You don't have to be bored on a rainy day. Here are some new ideas:

    Tell stories. You might tell stories you have heard before, or you might make up some wonderful stories.

    ①___________. You can learn to cook a pizza or maybe some cookies. Give your friend a chance to help in the kitchen and make something tasty.

    ②___________. You might write stories on your own and then read them aloud to others, or you might write a story together.

    ③____________. Think of some scenes and then play a game. Act as teachers, doctors, nurses or policemen. You can dress up in whatever you may have.

    ④____________. Pick out some music and dance around in the room. You can also sing while others are dancing.

So on the next rainy day, try some of these ideas for a day full of fun!

Find Which Direction Is South

    Do you have a good sense of direction? If not, please take with you a compass. But if you forget to take a compass, you can still find your way.

    It's never a good idea to imagine that the family member who was entrusted (委托) with the job of map-reading actually knows where the family is. You can tell by the slightly confused load on their faces that nothing on the ground seems to match the map. Never mind. The sun is shining and it's still morning.If you don't know the exact time, you can still find out where south is, but you'll need to be patient.

    ①Find a straight stick and put it in the ground in a place where you can mark its shadow.

    ②Try to position the stick as vertically(垂直)as you can. You can check this by making a simple plumb line (铅锤线) with a piece of string and weight. You haven't got any string? OK, use a thread from your clothes with a button tied at the end to act as a weight.

    ③Mark the end of the shadow cast by the stick.

    ④Wait approximately half an hour and mark the end of the shadow again.

    ⑤Keep doing this until you have made several marks.

    ⑥The mark nearest the stick will represent the shortest shadow, which is cast at midday, when the sun is highest in the sky and pointing to the exact south.

    ⑦Pick a point in the distance along the line between the shortest shadow and the stick.

    ⑧That point is south of where you are.

    ⑨Now you can turn the map, like you did before, and find which way you should be travelling.

    Wouldn't it be funny if your mum said to you, "It's time for bed, honey. It's almost November!" Well, if you were a baby bear, your mother might let you know it's time to go into a deep sleep around October.

    That "deep sleep" is called "hibernation (冬眠)". When it gets cold, bears have to go into hibernation. By taking this long sleep, they can get through the cold months when the food, like berries (浆果) and nuts, cannot be found easily.

    Have you ever heard someone say that they are as hungry as a bear? Bears need to eat a lot of food before hibernating. They eat so much that they may put on forty pounds of fat in a week. During the winter "bears will live off the fat stored in their bodies. Bears are able to do that because their bodies use a lot less energy during hibernation. Their heartbeats slow down, their breathing slows down, and their body temperature drops.

    If you were going to sleep all winter, wouldn't you want to be in a safe and protected place? That is what a bear wants, so it looks for a cave to sleep in. It makes a bed using grass, leaves and twigs (嫩枝). The bear usually starts to hibernate as early as October and doesn't wake up until April or May. By the time the bear wakes up, it will have lost much of the fat. But spring time will bring much food to enjoy until it is time to hibernate again in the autumn.

    What's sleepwalking(梦游)？Sleepwalking usually happens in the first few hours of sleep. Not all sleepwalkers walk when they are sleeping. Some just sit up or stand on the bed. Some even get up and walk around for a few minutes or half an hour. Some do things as if they were awake, but in fact they are not!

    Sleepwalkers' eyes are open and they usually go back to beds by themselves. But they won't remember it the next morning.

    About 15% of kids sleepwalk. Sleepwalking sometimes happens when a person is ill or worried, or doesn't get enough sleep. If sleepwalking happens often, you should see a doctor. If it doesn't, you don't need to worry. Here are some ways to help stop sleepwalking:

    Listen to some music and relax before going to bed.

    Go to bed at a regular time every night. keep your bedroom quiet and dark when you try sleeping.

    Don't drink a lot of water in the evening and be sure to go to the bathroom before going to bed.

    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.