Astronauts are not like pilots, who fly into sky. They need some special trainings. They will fly into space. First they go to the Johnson space center in Houston Texas. They are tested there. Space doctors want to know how strong and smart they are.

      First of all, their hearts are tested. The people walk or run. Next, the space doctors see how fast their hearts are beating.

      Then it is another important test. In this test the person must curl his body up in a ball. And when he is in that position, he will be put into a round cloth bag. The doctors don't tell him how long he will have to stay in the bag. If a spaceship broke down in space, the astronauts would get into bags like these. Then they would have to wait, curled up in darkness, until they are saved. You can know that an astronaut must not be afraid of tight spaces or darkness.

      After these tests, scientists only choose the best people to start astronaut training in a training center. They will learn many other things in training. They will learn how to jump out of moving airplane, to blow up a lifeboat and get into it while they are in the ocean.

They also have to learn how to get lifted out of the ocean by a helicopter.

      When they finish training, the astronauts go on to work. They stay in good situation by running and doing exercise. They read about the special jobs. In that way they will be able to learn new facts about space travel.

      Finally, the astronaut is told to go to work on a flight into space. The members begin to know each other first. Then they can learn which jobs each will do.

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    Sixty years ago，human beings first reached the top of Mount Qomolangma， known as Mount Everest in the West. But the increase in climbers is turning the world's highest mountain into the “world's highest junkyard(垃圾场)”.

    Every year， more than 700 climbers spend nearly two months on Mount Qomolangma. They have left human waste and all kinds of rubbish， including oxygen bottles， broken tents， and plastic bags， according to Ang Tshering Sherpa， chief of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.

    “The waste has become a health danger to people in the area since they depend on water from rivers fed by the melting glaciers(融化的冰川)，” Sherpa said.

    More and more people have realized the danger that Mount Qomolangma is facing and they are now taking active actions. To deal with the problem， Nepal has supported a special team of explorers and volunteers to clean the mountain since 2008. So far they have brought down 15，000kg of rubbish. Nepal also started to ask each climber to bring down 8 kg of rubbish in 2014.

    On the Chinese side of the mountain， Tibet(西藏) will collect a cleaning fee of $100-200 (620-1240 yuan) per climber starting from this year. A program named “Mount Qomolangma Action at the Third Pole of the Earth” also started in 2004 to clear up the mountain.

    Hopefully， human beings will finally solve the problem， just as they found the way up the mountain successfully.

    Artificial intelligence (AI, 人工智能) can help us make phone calls. It can guide us to where we want to go. It can play games. And now, AI can do even more things.

    Researchers from Microsoft have created the first machine translation system that can translate news articles from Chinese to English, Business Standard reported.

    According to Microsoft's official website, researchers tested the system by asking it to translate hundreds of sentences taken from news stories. Then, language experts compared the results to two translations that were done by humans. The experts concluded that the system's translations were as good as the human translations.

    Machine translation is always challenging. This is partly because different words can be used to express the same meaning. It can be hard to say which word is more “correct”.

    Experts used several methods to improve the system's translation abilities. “Much of our research is really inspired (得到启发) by how we humans do things,” lead researcher Liu Tieyan said.

    One method is called dual learning. In this method, the system translates every sentence from Chinese to English, as well as translates the sentences back from English into Chinese. This way, the system can improve itself and learn from its own mistakes. This is similar to what humans do to make sure their translations are accurate (准确的).

    Another method makes use of deliberation networks . The researchers taught the system to repeat the process of translating the same sentence over and over. Gradually, the system can improve the quality of its translations. This is similar to how people revise their own writing by going through it again and again.

    Earlier this year, China achieved a new milestone(里程碑) in space exploration(探索). On Jan 3, Chang'e 4 became the first space probe(探测器) in history to land on the far side of the moon, People's Daily reported.
    From Earth, we can only see one side of the moon. The other side has been a mystery. Scientists have long wondered what lies on this side of the moon.

    Chang'e 4 has sent back photos of the far side of the moon. It is also used to carry out experiments, such as growing seeds in a low-gravity(低重力) environment. The data(数据) collected from these experiments could be used to help us build a base on the moon in the future.

    The success of the Chang'e 4 mission(任务) is a main achievement for China's space program. It marks a new stage in China's deep space exploration, said Wu Yanhua, head of China National Space Administration.

    China launched(启动) its lunar(月球的) exploration program in 2004, naming it Chang'e. Chinese scientists set three goals —“orbiting(环绕运行), landing and sample(样本) returning”— referring to launching probes that could circle around the moon, touch down on its surface and bring lunar materials back to Earth.

    Chang'e 4 has realized the goal of landing. The third will be achieved during the Chang'e 5 mission, which is set to take place before the end of this year, China Daily reported.

    Following the success of the Chang'e missions, Chinese scientists are looking even farther into our solar system (太阳系). China's first Mars(火星) mission is expected to be carried out by 2020, Wu said.

    XBOX 360 Kinetic, RoboSapien, WiiParty, theseare just a few of the modern toys sold in recent years. But some of the most populartoys are actually quite old.

Gameshave been around for thousands of years. In 4000 B. C, Babylonians played a boardgame that was similar to chess. Yo-yos made of stone were first used in ancientGreece around 1000 B C. And kites appeared in China around the same time.

    Another famous game is Scrabble. It was inventedby an architect in the 1930s, but it didn't get popular until 1953 And since then,more than 100 million sets have been sold worldwide.

    As you can imagine, toys and games are a multi-billion-dollarindustry. Mr. Potato Head, the first toy advertised on TV, grossed more than $4million in its first year. Play-Doh made its inventor Joseph McVicker a millionaireby his 27th birthday, while Mattel sells 1. 5 million Barbie dolls each week (that'stwo dolls each second!).

    Some toys go out of fashion, but then becomepopular again, such as Rubik's Cube. Research says parents are increasingly choosingto buy toys they remember from their own childhood.

    These days, toys are not just for fun. RoboSapienis a remote-controlled robot that was launched in 2004. He can walk, turn aroundand do other poses. RoboSapien was designed by Mark Tilden, who once created robotsfor NASA space missions. He expected the toy to be used mostly by and scientists,but almost 2 million RoboSapiens have been sold worldwide since its launch as atoy?

    Fancy a game anyone?