When you look at animals, what do you see? Li Lei, a student in the 7th grade, sees animals as good friends. But not everybody thinks this way. Li once searched for the meaning of the word "xiong"in The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary (现代汉语词典) when he was studying animals. To his surprise, it said the paw of a bear was a kind of delicious food. He went on to look up "hu" and "lang" in the dictionary, and the results were almost the same. Li was unhappy."These are our dear friends," he said."How can we think only of eating them or making medicine (药) from them?" So he
wrote to the editors (编辑) of the dictionary and told them they should make some changes."I think it's better to tell us if an animal is a rare type and how many of them are 1eft." he added.
In fact, Li isn't the only student who noticed these wrong ideas. During a school trip to Beijing Botanical Garden (北京植物园) on Sunday, Grade 8 students Peng Yiting and Zhao Weike from Beijing No. 80 Middle School found many signs telling how plants can be used. On one of the signs, visitors can see the introduction like this- "The juice of the plant can be made into medicine and is good for the skin."
"The signs should also tell us to remember to protect wildfire (野生生物) while using it," Peng said. Zhao said many people needed to change their ideas about wildlife. He advised (建议) people to think what we can do to protect it, not just what we can get from it.
Did you see problems like these in zoos or gardens in your city? Then please write to the government and ask them to help people change their minds.
