Computer technology has become an important part of people's life. This technology has its own special words. One well-known computer word is Google. It's the name of a popular “search engineer(引擎)” for the Internet. People use the search engineer to find information about almost any subject on the Internet. The people who started the company named it Google because in math Google is a very large number-One hundred zeros follow the number one. When you “Google” a subject, you can get a lot of information about it.
    If you Google someone, you might find that person's name on a blog (博客). A blog is short for a Web log. It's a personal Web page. Some people write blogs to express their opinions and ideas over the Internet. Some use them to share their lives with faraway friends or family. Others write blogs to help them deal with sickness, money problems or to choose movies to see or books to read. Some people add information to their blogs every day. People who have blogs are called bloggers.

    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?

A

    Air pollution is one of the most common types of pollution in the world nowadays. It is quite serious in many places, especially in big cities. It can do great harm to our environment such as making the earth warmer, causing acid rain or destroying the ozone layer. As for human beings, air pollution causes all kinds of breathing problems.

    There are several reasons for air pollution. Firstly, many cities have a lot of factories and there we need to make food, clothing and other things. Every year these factories pour millions of tons of smog into air. Secondly, power factories can also give out harmful air. For example, in 1986 there was a bad accident at a nuclear power station in Russia. A cloud of radiation crossed the whole Europe. It is said that 125,000 people died in Russia as a result of illnesses caused by this accident. Thirdly, there are more cars in cities now. Once they are out in the streets, they will take in fresh air and give out dirty gas. Besides, smoking cigarettes also makes air pollution worse as will as damaging(损害) our health.  

    Is there intelligent(有智力的) life on other planets(行星)? For years, scientists said "No." or "We don't know." But today this is changing. Seth Shostak and Alexandra Barnett are astronomers (天文学家). They believe intelligent life exists somewhere in the universe. They also think we will soon contact these beings(人；生物).

    Why do Shostak and Barnett think intelligent life exists on other planets? The first reason is time. Scientists believe the universe is about 12 billion years old. "This is long enough for other planets to have intelligent life," say Shostak and Barnett. The second reason is size——the universe is huge. "Tools like the Hubble Telescope (哈勃望远镜) have shown that there are at least 100 billion galaxies (银河系) ," says Shostak. "And our galaxy, the Milky Way, has at least 100 billion stars. Some planets going around these stars might be similar to Earth. "

    In the past, it was hard to look for signs of intelligent life in the universe. But now, powerful telescopes (高倍望远镜) allow scientists to discover smaller planets--the size of Mars or Earth--in other solar systems (太阳系).These planets might have intelligent life.

    Have beings from space already visited Earth? "Probably not," says Shostak. "It's a long way away. However, intelligent beings may contact us in other way, such as radio signals(信号). "In fact, they may be trying to communicate with us now, but we don't have the right tools to receive their messages. However, this is changing. By 2025, we could make contact with other life forms in our universe and we might help each other.

    Like you, plants need good things like food, water, and minerals in order to grow. Usually they get these important nutrients(营养) from the rich soil(土壤) in which they're planted. But there's another way to grow plants that doesn't use soil. It's called hydrogenic gardening.

    "Hydrogenic" means "working with water." In a hydrogenic garden, plants grow with their roots in water, not in dirt. The water is filled with special food for the plants that gardeners have carefully measured and prepared.

    Hydrogenic plants grow quickly. In ordinary gardens, plants need time and energy to grow long roots that search the soil for food and water. In a hydrogenic garden, plants can use their energy to grow tall instead. And because there is no soil, there are no weeds and few insect pests(害虫). Gardeners don't need to spray(喷洒) plants with dangerous chemicals. Both the plants and the environment stay healthy. 

    Scientists hope that, one day, hydrogenic gardens may be able to help hungry people all over the world grow enough food-even in countries that have bad soil, or weather that is too hot, too cold, or too dry. And astronauts hope to take hydrogenic gardens with them to the spaceship they fly to Mars, so that they will always have fresh vegetables, and the fun of growing a garden without dirt. 

    Bruce collected the papers Clive collected the cans

    And Mort tied them with string And Dean washed them all clean

    Jason helped Bruce carry the papers Ruby helped Clive carry the cans

    All the way to the recycling(回收) bins All the way to the recycling bins

    When we recycle, we help the plants

    We help the creatures, from eagles to ants

    We help make the world a healthier place

    For one and for all in the human(人类) race