Are there any animal-eating plants?

Yes, although they do not eat anything larger than insects (which, of course, are members of the animal kingdom).
These carnivorous plants capture plants their prey using various means. The pitcher plant has tubelike leaves that hold water, and insects crawl down in to these leaves only to be caught on tiny hairs which line the tube. They then slide down the tube into the water, where eventually they drown.
The sundew has circular leaves, this time covered with hairs on the outside. Each hair has a drop of sticky liquid at its tip which holds on to the insect and prevents its escape, while the leaf curls inwards and traps it, ready for eating
But perhaps the most well-known animal-eating plant is the aptly-named Venus’ fly-trap. This has hinged leaves, again with hairs over their surface When an insect lands on one of these especially sensitive hairs, the leaf closes up on its hinges, trapping the insect inside.

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How does a magnet work?

When you bring a magnet close to another metal object such as a nail, the nail will be attracted towards it. This power of attraction is created by lines of force whi ch surround the magnet. They cannot be seen, but if you place a thin sheet of paper over a magnet, and scatter iron filing on the upper side of the paper, the filing will fall into place according to the lines of force. They will reveal what is known as a magnetic field.

Most of the filings on the paper will be attracted to the two ends of the magnet. These ends are the magnet’s poles. The earth itself is like a giant magnet, with its opposite ends at the North and South Poles. This is why the metal needle of compass will swing round until it is in line with the earth’s magnetic field and points towards the North Pole.

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How is Paper made?

Paper is made from wood, and many of the world’s paper mills are found in those countries which have great forests – Canada, Sweden and Finland.

The newly cut trees are usually stripped of their bark, branches and foliage where they have fallen, so that by the time they arrive at the paper mill they are ready for processing. The tree trunks are first cut into thin strips, mixed with water, and ground to a heavy, sticky pulp. This wood pulp is then cleaned of dirt and other impurities, and also chemically bleached to remove the original brownish colour of the wood. The Cleaned and bleached pulp next passes through special kinds of rollers which flatten it and draw it out until, at last, if beings to look like sheets of rather soggy paper. These sheets are finally dried and refined until the finished paper is produced.

High quality paper is further ‘coated’ with clay and other materials to give it a specially smooth, white surface.

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How do our lungs work?

Our lungs are like two spongy bags. Just as a sponge can be filled with water and then squeezed dry again, so our lungs fill with air when we breathe in and then release most of the air again when we breathe out. As air enters the lungs it passes down a series of smaller and smaller tubes, which are known as the bronchial tubes, until it ends up in thousands to tiny air sacs. At this point oxygen from the air passes through the lining of the lung and into the blood. This oxygen is vital to the blood stream, as it helps to carry food energy to every other part of the body. Oxygen passes into the blood stream through the lungs, and so, in a similar way, waste products, such as carbon dioxide, pass out of the blood and are removed from the body as we breathe out again.

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