E

Recently, China announced it had achieved success in drilling fire ice or methane hydrate (天然气水合物，即可燃冰), from the seabed in the Shenhu area of the South China Sea. It produces high amount of energy when it is burned, leaving nothing but dioxide and water.     Many countries, including the United States and Japan, have long beeaban doing research on methane hydrate, but taking it from bottom of the sea has been a common problem they are facing. According to reports, China succeeded in drilling methane hydrate for a number of days continuously and got an average of over 16,000 m3 daily. It is believed to be a big breakthrough.

Scientists say there is about 21, 000 trillion (万亿) m3 of methane hydrate in the world. If we can use it, it can meet the world's energy need for 1, 000 years. However, it is too early to say a new energy source (来源) has been found because we are still facing two main challenges—environmental risk and economic (经济的)cost. When methane hydrate is taken from the seabed, it may go into the air easily. That's very bad for the environment because methane is one of the worst greenhouse gases. Besides, drilling methane hydrate is very expensive as well.     However, China's technology breakthrough is very important because it shows the way researchers across the world should take. It also raises hopes that one day we can drill methane hydrate as a source of energy.

    Have you learned something about robots? There are all kinds of robots. They are in different shapes. They can do lots of work.

    Robot teachers， who are working in elementary schools now， have been very popular with pupils during a project in some South Korean school， a government report said on Thursday.

    The elementary school children get on well with the robot teachers. They like the robotic teachers more than the ordinary ones because they never get angry and always kind to the students. The Ministry of Knowledge said.

    English teaching robots were sent to three provincial schools for eight weeks starting in late December. There they teach students as teachers. More and more students like studying and the other robot teachers were also sent out. They can teach math， science and art.

    The researchers found that the English-teaching robots helped raise interest in the language and helped the students feel more confident.

    “Tele-presence” robots are controlled by an English and are equipped with a microphone and video camera. Many people think we can use these robot teachers in the village far away from the cities so that the children in these areas can also get better education.

    The government has expressed great interest in robots to give rural school children more learning chances. I think in the future we can see more and more robot teachers working with the students. But I think the robot teachers can't replace the real teachers. What's your opinion?

B

    In 2017, when the high speed train. Furing, left Beijing for shanghai at a speed of 350 km/h, it amazed the world. It is China's newest high-speed train and also the fastest train in the world.

    There were 2, 959 high-speed trains running across China by 2016. They make up60 percent of the world's total high- speed trains. Chinese companies have also built more than 10 high-speed railways in Europe, Southeast Asia and South America. And the high speed trains has become a new name card for China.

    Besides the high-speed trains, many other innovations(创新)have also changed people's lives in China.

    For example, though bike sharing is not new itself China has made it much more convenient. And popular. When the Chinese bike sharing companies reached Singapore and Britain months ago, users there excited and couldn't wait to post photos of themselves riding the bikes on social media(媒体).

    Cashless payment has become a lifestyle choice in China it is common that people in China go shopping with no cash(现金)in pockets. Many people just pay with their bile phones by scanning a quick respond code(QR，二维码)from the seller. Even a person selling vegetables has a QR code.

    Many foreigners have experienced lives without carrying any cash in China. They say they can't do it when they are back home in Europe.

    China is now in a great time. It has made great achievements in innovation. They are true pictures of national strength. It seems that China is really leading in some ways. And Chinese people have every reason to believe in an even brighter future.

    In the universe, as we know, there is the Sun, the moon, the Earth and a good many stars. Through our geography lessons, we know the Earth goes around the Sun, and the moon goes around the Earth. We have day and night because the Earth keeps turning all the time. When our part of the Earth turns to the Sun, it is day. When our part of the Earth turns away from the Sun, it is night.

    Just because the moon is closer to the Earth than the Sun, it looks much bigger than the Sun. Big things will look smaller when they are farther, and small things also look bigger when they are nearer.

    The Sun is bright enough to give out very strong light. The moon can't give any light at all, but it looks quite bright, too. Why？In fact, the light from the moon comes from the Sun. The moon looks much bigger and brighter than the stars. But actually (事实上) the stars are much bigger and brighter than the moon. They look smaller than the moon also because they are farther away from the Earth.

    There are still many other planets in the universe. But of all these planets, only on Earth there are living things and people can only live on Earth, too. But at 9∶00 am on October 15th 2003,Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei was set up to space. He stayed there for 21 hours. It was the first time for Chinese to get into space.