The first living creatures to travel in space were the dogs of the Soviet Unions space program.Beginning in 1951 dogs flew aboard sub－orbital flights to the height of 63 miles and higher.They helped to test the equipment that would later be used by humans.The first pair of dogs to fly，on July 22，1951，were named Tsygan and Dezik.

     Space dogs would make history on November 3，1957.On this date，just one month after the historic launch of the world's first artificial satellite，Sputnik，the Soviet Union shocked the world again by launching Sputnik 2.This satellite contained the first living creature to travel in space，a dog named Laika.Laika was to have orbited for a week or more until her food and oxygen ran out.In fact，Laika lasted only hours in orbit before over heating in her capsule(太空舱) took her life.

     That next step，occurred in August 1960，when the dogs Belka and Strelka made 18 orbits of earth and returned alive.Like Laika before them，they became distinguished ， featured in newspapers and magazines around the world.

     Six more orbital dog flights over the next eight months further tested the equipment necessary for humans to follow in the dogs' footsteps.That historic event happened on April 12，1961，when Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel in space.

     The role of the space dogs had proven important in advancing the exploration of space.But，they would make one final flight.In 1966，traveling aboard the Cosmos 110 satellite，the dogs Ugolek and Veterok spent 22 days in orbit.Once again dogs led the way.Humans would not achieve a space flight that long for eight more years，in Skylab 2.

    A long time ago people thought that the sun went round the earth. In some countries people even said that the sun was a god(神). They thought the god drove across the sky each day on a golden horse. Now we know the earth goes round the sun. It takes the earth a year to go a circle(圈) round the sun. Today men even know how far it is for the earth to go round the sun. They tell us that the earth travels over a thousand miles a minute on its journey round the sun.

    The sun is really a star. It is much bigger than the earth and it is very hot. Some people have been to the moon but we know that no one can ever go to the sun. It is far too hot for people to live anywhere near it. The sun is three hundred thousand times heavier than the earth and more than million times larger.

    Games have already become a good companion for people. Whether kids or adults, they prefer to spend their spare time in playing games. Why are games so popular? Firstly, they can attract people easily and secondly, they are east to upgrade(升级). Each day, thousands of games come out. And no matter which kind of game you like, there is always a game that suits you. Now when people meet, they would like to talk about the newest games.

    Here are the hottest new games for girls. They are Didi games. 80 percent of girls like dressing-up games. There are varieties of dressing-up games in Didi. The leading roles of them also vary from common girls to princesses. If you are lucky enough, you can be dressed up as the famous stars you admire. At the same time, wedding dressing-up games can also be found. Whether you admit it or not, all girls like things related to wedding, so most girls like to be dressed up as brides.

    In order to attract kids' attention, many games choose fairies(精灵) as the leading roles, for fairies are really alluring to girls. Maybe the magic wands(魔杖) of the fairies really have supernatural powers(超自然力量). There are various kinds of Didi fairy games, such as Fairy of Water, Catching Flowers Contest, Winter Garden Fairy, etc.

    Cooking games are also girls' favorite games. Making a cake, soup or other delicious food is a category of simple games. There are also complicated ones, for example, preparing a dinner. It is more challenging but most girls like challenges. Another category of games which attracts people must be the games related to farms. Why are they so popular? Because the games can let people enjoy the fun as farmers. There are also farm animals that kids like very much. Here you can build your own farms. Also you can experience the life of farmers.

    It has been found that plastic that finds itself into UK's waters can find its way to the Arctic within just two years. UK researchers have used a current-tracking tool to follow the waste as it was carried by the waters of the northern hemisphere.

    The team at Imperial College London used PlasticAdrift.org to track ocean currents(洋流) and follow the trail of plastic north to the freezing Arctic waters. Their study revealed that the majority of plastic waste which didn't end up on the UK's coastline, or sink to the ocean floor, was carried through the Barents Sea, north of Norway, before being carried into the Arctic Ocean.

