Are you troubled by cleaning dinner tables or tidying your room?     1     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. It can do many things, from cutting vegetables to making soup.     2     It even knows to shake the pillow(枕头) after putting it into a pillowcase.

Sounds good? Well, another video posted by researchers may disappoint some people.     3     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, knock into things and even burn a pot.

In fact, AI robots are good at tasks such as math and playing chess.     4     And it’s the same for Mobile Aloha. For example, if its body doesn’t move correctly—even just with a small deviation (偏差), its arm may not reach up a glass. The robot can successfully move chairs 80 percent of the time, said the researchers after they did more research on it. For cooking dishes, it’s only 40 percent.     5    

It seems that Robots are not ready to take over the world.

【推荐2】Top Tips for the Flu Season

    1     It’s coming. I can feel it in the air. On the subway every time someone coughs, I look up to see if I can move a little further. As I exit the train, I immediately reach for hand wash to remove any of the dirt on my hands.

    2     If you are elderly, have medical problems, or are a young child, you may not be so lucky. Each year more than 200,000 people are staying in hospital due to the illness. Depending on the year, between 3,000 and 49,000 people die.

    3     You may have heard about a new study on flu vaccines (感冒疫苗), and it found that the flu vaccine didn’t work as well as we thought or would like. However, it still offers considerable protection. For adults, the vaccine is 59 percent protective on average. For children the result is better. Clearly, we need better vaccines but it’s still a really good idea to get vaccinated.

    4     You may have an arm pain or a little fever, but the injection does not contain a live virus and cannot give you the flu. If you got the flu shot last year, do you need it this year? It isn’t clear how long the protection lasts and if the vaccine protects against different flus for only one year.

    5     First, if you have the symptoms (症状), call your doctor early to see if he wants to prescribe (开处方) some medicine. Then, stay at home until your fever has been gone for at least 24 hours. That will reduce the number of people you give this to. Also, cover your coughs and sneezes (打喷嚏). And don’t forget to keep your hands clean.

Best wishes for a safe fu season!

Many people think of sharks as dangerous monsters.     1     Although shark attacks do happen, they are not very often. On the other hand, humans kill about 100 million sharks every year. It is a warning that many kinds of sharks may die out.

Why should we save the sharks?

    2     Sharks eat other species (物种), but few species eat them. As sharks die off, the number of the animals that sharks eat will increase. This, in turn, means that the number of the creatures that those animals eat will become smaller. So how can you help save the sharks?

    3    

Pet foods, energy drinks, leather products can also be made from sh ark parts. And shark meat is sold around the world. Most sharks killed worldwide are hunted for their fins (鳍), which are used to make shark fin soup. The process is unfriendly. Fishermen cut the shark’s fins off and then drop the shark back into the water, still alive. Sharks breathe by swimming.     4    

Eat only sustainably (可持续的) caught seafood.

If you eat seafood, make sure it comes from fisheries (渔场) that care for the sea.     5     They can teach you about these important animals and give more advice on how to keep them alive. They also need your support to continue protecting these important creatures.

【推荐2】Welcome to Forever Supermarket (永恒超市). Do you need food for your family? All the vegetables and fruit are at very good prices. Do you like big and red strawberries? They are ¥10 a kilo (千克). Pears and oranges are only ¥4 a kilo. The tomatoes are ¥3 a kilo.

Come and have a look, boys and girls! For boys, we have black shorts for only ¥28. Soccer balls and basketballs are only ¥35. For girls, we have pink, red, and white skirts for ¥40. We also have yellow bags for only ¥15. Come and see by yourself soon.

Home Alone Safety—A safety training course for children aged 10+

This course prepares your child for all the important steps of being “home alone”. Being home alone can be a dangerous and uncomfortable situation for your child without some basic skills. Let’s work together to make our children safe!

Course Skills Include:

√First aid (急救)     √Cooking Safety

√Fire Safety            √Answering Doors; Telephones

√Appliance (电器) Safety

These skills are fully covered in this course through games and role playing.

Time: 9:30 a.m.—11:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 18, 2023

Place: 3F, City Library, Central Street

Price: $30 each child

How to Register (报名):

Please register at least three days before the class date.