D

    It is reported that some developed countries have shipped broken parts of computers to China. Last month Hong Kong officers found 131,000 kilograms of broken computers, TVs and phones sent from Japan.

    Things like these are called electronic waste, or e-waste. Dealing with them is not an easy job. Every time an old computer breaks down, it needs to be dealt with safely. What is worse, at present, broken computer parts are usually buried. It may be hundreds of years before they are really g one in the earth.

    Many places in China are polluted by e-waste. Guiyu in Guangdong Province is one of them. This town is named as "the e-waste capital of the world". It has to deal with 1.5 million kilograms of e-waste each year, from which it makes 75 million yuan. But it comes at a cost. Many of the poisons in e-waste find their way into the environment. An environmental group has found the air, the earth and the rivers in Guiyu badly polluted.

    Luckily, the Chinese government wants to change the situation. This year, China passed a new environmental protection law. Computer companies like Lenovo and Dell will be asked to take back their old computers. Hopefully, the problem with e-waste will be solved in the near future.

C

    Rivers are one of our most important natural resources(资源). Many of the world's great cities are located on rivers, and almost every country has at least one river through it that plays an important part in the lives of its people.

    Since the beginning of history, people have used rivers for transportation. The longest one in the United States is the Mississippi. The lifeline of Egypt is the Nile. To the people of India, the Ganges is great, but it is also important for transportation. Ships can travel along it for a thousand miles. Other great rivers are the Congo in Africa and the Mekong in southeastern Asia. The greatest of all for navigation(航海), however, is the Amazon in Brazil. It is so wide and so deep that large ships can go about two thousand miles up it.

    Besides transportation, rivers give food, water to drink, water for crops, and chances for fun and recreation for the people who live along their banks. In order to increase the supply of water for crops, engineers sometimes build a dam(坝) across a river and let a lake form behind the dam. Then people can use the water not only to irrigate(灌溉) their fields but also to make electricity for their homes and industries.

    However, large cities and industries that are located on rivers often cause problems. As the cities grow in size and industries increase, the water in the rivers becomes polluted with chemicals and other materials. People are learning the importance, however, of doing more to keep their rivers clean if they want to enjoy the benefits of them.

    Have you ever heard someone use the phrase"once in a blue moon"？People use this expression to describe something that they do not do very often．For example，someone might say that he tries to avoid eating sweets because they are unhealthy，but will eat chocolate"once in a blue moon"．Or someone who does not usually like to go to the beach might say"I visit the shore once in a blue moon．"While many people use this phrase，not everyone knows the meaning behind it．

    The first thing to know is that the moon itself is never really blue．This is just an expression．In fact，the phrase"blue moon"has to do with the shape of the moon，not the color．

    As the moon travels around the earth，it appears to change shape．We connect names with certain shapes of the moon．For example，when we can see a small part of the moon，it is called a crescent moon．A crescent is a shape that looks like the tip of a fingernail（指甲尖）．When we cannot see the moon at all，it is called a new moon．When we can see the whole moon，it is called a full moon．Usually，there is only one full moon every month．Sometimes，however，there are two full moons in one month．When this happens，the second full moon is called"a blue moon"．

    Over the next 20years，there will only be 15blue moons．So you can seldom see a blue moon． This fact has led people to use the expression"once in a blue moon"to describe things they don't often do in their lives．

    Technology is changing our ways of life. Robby Pepper is Italy's first robot gatekeeper. He can answer questions in Italian, English and German. He is placed at a hotel to help answer simple questions from visitors. A guest from Moldova, congratulated the robot on his skills. "He's like a real person. He's really good." She said. "He talked to me, and he shook my hand."

    Japan's Softbank Robotics created Robby. It can provide hotel guests with information they need, like where to find a restaurant and its hours of operation. The use of robots is growing in service industries like tourism. But they are expected to become more useful as better artificial intelligence, or AI, is developed.

    The International Federation of Robotics says about 79,000 professional service robots were sold last year. It expects up to 25 percent sales growth each year. There are many different kinds of artificial intelligence machines: learning robots, cleaning robots, medical robots and public relations robots.

    We have made some progress in the development of AI, but we still have a long way to go. Experts say people in the United States and Japan seem more welcoming to robots than people in Europe do. Shoppers at a store in Scotland got one robot, Softbank's Fabio Pepper, fired out Customers were not willing to talk to the robot. And a security robot in Washington DC made news last year when it rolled itself into a fountain*and could not get out.

    In Brescia, the Cayu car sore is using another Softbank Pepper robot to sell cars Named Cayuiki .the robot is programmed to give information on cars, playing games and collecting information. It is helping to bring in possible car buyers .But the head of the Cayu car store said, "To sell the cars, you still need human beings."