Talking Too Much
Parker is such a big talker. He drives David and Andy crazy! Parker thinks he is great at everything. What makes David and Andy even more frustrated with him is the fact that Parker IS good at everything. He always scores goals at soccer games. He scored the most points for the basketball team this year. He won first place overall in the city's swim competition. He always gets hundreds on his spelling tests. He can finish a math test first and get the best score in the class. How can one person be so good at so much?
However, Parker is not good at one thing. He is not good at being a good sport. No matter what Parker does well, he makes sure everyone knows about it. He is also quick to make unkind comments about other kids' mistakes. If David and Andy have to hear about one more goal they could have scored or one more basket they should have made or one more test they should have aced, they are going to scream! David and Andy's one wish is that Parker learns to be humble.
Not many people tell Parker what a good job he does or congratulate him on his accomplishments because Parker has already boasted and bragged about them to everyone. He does not give anyone a chance to learn about anything he has done. He is always the first one to tell about his successes. David and Andy sure wish Parker could be more like Ajay.
Ajay is the new kid in class this year. He does not talk much, but he is very good at many sports and is also super smart. It has taken the rest of the kids a while to learn about Ajay and all of his talents. Andy, David, and the other kids are all happy to congratulate Ajay when he scores a goal or gets a great score on a test. Ajay just smiles and says thanks. He often makes a nice comment back to acknowledge someone's kindness, and he often compliments attempts of others at sporting events or school work. Andy and David have decided they want to learn to act more like Ajay when they experience success. They wish Parker would learn from Ajay, too. Unfortunately, he is busy always patting himself on the back.
Zhalong —A Special Place
Zhalong Nature Reserve is in Heilongjiang Province in North-east China. It is one of the world's most important wetlands. The area provides food and cover for a lot of wildlife. It is a perfect place for some rare birds.
Many birds live in Zhalong all year round, while some go there only for a short stay. Most birds are active in the daytime, so you can easily watch them there. There are not many cranes left in the world, and 40 percent of them live in Zhalong.
Some people want to make the wetlands smaller in order to have more space for farms and buildings. This will lead to less and less space for wildlife. Moreover, fishermen keep fishing there. As a result, the birds do not have enough food to eat. Now the Chinese government has made laws to prevent all these things in Zhalong.
Once a year, the members of our Birdwatching Society go to study the birds in Zhalong. We record their types and changes in their numbers.
Every year, a lot of tourists go to Zhalong to watch the birds. We are now inviting them to help us. We need more people to count and describe the birds. We hope this will help people understand the importance of the wetlands.
［案例 3］补充文本
HARBIN, June 28 (Xinhua) — When summer comes, the Fujin National Wetland Park in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province becomes a paradise for wild birds. However, it was a completely different scene years ago.
The wetland park used to be a huge tract of low-lying farmland. The original ecological system of the wetland has been restored since policies were implemented to turn marginal farmland into forests, grassland and wetlands across the province.
Heilongjiang boasts bountiful wetland resources, with 55,600 square km of wetlands.
Zhalong National Nature Reserve, some 700 km away from the Fujin wetland, has also seen an increasing number of rare birds in recent years.
Located in western Heilongjiang, the Zhalong nature reserve covers a total of 210,000 hectares. It is the main breeding ground for red-crowned cranes and white-naped cranes in China, as well as a stopover for many other migratory birds.
“Illegal fishing and bird hunting have disappeared. Villagers' environmental awareness has been improved,” said Lyu Gang, a resident of Dangnai Village, located on the edge of the reserve.
The 64-year-old said villagers would help or report bird injuries to relevant departments when they found injured birds. In the past, some villagers made their living from fishing and a few caught and ate birds.
Thanks to the wetland protection efforts, the ecosystem has been significantly improved, said Lyu, who has seen flocks of rare birds flying to the wetland every summer.
The province has unveiled wetland protection regulations as early as in 2003, one of the earliest provinces in China to carry out local legislation to protect wetlands.
To restore the ecosystem of Zhalong nature reserve, residents who used to live in the nature reserve started to move out in 2017.
Guan Tiecheng's family was relocated from the core area of the nature reserve to a new village in November 2017.
