Macao is only forty miles from Hong Kong and it is easy to reach. You can get there by sea. It is an interesting place and it has a long history. Macao is part of China and most people living there are Chinese.

    The first Europeans in Macao came from Portugal. More than four hundred years ago the Portuguese went there to trade with China. Some settled and made their homes there. They built strong forts（要塞）to guard the city and the harbor. They also built churches, schools, hospitals and other places. Slowly the city grew. People from many other countries came to live and work in Macao.

    Today many people live in Macao. Some only go there to watch dog-racing or motor-racing or to gamble（赌博）with their money. But Macao is a quiet and peaceful place. It is pleasant just to walk around and look at the old buildings and forts. You feel you are back in the old days. Of course，some of the buildings are now in ruins. The Church of St. Paul has only the front wall with many steps leading up to it. But it is still interesting to see.

    When you are hot and tired, there are small cool gardens to rest in. When you are hungry, there are good restaurants with many kinds of food. Nearby are some islands, which are also nice to visit and are easy to get in. There are certainly a lot to see and to do in Macao.

    Getting more followers is something we usually associate with social media or micro messaging apps. But soon we could all have a new type of follower—a robotic one.

    Dozens of robots and technology fans gathered in Boston, US, earlier this month for the Robot Business conference. The latest developments in the world of robotics were shown to the public, and this time the trend was robots following people.

    Perhaps the most exciting development on show was the ability of drones (无人机) to follow you from the air, acting as your own personal cameraman or photographer. One example is 3-D Robotics' Iris+ drone, developed by a US-based company.

    The drone is fitted with cameras and has a “follow me” function. It connects with your GPS-enabled Android device, like a mobile phone. Then it flies and follows you around, shooting action film of you from above. The software in the drone makes sure that you're always in the center of the frame.

It can keep working for 15 minutes, as long as there aren't too many trees for it to crash into. This could be exciting for anyone who loves action sports or wants to be the star of their own short film.

    But what if you want to be one of those celebrities (名人) who have helpers carrying all their bags and doing all their chores? A robot called Budgee can help.

    Budgee, made by 5 Elements Robotics, is literally a basket on wheels.It is designed to help elderly and disabled people, or simply anyone who doesn't have enough arms for grocery bags, Wired magazine reported.It can carry up to 22.7 kg of items.

    To make Budgee follow them, its owner will have to wear a small device and use an app to set the distance between themselves and the robot.Budgee even sends a text message when it can't keep up with its owner.

     “I want you to look at the robot like he's your buddy, he's your friend. There's a relationship you develop with the robot,” Wendy Roberts, CEO of 5 Elements Robotics, told gigaom.com.

    It might not be quite the same as robotic assistants we've seen in movies such as Disney's Wall-E, where robots cater for our every need, but that idea doesn't seem quite so far-fetched now.

    People aren't walking any more-if they can figure out a way to avoid it.

    I felt superior about this matter until the other day I took my car to mail a small parcel. The journey is a matter of 281 steps. But I used the car. And I wasn't in any hurry, either. I had merely become one more victim of a national sickness: motorosis.

    It is an illness to which T had thought myself immune(免疫的), for I was bred in the tradition of going to places on my own two legs. At that time, we regarded 25 miles as a good day's walk and the ability to cover such a distance in ten hours as a sign of strength and skill. It did not occur to us that walking was a hardship. And the effect was lasting. When I was 45 years old I raced—and beat-a teenage football player the 168 steps up the Statue of Liberty.

    Such enterprises today are regarded by many middle-aged persons as bad for the heart. But a well-known British physician, Sir Adolphe Abrahams, pointed out recently that hearts and bodies need proper exercise. A person who avoids exercise is more likely to have illness than one who exercises regularly. And walking is an ideal form of exercise-the most familiar and natural of all.

    It was Henry Thoreau who showed mankind the richness of going on foot. The man walking can learn the trees, flowers, insects, birds and animals, the significance of seasons, the very feel of himself as a living creature in a living world. He cannot learn in a car.

    The car is convenient means of transport, but we have made it our way of life. Many people don't dare to approach Nature any more; to them the world they were born to enjoy is all threat. To them security is a steel river thundering on a concrete (混凝土) road. And much of their thinking takes place while waiting for the traffic to turn green.

    I say that the green of forests is the mind's best light. And none but the man on foot can evaluate what is basic and everlasting.

    What is the difference between developed and developing countries? The question is quite a difficult one. But we can compare them in two important aspects: people and economy.

    In developing countries there are high rates of both birth and death. Families decide to give birth to more than one child, because many developing countries do not have the systems necessary to guarantee(保证) the life of old people. Raising more children seems to be the only way to make sure that during their later years a person will be taken care of.

    The situation is completely different in fully-developed countries. Those countries have low levels of birth and mortality. Low mortality rate is mainly because of the good health care, but low birth rate is due to the fact that supporting a family with more children is expensive nowadays. Another reason is that more and more women decide to work outside, so there is usually no time and place for a large group of children in their lives.

    In developed countries, most industries have high levels of technological progress, while in developing countries most GDP comes from agriculture. It is mainly due to the fact that services and many branches of industry are in the stage of development. But they have the potential to develop quickly, because they have many things to improve.

    Of course, the difference between developed and developing countries is not that clear, because some countries might be in the middle of great changes. When a country is in that stage, some data can define the country as a developing one, but others may show that it is a developed one.

    How do you prove you really are who you say you are? Maybe you have many ways to prove your identity: a birth certificate, a driver's license, a Social Security card, or a passport.

    But imagine that you are one of the one billion people in the world­most of them among the poorest­who have no official identification. No birth certificates. No official ID documents. Nothing. Without a way to prove who you are, you would face huge problems: going to school, seeing a doctor, getting a bank account...

    For the last decade, NandanNilekani has been working to make the world's invisible people visible by giving them access to official identification. One of India's leading technology experts, Nandan joined the government to lead the launch of India's national biometric ID system, which uses fingerprints and other biological characteristics to check the identities of the country's more than 1.3 billion residents. This ID system, known as Aadhaar (Hindi for "foundation"), is the world's largest biometric identification system and has become a valuable government platform for delivering social welfare programs and other government services.

    Now, Aadhaar has enrolled nearly all residents of India. With a trustworthy system to check identities of beneficiaries for everything from pensions to food moneies, the government has been able to save billions of dollars because of reduced cheating and dishonesty.

    Of course, India's ID system has not been without controversy. There were many privacy concerns, including criticism that the Aadhaar system was a mass monitoring tool and that personal data would be misused. Last year, a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of India found that the program did not violate the privacy rights of the country's residents. But in order to prevent misuse of personal data, the court placed tight limits on how the ID system could be used and shared.

    According to the latest data by the World Bank, there are one billion people in the world without an official proof of identity, including 45 percent of the population in sub­Saharan Africa and 17 percent of South Asia's population.

    Thanks to the work Nandan is doing, the world is moving closer to the day when everyone will have access to an official ID. The sooner we can achieve this goal, the sooner the world's poorest residents will not only be able to prove who they are, but also realize their dreams for better lives.