Brooke wanted a dollhouse and some sugar cookies. So the 6-year-old asked Alexa to get them. Alexa wasn't her mom or babysitter. It was a voice-activated home assistant powered by AI (人工智能). And it made Brooke's wishes come true. A few days later, much to her parents' surprise, a $170 dollhouse and four pounds of cookies showed up. They ate the cookies and gave away the dollhouse to a local hospital. And that's not the end of the story. When a news reporter told the story of what happened on TV, Alexa devices (设备) in many listeners' homes woke up and tried to order dollhouses!

    Alexa isn't the only AI willing to serve you. Apple Home Pod has Siri, Google Home has its Assistant, and the upcoming Galaxy Home device will have Bixby. People who have these devices use them mainly for listening to music, checking the weather, and setting timers. According to a report from The Information, nowadays voice shopping is rare. But many scientists predict a boom (增长) in voice shopping in the near future. Is that a good thing?

      ▲   You can shout out an order as soon as you think of it, even if you are cooking, cleaning, or driving. In addition, people with disabilities who are unable to use a keyboard or mouse can shop without any help.

    But voice shopping has its disadvantages. Unwanted dollhouses aren't the biggest problem. It's usually very easy to cancel an order or return products. The thing that worries some people is that these assistants are always listening. They have to be able to respond when you want them. So they listen for "Alexa" or "OK Google" or another order. When they hear it, they start recording the conversation. Some have worried about what happens shopping habits? And what if someone hacks (入侵) the device? The CIA found a way to hack smart TVs to turn them into spies that listen all the time. Others could do the same with any smart device.

    What do you think? Are you ready to start voice shopping?

    Many people know that rubbish is a big problem on planet Earth. What many people don't know is that junk 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. And these are 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 smallest piece of junk crashed into a spaceship, it could damage it.

    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.

I grew up in a small town in Washington, US, and I want to be like my brother, Tim. He and his friends were in a gang. They often beat up people, and they didn't go to school much. I thought they were cool. 

On my thirteenth birthday, I told my brother I wanted to be in the gang with him. He said 'no', but I didn't listen. I went to ask his friends. Tim's friends took me into the back yard. They told me that if I joined the gang, I was in for life. Then, someone hit me in the face. I fell down. But I didn't cry. Each time I got up, they hit me again. Finally, they said I could be one of them. 

Tim was angry when he heard about it. But I stayed with the gang. After a few months, I began to beat up other people with the gang. Sometimes I wouldn't go home at night, and my mother would be worried. This went on for two years. I knew it was bad, but there nothing I could do. I was in for life.

One day, someone hit me in the head. I spent a day in the hospital. For the first time, I wanted out of the gang. One night after my fifteenth birthday, I went home. My mother was in the hospital. She had a nervous breakdown (精神崩溃) because she was so worried about me. That made me very sad. The next day, I told the gang that I wanted out. They began to beat me up, and my brother stopped them. I got up off the floor, smiled and said goodbye. But they didn't just stop there. Every time they saw me, they beat me up. This went on for about two months. But in the end, it stopped. I'm glad I'm out of the gang now. I don't have to be afraid all the time. I can talk to anyone I want. And most of all, I made my mum happy again.

Over 2. 300 students and teachers from two middle schools in Guyuan, Ningxia, walked to the Renshanhe Martyrs Cemetery (烈士陵园) on April 1, before Qingming Festival. 

The group started walking at about 430 a. m. They walked 27 kilometers to get to the cemetery. Although it was a little difficult for the students to walk along the mountain roads, no one fell behind (掉队). 

On the trip, the students took red flags and sang songs (歌曲) . When the girls had difficulty climbing up, the boys gave them their hands. The group arrived at the cemetery at about 10 a. m. After a few activities, the students and teachers went back to Guyuan on foot. 

To make sure all the students were safe(安全的), the two schools did many things before the long walk. " We started to let the students take physical exercise a month ago, " one teacher said. " When they did morning exercise and had P. E. classes, they practiced a lot. It was really a challenge for the students to finish the 54—kilometer trip, but everyone tried very hard to make sure they could do it. 

The schools want their students to remember the martyrs. They also want their students to keep their bodies and minds healthy by doing this activity. 

Good morning! My name is Alice, and I'm 15 years old. I live in a town near London, the capital of England. As we all know, the 1 here is quite wet. It usually rains, so many people always carry 2 with them when they go out. In my town, there are several beautiful 3 . My friends and I often go swimming there. Sometimes we enjoy camping by the river, and it's a great way for us to relax and 4 together. 

There are many places to visit in my home town, so I 5 feel bored. As a music lover, I often go to concerts in my 6 time. Next to my home is a 7 . Sometimes I go to see movies with  8 friends at weekends. There is also a bus stop near my home,9 I can go to school easily by bus. I also like going shopping 10 my mother. There are many kinds of shops in Sunshine Street. We often spend a whole day 11 there. There are also a lot of restaurants in the street, so we never worry about getting 12 . 

Living in the town near a big city also has a few disadvantages (缺点). There is always a lot of 13 and it has caused noise and air pollution (导致噪音和空气污染). Now the government and local people are trying their best to  14 the problems. 

Anyway, I 15 my home town very much. And I'm looking forward to your visit.