A recent study found people's lives are made shorter in North China. It is showed the life expectancy(平均寿命) had been cut down by 5.5 years there. Researchers（研究者）think that the heavy air pollution in China should be to blame(承担责任). It's really the truth. Our government has already done something. However, it doesn't seem to work so well.

    “Air pollution in China is doing harm to people's health. The harm is much more serious than we can imagine,” said Chen Yuyu of Beijing University, one of researchers of this study.

    Dirty air brings serious problems in North China. In January this year, the air pollution was worse than that in other places. That was caused by rising temperature and waste gas（气体）from coal heating（燃煤）.

    Chinese government should strongly fight with air pollution. They should think of more proper ways to deal with the problem. People should be encouraged to take buses, ride bicycles or walk, instead of driving cars. The factories that pollute heavily should be closed.

    “We need to improve our environment, although it might be expensive. Protecting our environment means protecting ourselves,” Li Hongbin, another researcher of the study said.

    People have always wanted to know what our future will look like. Go on reading this text, and you will know what will happen in the next fifty years.

    How can we know what the future will look like? To be able to understand the future, you have to know the past, what has taken us to where we are today and what has changed along the way? The world has changed a lot in the last 150 years, but people are driven by the same basic needs as they were 150 years ago. Will this change in the next 150 years? No.

    What inventions have really made a different in the last 150 years? In the past years, the inventions that have changed most people's everyday life are telephone, radio, television, computer, the car and the internet. Then we of course have a lot of inventions that have made life easier, like new medicine, faster cars, trains, etc. In general, people have been working hard in the last 150 years to make inventions that will make the world a better place. Since there is still much to do in the area, this will be important for at least the next 150 years.

    Why do we need to guess the future? Guessing the future is important for two reasons: First, we need to start to think about what kind of future we would like for ourselves and our children. And then we need to know what decisions we need to make today that will give us the best future.

    Now, it seems that artficial intelligence （人工智能）is becoming more and more popular in our life, and it has greatly influenced the ways we live, work and play. Can you imagine that you can play table tennis with a robot one day?

    Recently, a scientist has invented a special robot that can be a table tennis coach. That means people can practice table tennis not only with humans but also with a robot.

    Named Forpheus, the smart table tennis robot is quite special. It can study the movements of human players and the speeds of the ball. In this way, it can exactly judge (判断) the player' skill levels (水平). Then it uses the information to change the ways to play. If the player are just beginners, Forpheus will play in a slow and easy way, but if the players are better ones, the robot will play in a faster and more difficult way. What's more, while playing, it encourages players to try their beat with words like "Good job!", "Come on!" and so on. At the same time, it gives some good advice to improve their skills. So it is both a good partner and a clever coach.

    Science and technology is developing quickly these days and it's hard to imagine what will happen in the future. "In the next 20 years, it will be possible that one robot teaches another to play table tennis or even invents another one!" Takuoya, the inventor of the robot, said.