    Large pockets of the world's oceans are now choked with a soup of discarded plastics, made up of everything from shopping bags to old children's toys, brought to these trash “islands” by the currents. Over time larger chunks (厚块，大块) are broken down by the sun's ultraviolet rays (紫外线) and the saltwater, leaving plenty of micro plastics which can kill fish and other wildlife.

    Dr. Erik Van Sebille, a lecturer in oceanography (海洋学) and climate change at Imperial, said, “We're only just beginning to understand the effect that plastic waste has on the weak Arctic ecosystem(生态系统), but we know enough about the damage done by oceanic plastic pollution to act and reduce its impact on our oceans and coastlines. From seabirds caught in loops of plastic packaging to polystyrene particles(聚苯乙烯粒子) blocking the digestive(消化的) systems of fish, plastic causes a continuous path of destruction from surface to seafloor. This analysis shows how in the UK we're part of the problem.”

    Dr. Erik continued, “It would be impossible to ban plastic, and undesirable as it is, it's a useful material that offers many benefits. We should instead have a holistic (整体的) approach to improving the situation, including social and behavioral, chemical and engineering solutions. Our aim is to have the least amount of plastic that ends up in the oceans and make sure it degrades (降解) quickly and safely if it does. ”

    Google's new camera, called Clips, is a small, smart device. It comes with a case that has a clip (夹子)，but it's not designed to be worn on your clothing. Most interestingly, it uses artificial intelligence to take photography out of your hands so it can capture moments on its own.

    This roughly 2-inch by 2-inch camera, with a three-hour battery life and Gorilla Glass for toughness, is intended for candid moments, like when a child does something cute that may happen too quickly for you to pull out your smartphone.

On board the Clips device, it uses machine learning algorithms (计算程序) to help capture scenes. Those algorithms include face recognition. “Once it learns that there's a face you see frequently, it'll try to get nice photos of those faces,” said Juston Payne, the device's product manager. And they also want it to recognize facial expressions, which involved “training it to know what happiness looks like”. The Google team also trained it to recognize what not to shoot — like when a child's hand is over the lens, or if it is tossed in a dark purse.

    The only way to see the images is by connecting the camera with your phone, as it has no screen for viewing or editing.

    Were people concerned it could seem strange? Yes, Payne admitted. But they said they addressed that by making it obvious what it is. A green light on the front signals that it is on. Besides, unlike a camera meant to monitor your home, it is not connected to the Internet.

    “This product is only possible because of the way that silicon has advanced” Payne said, noting that it was only in the past year or so that they could squeeze the technology down into a device this size. Going forward, we're likely to get more assistance from the artificial intelligence packed into our apps and gadgets.

    Walk through the Amazon rainforest today and you will find it steamy, warm, damp and thick. But if you had been there around 15,000 years ago, during the last ice age, would it have been the same? For more than 30 years, scientists have been arguing about how rainforests might have reacted to the cold, dry climate of the ice ages, but till now, no one has reached a satisfying answer.

    Rainforests like the Amazon are important for mopping up CO2 from the atmosphere and helping to solve global warming. Currently the trees in the Amazon take in around 500 million tons of CO2 each year: equal to the total amount of CO2 given off in the UK each year. But how will the Amazon react to the future climate change? If it gets drier, will it survive and continue to draw down CO2? Scientists hope that they will be able to learn in advance how the rainforest will manage in the future by understanding how rainforests reacted to climate change in the past.

    Unfortunately, collecting information is incredibly difficult. To study the past climate, scientists need to look at fossilized pollen (花粉) kept in lake mud. Going back to the last ice age means drilling down into lake sediments (沉淀物), which requires specialized equipment and heavy machinery . There are very few roads and paths, or places to land helicopters and aeroplanes. Rivers tend to be the easiest way to enter the forest, but this still leaves vast areas between the rivers completely unsampled (未取样). So far, only a handful of cores have been drilled that go back to the last ice age and none of them provide enough information to prove how the Amazon forest reacts to climate change.