【推荐1】Getting a meal from the sky is becoming a reality in the city as online delivery platform Meituan has been allowed to start drone delivery service (无人机送餐服务), Shenzhen Evening News reported.

At Galaxy World in Longgang District, a reporter from the newspaper watched how a meal has been delivered by the drone on Thursday. The drone slowly landed and a door above the Meituan Intelligent Dining Cabinet (储藏柜) opened slowly, where the drone put the meal box inside the cabinet.

“It takes about 15 minutes to place the order and receive the meal. A lot of people have tried the drone delivery service here,” said a woman who just took her meal box out from the cabinet.

During the year 2022, food and drinks such as noodles, fruits, coffee and milk tea and even flowers have been delivered through Meituan’s drone delivery system, the report said.

The company said that as of last year, it had completed over 100,000 drone deliveries. Meituan started to explore drone delivery service in 2017 and started the try in early 2021. The service has an average (平均) delivery time of 12 minutes, which is less than traditional delivery methods, according to the company.

There are only a few cities in the world with the advantages of drone delivery service, and Shenzhen is taking the lead in China, according to the report. However, there are still some problems with this kind of service.

【推荐2】Big data (数据) is a lot of sets of information that are put together so they can be used by a computer program. The computer program looks for different kinds of answers or patterns in the data.     1    , such as information that comes from schools, social media sites, companies, and governments. One set of data can have people's names and addresses. Another set can have what they like, where they go to school, and how much time they spend on the computer.

    2    . The government uses it to understand how many people travel on buses or trains.   This information is then used to make bus or train systems better. Some schools use big data to understand which children may need extra help in class. The teacher can then give certain students more help or support so those students can succeed in school. Companies use big data, too.     3    . For example, one company uses weather data to see when people eat the most ice cream.

Big data can be used for good reasons. Some hospitals use big data to predict if a baby who is born too early will get sick. The hospital can then take extra steps to take care of that baby so he or she does not get sick. Big data can also be used for bad reasons.     4    , even if they have not done anything wrong.

How can big data be used for good and bad things? It is because the computer programs used to look at big data and understand it are written by people. People think a certain way. Because they think a certain way, they build a model of those ideas.     5    . Sometimes, these ideas are helpful for people or businesses. Other times, bad ideas can cause problems for certain groups of people.

【推荐3】Japan has always been in a leading position of robotic technology. Over the years, the robots have worked in banks and hotels, or even served as personal helpers for the old people. Recently, a Tokyo university has used avatar (虚拟替身) robots to make students “attend” their graduation ceremony (毕业典礼) without leaving home.

Professor Shugo Yanaka came up with the great idea during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, “We knew that there were lots of students who would like to attend the graduation ceremony but couldn’t because of COVID-19, and then I suddenly got an idea that students could not only attend the graduation ceremony safely, but also experience something different.”

The activity, which was held at Tokyo’s Hotel Grand Palace on March 28, 2020, started with university president Kenichi Omae giving a speech to the students through a video platform (平台) Zoom. Then the online graduation ceremony officially (正式地) began.

When a student’s name was called out by a host, an avatar robot called Newme wearing a graduation cap and clothing, moved to the stage to accept the diploma (学位证书) from the president. The student could experience the activity, and hear the clap and “congratulations” from teachers through the screen on Newme’s head. Once Mr Omae gave the diploma to Newme, the student posed with him for an official graduation photo at home.

If COVID-19 comes to an end, Newme creator ANA Holdings will make the machine travel to different places around the world. The company believes it will help doctors treat patients in hard-to-reach places and also make experts get into war areas without putting themselves in danger.

【推荐1】

The Chinese government ends its one-child policy （政策） and allows families to have three children. The policy is meant to balance population development, stop a falling birth rate（出生率）and strengthen the Country’s labor force（劳动力）.

China, with the largest population in the world, started the one-child policy in 1980. But the government allowed only a small number of couples to have two children. For example, some families in the countryside could have two children, if the first-born child is a girl. In 2016, the Chinese government gave other couples a chance to have two children if one of them was an only child. Because of aging of population, in 2021, it allowed families to have three children.

To the newest policy, different families have different opinions. “Too many young people in the cities are no longer interested in having two or three children,” an official said. “People in the countryside are more interested.”

At the end of 2021, China had a population of more than 1.4 billion people. A total of 900 million of them have jobs. But the labor market population will drop in 30 years. That is to say, the country will be in great need of labor by the year 2050. With the three-child policy, an increase in births can solve this problem.

Boys and girls, what do you think of the three-child policy? Do you want to have new-born brothers or sisters?

【推荐2】Global News

● Man-Made Forest in Singapore

The “forest” is made from steel and concrete (混凝土) covered in local flowers and plants. At night, 18 solar-powered tree-like towers which get their energy from the sun often light up the city. Its designer said the idea was to create “a city in a garden”. Clearly, the special way makes the pubic care about environment.

●____________________

By decorating the buildings from top to bottom with more than 20,000 trees and plants, Italian architect (建筑师) Stefano Boeri said he’d want to make trees part of the buildings and create something that could help to reduce pollution. Which types of trees are planted and where the trees are planted depend on the trees’ likes for sunlight.

● Green Corridors (长廊) in Medellin

Medellin has won high praise for its green corridors. Now the 30 corridors full of trees and flowers connect green spaces such as parks and gardens in Medellin. The green corridors have reduced the temperature by two degrees and helped make the air clean. Bees and birds have returned. Now people there live more actively.

【推荐3】Maybe your childhood piano lessons made you never want to play the piano again. Perhaps a piano is too expensive for you. Now, thanks to a program in Sydney called “Play Me, I’m yours”, people can play the piano in public places for free. They share beautiful music, and the program, also helps them communicate with each other.

The government has placed thirty pianos in different parts of the city, including in several parks, at a bus stop and on some streets. “Play Me, I’m yours” are written on them. People are invited to play music or sing songs with the pianos. The program has interested in lots of people to stop to watch or play the pianos.

“Play Me, I’m yours” is a part of the Sydney Festival. It is a project of the British artist, Luck Jerram. He wants to help people in the city know each other better. He thinks that so many people are sitting in front of computers and busy with their work all hours, and they almost have no chance to enjoy music. So he hopes this can help them relax and make new friends.

The program “Play Me, I’m yours” has also reached England and Brazil (巴西) before. It was warmly welcomed there. But its greatest success seems to come at the Sydney Festival. “It’s a chance for people to be creative, know others better and just have some fun,” Jerram said.