In the Charles F. Johnson Elementary School in New York, there is a special radio. It gives people warnings about bad weather.

    One day, there came a sound from the radio. This sound brought the piece of news: a heavy storm was coming. William Tomic, principal(校长) of the school, asked teachers to bring children indoors and put them in a safe place at once.

    Minutes later, the storm came. However, because of the warning of the radio and the quick work of the principal, no one was hurt.

    "The radio really did work very well.(A)(我们对它的工作感到很满意), "William Tomic said. "The parents were happy as well."

    The U. S. government hopes there will be more such successful stories. It plans to give this kind of radio to all 97, 000 public schools in the country.

    Every year, more than 10, 000 big thunderstorms, 2, 500 floods, 1, 000 tornadoes(龙卷风) and some hurricanes(飓风) take place in the U. S., so the warning radios are very useful. They not only give people warnings about bad weather, but also give warnings about other dangerous  things.

    Lockheed Martin, American space system company (空间系统公司) has found a really cool way to inspire the young minds of today to the research fields in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

    It may look like a normal yellow bus, but all the magic happens once you get inside. Meet the “Mars (火星) Experience Bus,” part of Lockheed Martin's new “Generation Beyond” national education program to get the kids joining in studying what goes on outside of our home planet. The bus offers a virtual reality (VR, 虚拟现实) experience making the teenagers feel like they are driving on Mars.

    The VR experience was developed by taking advantage of software (软件) created for today's best video games, so you can imagine the picture shown is top level. The kids do seem really excited to see the bus take a virtual trip on the red planet and search unknown places. It's certainly a great way of learning about the universe by virtual reality working on a common bus.

    The Lockheed Martin's bus will start a tour in the United States to allow kids from different parts of the country to take a ride in it. The Generation Beyond project also includes an iPhone app for iOS providing real-time information about weather reports for Mars, and there's also a free deep space course for middle school teachers and students.

    A study of sleep in sparrows suggests the relationship between sleep and the ability to learn may be more complicated (复杂) than realized．

    Niels C. Rattenborg of the University of Wisconsin—Madison wanted to find out how the sparrows were able to deal with getting so much less sleep．He and his team brought eight wild birds into a lab and watched them for one year．They invented a game to check how well the birds could learn．In the game, the sparrows had to peck (啄) three buttons (按钮) in a certain order to get a food treat．The scientists discovered that the birds' ability to learn the right button order depended on (依靠) two things, the time of year and the

amount of sleep the birds had．

    During the migration (迁徙) season, the sparrows were restless at night and got much less sleep than usual．Even so, they were able to understand how to get the food quickly as if they'd had a regular night of sleep．Outside the migration season, they found the sparrows that got less sleep than usual had much more difficulty learning how to get the food treats than birds that had a regular sleep．

    The results show that the sparrows can deal with much less sleep during the migration season than usual．If scientists can find out why, they may learn from sparrows and find ways of helping people deal with getting much less sleep．Until scientists fully understand the relationship between sleep and learning, it's better to get plenty of sleep when preparing for an exam．

    The largest animal ever to live on Earth is the blue whale. It weighs about 80 tons--more than 24 big elephants. It is more than 30 metres long. A new baby whale weighs as much as a big elephant.

    Cats won't die if they fall off very high places because they can turn themselves up the right way so as to keep their bodies safe. One cat fell off 32 floors onto the street, but it was just hurt a little.

    A bear can run as fast as a horse.

    A new-born panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about 100 grams.

    Elephants are the most careful animals in their love. A male elephant may show his lady love for up to three years until the female elephant takes his love. They often show their love by touching each other's body.

    Usually, wolves do not hurt people. For years a Canadian newspaper says that they would give anyone a lot of money if he or she could show that a wolf could hurt a person. But nobody could do that. Wolves do not usually go together though they may do this in winter and they only hurt people at an unusual time.

    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.

    It is a cold and dry winter morning. When you wake up, you feel that your throat hurts. You begin to sneeze and later you may cough. You must have a cold！Wait a moment. Could it just be a common cold or the flu(流感)that's been going around？

    A cold gives you a runny nose and cough. But it's usually easy to deal with. Some people take medicine while others drink herbal tea or chicken soup. Usually you feel better after a week.

    On the other hand, the flu can be much more dangerous. It usually gives you fever. Sometimes it can cause death. According to an American magazine, the worst flu killed about 50 million people from 1918 to 1919.

    Don't worry. If you get a flu vaccine(疫苗), it can stop you from getting the virus(病毒).Flu vaccines work by giving the body a small number of flu viruses. This causes your body to develop antibodies(抗体). So next time you get the flu, the antibodies will help you.

    The flu virus changes every few years. Therefore, there are so many types of flu, such as HlN1 and H5N1.The antibodies for one type of flu can't help us against all types of flu. That's why we need to get the vaccine every year.

    However, good healthy habits may also help stop you developing a cold or flu. Washing your hands often helps stop you from getting viruses. It is also important to get regular exercise and eat healthy food. All these can help you strengthen(增强)your immune system(免疫系统).