(1)Today Newtown is a very clean place. Many years ago, however, there were millions of rats(老鼠) in Newtown. They attacked the cats and dogs. Sometimes a great number of them knocked down a man or woman walking home at night. The rats were very large and they harmed many people. The Government (政府)ordered everybody to kill rats. Most people were very lazy, so they did not kill them. Then the Government promised to pay some money for each dead rat. That made people very happy. A Government officer put all the dead rats in a big pile. Sometimes a man brought hundreds in a day. After two weeks there were not many rats in the city, but people still brought rats to the Government officer. The Government officer thought that people were stealing dead rats from the pile. He ordered his men to dig a deep hole and put the rats in it. Soon there were no more rats, and the Government did not pay any more money.(2) Years ago, zoos kept all kinds of animals in small cages. Small cages made it easy for people to see the animals, but small cage is not a good place for an animal to live in. Today zoos keep animals in different kinds of cages. The cages are very big and open. They usually have plants and a little lake. The cages look like the animals’ habitats. Zoos help to protect all kinds of animals. They protect animals in the zoo and they protect animals in the wild. How do they do this? Zoos teach people how animals live in the wild. Zoos want people to help protect the animals’ wild habitats. Many plants and animals are going extinct. Mammoths, which are related with Asia elephants, are now extinct. There are no mammoths in the world today. Scientists say that seventy-four different kinds of living things go extinct every day! Zoos are working together to stop animals from going extinct. 本人不要机器翻译的那种、帮帮忙吧。