【推荐2】Don’t you think robots are a part of your life? In factories, robots put together everything from toys to cars. Some homes have robots that sweep floors or mow the lawn (剪草坪). And more robots are soon to come.

【推荐2】Do you know which social app is popular with Chinese young people now? “Short videos”are certainly the most popular. A large number of young people use Tik Tok (抖音) and Kuaishou. They think it is fun to share their lives by short videos, while others have other purposes as well.

A 12-year-old user named Elsa has about 2.7 million fans on Tik Tok. The girl has shared her dancing studies on Tik Tok since last July. One of the videos won her about one million fans.“I feel really glad to share happiness with people by short videos,” said Elsa.

To some other young people, they use short videos to have a quick look at the hot programs. “Because I don’t like to spend many hours watching a whole program, I hate waiting for a program to end, and I prefer to watch short videos of wonderful parts of hot programs,” said Wang Zhihao.

However, some young people feel bored with short videos.“Killing time is the main reason for me to watch short videos, and many short videos are almost the same, so I think they are not so useful or interesting. What’s more, I really don’t like the videos about strange and dangerous things,” said Wen Nan, another college student.

Recently, something else has appeared. Some videos are telling people what commodities are worth buying. Some short videos even sell bad commodities, and it is hard for customers to get their money back. So we should think twice before we want to buy the commodities by short videos.

【推荐1】A panda looks like a little bear. Its fur is black and white. It lives only in China, so it is called the national treasure (国宝) of China and protected (保护) by the law.

Pandas are usually very heavy. Some of them can be about 1.5 meters tall and weigh (重) about 100 kilos. But pandas are very agile. They can climb trees easily.

Pandas have big teeth and they like eating bamboo. Every day, each grown-up (成年) panda eats about 15—30 kilos of bamboo and they usually spend 10—12 hours eating. Pandas also have free-time hobbies. Two of their hobbies are climbing trees and sleeping.

A panda is a lucky animal. We Chinese like it, and people all over the world like it, too. Now there are China’s pandas in many other countries, such as Japan and the USA.

A panda isn’t a common animal. It is a bridge of friendship between China and other countries.

【推荐2】Three types of memory

Some scientists believe that there are three types of memory—immediate, short-term and long-term.

Immediate memory holds information for less than a second, e.g. the name of a road you have just seen. Then it either forgets it or passes it into short-term memory.

Short-term memory can hold about seven items of information at a time, e.g. telephone numbers. It holds them for about 30 seconds. Then it either forgets them or passes them into long term memory.

Long-term memory can hold information for the whole of our lives. Some scientists believe that there are two types of long-term memory. One type remembers events, e.g. the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The other remembers knowledge, e.g. the names of countries or the meanings of words.

【推荐3】Everyone has his own birthday. People in different countries celebrate their birthdays in different ways. Now here are four people from different countries. They will tell us how they celebrate their birthdays in their countries.

Sandy comes from Madrid. She says happily, “My 21st birthday is on Saturday, and I’m going to go out with some friends. To wish me a happy birthday, they are going to pull (拉) on my ear 21 times, once for each year. It’s an old custom. Some people pull on the ear just once, but my friends are very traditional.”

Mr. and Mrs. Sato are from Tokyo. Mr. Sato is going to be 60 tomorrow. In Japan, the sixtieth birthday is called Kanreki — it’s the beginning of a new life. The color red is for a new life, so we always give something red for a sixtieth birthday.

Liu Mei from Beijing feels very excited and tells us, “Tomorrow is my 16th birthday. It’s a special birthday, so we’re going to have a family party. Maybe I will get some lucky money from my relatives (亲戚). My mother is going to cook noodles for a long life.”

Phillip, from Paris, smiles to us, “I’m going to be thirty next week, so I’m going to invite three very good friends out for dinner. In France, when you have a birthday, you often invite people out.”

How do you usually celebrate your birthday?