Many animals do strange things before an earthquake．This news may be important．

    Earthquakes can kill people and knock down houses．Animals may help to save lives．

    Some animals make a lot of noise before an earthquake．Farmers know about this．Dogs that are usually quiet start to bark．Horses on farms run around in circles．Mice leave their holes and run away．Cows give less milk．

    In a town in Italy, cats raced down the street in a group．That happened only a few hours before an earthquake．In San Francisco．a man kept tiny pet frogs．One Sunday, the frogs jumped around more than ever．They made loud noise．That night, an earthquake struck the city．People want to know when an earthquake is coming．Then they could get away safely．Right now, there is no sure way to know ahead of time．Maybe the best way is to watch the animals．

    In some science fiction(科幻)movies, people in the future have their own robots.These robots are like humans (人类). They help with the housework and do difficult and heavy jobs.

    So me scientists think that there will be such robots in the future. But they say it may take hundreds of years. Scientists are now trying to make robots look like people and do the same things as us. Japanese companies have already made robots walk and dance.

    James White thinks that it will be difficult for a robot to do the same things as a person. But other scientists don't think so. They think robots can do the same thing as us in 50 years.

    Robot scientists are trying to make robots look like not only people but also animals. For example, there are already robots working in factories. They do easy jobs over and over again. People would not like to do such jobs and would get bored(感到无聊的). But robots will never get bored and tired.

    In the future, there will be more robots everywhere, and humans will have less work to do. New robots will have many different shapes(形状). Some will look like humans, some will look like dogs, some will look like hands, and others may look like snakes. After an earthquake(地震), a snake robot could help look for people under buildings. We never know what will happen in the future!

    People in Western countries are eating less meat these days, whether for their health or because they want to protect animals. But now they have another reason.

    Eating less meat can help to prevent climate change, according to a recent study published in Nature.

    Raising livestock (家畜) is bad for the environment. When animals like cows digest (消化) food, their stomachs make greenhouse gases, which are a major cause of global warming. Seventeen percent of greenhouse gas emissions (排放) come from livestock farming, The New York Times reported.

    In addition, to raise these livestock, people have to cut down forests and turn them into farms. Forests play a key role in fighting global warming because they absorb greenhouse gases.

    Eating less meat according to certain guidelines could cut global food-related emissions by nearly a third by 2050, the study found. Maintaining (保持) a vegetarian diet in the long term could bring down emissions by 63 percent.

    But eating less meat won't be easy. According to the study, people in Western countries will need to eat 90 percent less meat than they do now in order to have an impact (影响) on our climate. Scientists are now trying to find new foods to replace meat.

    Some say that insects (昆虫) could help. A 2013 UN report said that eating insects is healthier and better for the environment. They produce 75 percent less greenhouse gases than livestock.

    Some experts are creating lab-grown meat. They make meat in a lab using livestock cells (细胞). In March, US company JUST said people in the US might be able to buy its lab-grown meat by the end of this year.

    Many people know that rubbish is a big problem on planet Earth. What many people don't know is that junk (垃圾) has become a problem in outer space too.

    According to BBC News, there are more than 22, 000 pieces of space junk floating around the earth. Andtheseare just the things that we can see from the surface of the earth by telescopes (望远镜). There are also millions of smaller pieces of junk that we can't see.

    Objects, like bits of old space rockets or satellites, move around the planet at very high speeds, so fast that even a very small piece can break important satellites or become dangerous to astronauts. If the tiniest piece of junk crashed into a spaceship, it could damage the vehicle.

    To make things worse, when two objects in space crash, they break into many smaller pieces. For example, when a U. S. satellite hit an old Russian rocket in 2009, it broke into more than 2,000 pieces, increasing the amount of space junk.

    To reduce additional space junk, countries have agreed that all new space tools can only stay in space for 25 years at most. Each tool must be built to fall safely into the earth's atmosphere after that time. In the upper parts of the atmosphere, it will burn up.

    Many scientists are also suggesting different ways to clean up space junk. In England scientists are testing a metal net that can be fired into space junk. The net catches the junk and then pulls it into the earth's atmosphere to burn up. The Germans are building robots that can collect pieces of space junk and bring them back to Earth to be safely destroyed.

    "The problem is becoming more challenging because we're sending more objects into space to help people use their mobile phones and computers," says Marco Castronuovo, an Italian space researcher.

    "The time to act is now. The longer we leave the problem, the bigger it will become," he says.

Harbin is known as "the City of Ice". Usually, it has heavy snow from the early November. It's time for Harbin to come to life and attract visitors all over the world. 

Harbin Ice and Snow World has been a business card since 1999. This 816,682-square-meter park is the largest ice and snow theme park in the world. Visitors can enjoy more than 1,000 artworks made of ice and snow. And also, they can try the super ice slide (滑梯). The number of the ice slides this year is increased from 8 to 14 and the longest one is 512 meters. 

Visitors from the south of China is a large part of the tourism crowd. Chen Ling, a visitor, said, "I'm from Guangzhou. I come here to enjoy the hot winter. My trip will last about a week. I hope I will have a great time!" However, the southern visitors may be less prepared for the cold. So the local government gives the most important suggestion: Pack enough warm clothes. The more, the better. A Harbin taxi driver said, "My wife works in a hotel. These days we're busy but we both feel very excited. Ice and snow are important parts of our city. All the visitors are sure to feel the enthusiasm (热情) of us. Welcome to my hometown!"

You may feel bored in winter sometimes. But Harbin Ice and Snow World can make the long, cold months beautiful and creative.