“The relocation policy is supported by villagers, as it not only protects the environment but also increases villagers' incomes,” said Guan, adding he and some villagers now live in modern apartments provided by the local government, and they can continue to do farm work or find new jobs, and are allowed to fish at certain times.
In 2018, the province stepped up efforts to manage illegal agricultural development and tourist facilities around wetlands in Heilongjiang.
The province introduced an ecological compensation mechanism aiming to protect the environment and promote the harmony between human and nature last year, turning 34.6 square km of farmland into wetlands and adding three more national wetland parks.
Heilongjiang has also been upgrading its geographical information system and monitoring platform of nature reserves, to strengthen wetland monitoring and management, according to the provincial forestry and grassland department.
Meanwhile, tough measures to crack down on illegal hunting of wildlife and more campaigns of wildlife protection have been carried out in the province over the past few years.
“Pragmatic measures have brought significant changes to wetland ecology, with water quality improving, wetland areas expanding, and an influx of migratory birds,” said Xu Aiguo, an official of the local environment department.
［案例 4］ 补充文本
Zhalong Wetland is located in the west of Songnen plain in Heilongjiang province Wuyuer River downstream, there is no obvious river, and connects to reed pond, and then flow into the Longhu Bubble, Lianhuan Lake, Nanshan Lake, finally disappear from Dumeng grassland. Established in 1979, Zhanglong became the provincial nature reserves. In April 1987 the state council approved it as a national nature reserves. In Nature Reserve lakes, rivers and water quality is pure, reed grass is rich, maintain a good ecological environment swamp, known as the “natural park” of bird and waterfowl and in 1992 was listed in the “world's important wetlands list”.
Zhalong Nature Reserve is China's famous precious waterfowl protective area, located 30 km southeast of the city, with a total area of two hundred and ten thousand hectares. Due to low-lying terrain, river overflow to irrigate water reed, lake dotted with bubble, here is a natural paradise suitable for waterfowl birds breeding. According to statistics, Zhalong nature reserve has various kinds of two hundred and ninety-six kinds of birds. Especially in the majority with crane, the world have 15 kinds of cranes, our country has nine, and six kinds of cranes can be seen at Zhalong Nature Reserve (red-crowned cranes, white-naped crane, demoiselle crane, grey crane, white-head crane), therefore, Qiqihar has a laudatory name of “Crane Village”.
Zhalong Nature Reserve is mainly is to protect the wetland and a national protect red-crowned cranes and other wild animals. Across two area four counties, the wetland is Wuyue River downstream, the river overflow and become a large permanent weak alkaline freshwater marsh, made up of many small shallow lakes and vast meadow and grassland. Maximum depth of marsh is 0.75 meters, the maximum depth of lake up to 5 meters. This area breeds 46 species, 277 kinds of insects, 260 species of birds, 21 species of beast. Red-crowned cranes, white-naped crane, bald, family cranes, grey crane and white crane are national key protected first or second level animals. April to May in each year about 200 red-crowned cranes and other waterfowl habitat here, the number of crane is nearly 1000; they stay here to live and then continue to move north to Russia. Reed marshes and sedge is the main habitat of the red-crowned crane. Reed is high up to 1~3 m, which is difficult for human to enter, which created the conditions for these precious waterfowl to survive and reproduce.
Travel Tips
1. April to May in each year, or August to September is the best season for bird watching.
2. Travel this scenic spot need at least 3 days.
3. Red-crowned cranes are elegant with long ears; recognition method is their overhead have a vermillion scarlet. Try not to take food to feed them, for the wild cranes; the artificial feeding would harm them.
4. You can rent a boat on the lake for a spin; look at the wild waterfowl is also very good.
How to Get There
Taking bus in the first department store of Qiqihar, the driving hour is approximately one hour for 10 Yuan. In addition, in the tourist season, the station also has a special train to the scenic spot. If rent a car, 150 Yuan/a half-day, drive less than 1 hour.
New opened special route is from urban areas to reserve (via the train station), and about half an hour a bus, 15 Yuan ticket fare. From the railway station to reserve for the first train at 8:30 in the morning, the last returned bus for about 3 o'clock in the afternoon.
Best Travel Time to Zhalong Nature Reserve:
Every year April to May, or August to September is the best season to visit Zhalong Nature Reserve, there is about 200 or 300 kinds of wild birds gathered in nature reserves.
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