【推荐1】The world is so colorful in our eyes. But does it look the same through the eyes of animals?

Animals live a different life from us humans. They have different needs. So their eyesight(视力) is special in all kinds of ways.

	Dogs can see fewer colors than us and they can only see blue, brown and yellow. So when you go out with your pet dog, you’d better wear blue or yellow clothes so that your dog can follow you more easily.
	Mice can move one eye in different directions while keeping the other eye still. It’s better to see their enemies. They can’t see as many colors as us. It’s not necessary because they mostly come out at night.
	Horses are very tall and their eyes are on either side of the heads, so they can see wider than humans. However, a horse has a blind point in front of its nose. They can see green and blue, but most of the time they see grey.

【推荐1】I am Garrison. I live on a small farm in Kenya. As a child, I enjoyed trying new ideas. Sometimes I could make my own inventions, such as electronic toys from car parts and peach-picking sticks. I also made other useful daily things for my neighbours.

At the age of 13, I invented something that changed my life. One night, a lion came into my family’s farm and killed one of our cows. I was angry. So I decided to “invent” a solution.

The first idea I got was to use fire, because I thought the lion was scared of fire. But I came to know that didn’t help, because it was even helping the lion to see through the cowshed (牛棚).

And a second idea was to use a scarecrow (稻草人). I was trying to trick the lion into thinking that I was standing near the cowshed. But the lion was very clever. It came the first day, saw the scarecrow, and went back. But the second day, it came and found that the scarecrow didn’t move. It was always there! So the lion jumped in and killed another cow.

However, one night, I was walking around the cowshed with a flashlight. To my surprise, the lion didn’t show up. Then I realized that the lion was afraid of a moving light. So I had an idea…

【推荐2】We can see flying cars in TV shows and movies. Many companies（公司）are trying to build them, and now the flying car has come into our life. The flying car is called AirCar. And it just finished a 35-minute test flight （试飞） between two airports in Slovakia.

The AirCar was made by Stefan Klein. When Klein was a little boy, he watched a French movie. In the movie, there was a flying car and he showed great interest in it. And he dreamed of building a flying car one day. Klein flew the car himself on the test flight.

The AirCar is expensive and it costs around £ 1.7 million. It can change from a car into a plane in just 2 minutes and 15 seconds. So far, the AirCar has spent 40 hours in the air, including its first test flight. During these tests the AirCar’s top speed（最高速度）was 190 km per hour. It can fly 1, 000 km at a height of 2, 500 meters. It can carry two people up to 200 kg.

Dr Branko Sarh, from Boeing company, praised Klein for building the AirCar. “It is fantastic. It will be very useful in the future because it can solve（解决）the traffic problems around the world.”

Some people hope that flying cars will one day be a big part of everyday life.

Would you like to get one?

【推荐3】Are you troubled by housework, such as cleaning tables or tidying your room? A new robot is here to help! Recently, the robot Mobile Aloha made by scientists at Stanford University in the US became popular online.

In the videos posted, we can see the robot preparing dishes on its own, from cutting vegetables to cracking (打破) eggs. It’s also good at watering plants, petting cats, cleaning the floor and washing clothes. It even knows to shake the pillow (枕头) after putting it into a pillowcase (枕套).

Sounds good? Well, another video posted by researchers may disappoint some people. Mobile Aloha isn’t good at doing housework on its own. Instead, it learns from human actions before doing each kind of housework. When the situation changes, it can’t work well without a human ”teaching” it. So it may break dishes, bump into (撞上) things and even burn a pot.

The robot can successfully move chairs 80 percent of the time, said the team after they did more research on it. For cooking dishes, it’s only 40 percent. In short, it’s far from perfect.

In fact, AI robots are good at tasks such as math and playing chess, but they face challenges when it comes to simpler actions like cleaning. And it’s the same for Mobile Aloha. For example, if its body doesn’t move correctly—even just with a small deviation, its arm may move too far to pick up a glass.

“Robots are not ready to take over the world,” the team posted on the Internet.

【推荐1】With the development of modern technology, robots are going into many fields of human beings. They can be instructed to carry different tasks and finish them well.

【推荐2】A.   My name Is Danny, I'm from England. I am eleven. I'm in Grade Seven. I'm tall with black hair. I have two big eyes. My fax(传真) number is 010-74862635.

B.   Hello I am Jane. I'm from the USA.   I have a round face and two big eyes. I'm short and thin. I'm twelve. I'm in Grade Seven in Beijing Yucai High School. My parents work in Beijing.

C.   Look at the photo, Who's the girl in it? It's me, an English girl. My name is Amy. I'm in Grade Seven. I'm thirteen. My home phone number is 022-43765986. I have a round face and long, black hair, I like Chinese very much, and I'm very good at it.

D, Do you know me? My name is Syoko. I'm thirteen. Now I'm in Beijing. I'm short, and I have two short legs. I'm very heavy with broad shoulders. I look like a Chinese, but I'm not from China.

【推荐3】An idiom is a phrase that we can’t understand from the meaning of each word. For example, if an American boy asks his mum what’s for dinner, she may say, “I’ll play it by ear.” That means she doesn’t have plans for dinner and she will decide later.

“Play it by ear” used to mean playing music without using the sheet music(活页乐谱), but now it’s different. There are many idioms in English. If you learn to use them, your English will be much more colorful.

Have you ever heard the idiom “He bought the farm”? It means “He died”. Do you know how it became popular? It was first used in World War I. When a soldier died, the government gave his family enough money to buy a farm.

In the early 1930s, people in the US often did not know when or where their next meal was. So as soon as they got something in their hands that could be eaten, it would go into their mouths. That was how people began to use the idiom “live hand to mouth”.

And don’t be angry if your English friend says this to you, “Break a leg in your game!” He is wishing you good luck! Hundreds of years ago, people believed in sprites(小精灵). Sprites enjoyed causing trouble. If sprites heard you ask for something, they would make the opposite happen. Tell someone to “break a leg” and sprites would make something good happen.