling wind direction through smoke from the fire. On the other hand, some thought that if sheep crowded together, it meant rain. But there isn’t any science behind it.

The science of weather prediction really took off in the 1830s with the invention of the telegraph. It sent messages over hundreds of thousands of miles, so weather maps were drawn up and storm systems were studied.

The next big step came in the 1920s with the invention of the “radiosonde”, a balloon carrying weather instruments high above the ground to collect information. Experts took the information and built a picture of the weather over the following few days.

Today, supercomputers are used to take data (数据) from the world and process it very fast to work out the weather. For example, they once helped predict where Hurricane Lee, which hit the US and Canada, would land nine days in advance (提前).

81. 你校英语报就 “团队合作” 这一话题征稿。请根据以下图示，以 “Be a Good Team Member” 为题投稿。

注意：
1. 词数 80 左右；
2. 文中不能出现真实姓名及学校名称。