【推荐1】When I was young, I lived in Scotland with my parents. I had a good time there.

One morning, I ran to the garden, and said to the old Scotsman who worked there. “Today I am going up the mountain for berries.” No, no, Missey, not today.” he said, “It will rain.” “No, it will not rain.” I said, “The sun is up. The cook says it will be fine. The glass in the hall doesn’t say rain.”

“Tuts, tuts.” said the old man, I care for no suns, or cooks, or glasses. The pimpernel (海螺) says it will rain, and so it will rain. Flowers, Missey, always tell the truth. When they say rain, go and get your umbrella.

Sure enough, by noon the rain was pouring down. After that, I looked with great respect at the tiny flower sometimes brickred, sometimes blue, which could tell about the weather. But the pimpemel is not the only plant that is a weather prophet.

If you go into the garden, and find the African marigolds shut after seven o’clock in the morning, you may be pretty sure that there will be a rainy day. There is a little single marigold which shuts up in a hurry if the sky becomes clouded. It is called the “rainy-marigold”.

Most plants which we call “weather prophets” shut up for rain. But some plants open for rain. The cause of the opening and closing is probably the difference in light. Most likely these plants shut their flowers because there is too little light.

But you know there are some plants which become smaller in a strong light and love the shade. You will find that most shade-loving plants, as the verbenas, do not close for rain.

Lilies, tulips and other flowers that love the sun shut for rain, tulips are careful not to open their cups very wide in the morning if it is likely to rain. The roses make no change. They seem not to fear wet.

On the whole, you may be pretty sure, if you go into your garden, and find many flowers—as tulips, marigolds and morning glories-shut, it will be a stormy day, unfit for picnics or long walks.

【推荐2】Artificial intelligence (人工智能), or AI in short, is the science of giving computers and machines ability to think and work like humans. AI scientists and engineers have made a lot of cool technologies.

AI is rapidly catching up with the human ability to read faces. As a result, facial recognition (识别) is used a lot in the world. Chinese police use this technology to identify criminals (罪犯). Once they caught a criminal when he attended a concert. It also checks the ID of ride-hailing (网约车) drivers and lets people pay for things with a smile.

AI is also used in self-driving cars, which are believed to be the future of driving. Most drivers may wave or nod at passers﹣by to let them cross the street, but self-driving cars don’t have this ability. Carmakers are testing a light signal system to help them “speak” to humans. The system can show what self-driving cars will do. For example, if a driverless car is yielding (让路), it will lash two white lights side to side. A rapidly flashing light tells passers-by that the car is about to speed up.

Service Robots also show you how powerful AI is. Imagine this—you come back home from school and your robot housekeeper is waiting for you at the door. After dinner he teaches you to play the piano, just like a real music teacher. Such thoughts will soon happen in the real world. In the future, more and more service robots will become good home helpers.

AI is so powerful that it can help human beings and even replace us in many jobs

【推荐3】Autism (自闭症) is a disorder of the brain that happens in the first three years of life. It affects the brain’s normal development. Most autistic patients have difficulty talking with other people or doing things. However, some of the autistic people have amazing abilities. For example, some can memorize many things and some can do calculations (计算) really fast.   

Raymond Babbitt in the 1988 film Rain Man is an example. The character in the film was based on Kim Peek, a man from the USA. Peck couldn’t switch on a light or put his clothes on by himself. But his memory was so amazing that he could remember almost anything. He could memorize every road, place and distance on maps. He could even remember almost every word in thousands of books. His way of reading was more amazing. Peek could read two pages at the same time in just eight to ten seconds. He read the left page with his left eye and the right page with his right eye.   

Scientists still don’t know for sure why some autistic people have special talent after they have done a lot of research. There is one possible explanation. When certain parts of the brain are damaged by autism, other parts of the brain might get stronger. Therefore, special abilities were born.

But not all people with autism have amazing abilities. In fact, autistic people with amazing abilities are rare and the abilities cannot be trained. According to research, only ten percent of autistic people show signs of special talent.

【推荐1】If you are feeling angry, sad or lonely, you might reach for a snack. But imagine there is a vending（售卖的）machine nearby. You tell it how you are feeling and it gives you something that may help you feel better. Doesn't that sound like a cool idea?

There is actually a vending machine like this in Sydney, Australia. It has no potato chips or chocolate bars. What you will find inside are things like maps, notes and the pencils to help you vent your terrible feelings, for example, you can tell the machine your sadness.

Two Australian artists designed the machine. Each item inside costs two Australian dollars（about 10 yuan). The items come in packets that have different labels like "friendship", "bravery and "imagination". You can choose the one that most suits your feelings.

For example, in the "friendship" packet, there is a piece of paper that lists 10 daily activities you can use to keep in touch with old friends. That "imagination" packet has a pencil and asks you to draw a series of unusual things. Will you turn to vending machines to cheer yourself up?

【推荐2】The Plain of Jars (石缸平原) is a great man-made wonder in Laos, a country in southeast Asia. It is made up of thousands of stone jars. More than 90 jar sites have been found there. Each site has from 1 to 400 stone jars. The jars come in different sizes from 1 to 3 meters tall. Scientists have long been perplexed by their original (最初的) use.

Not long ago, scientists found ancient things and burial (埋葬的) practices at the Plain of Jars. “This will be the first major effort since the 1930s to try to understand the purpose of the jars and who created them.” Dougald O’Reilly from the Australian National University said. “The jars are empty now, but it is possible that they were once used to hold bodies.”

Only a few simple objects, such as a handful of glass beads (玻璃珠), have been found at the burial sites. And scientists think they are from about 500 or 600 BC to 550 AD.

An Australia-Laos research team spent a month collecting data (资料) at the site. O’Reilly said, “Though the stone jars remain a mystery (谜), I hope a better understanding of the Plain of Jars will help have it listed as a World Heritage site (世界遗产保护区).”

【推荐3】Is there intelligent (有智力的) life on other planets? For years, scientists said “no” or “we don’t know”. But today this is changing. Seth Shostak and Alexandra Barnett are astronomers (天文学家). They believe intelligent life exists (存在) somewhere in the universe. They also think we will soon contact these beings (人；生物).

Why do Shostak and Barnett think intelligent life exists on other planets? The first reason is time. Scientists believe the universe is about 12 billion years old. “This is long enough for other planets to have intelligent life,” say Shostak and Barnett. The second reason is size — the universe is huge. “Tools like the Hubble Telescope (哈勃望远镜) have shown that there are at least 100 billion galaxies,” says Shostak. “And our galaxy, the Milky Way, has at least 100 billion stars. Some planets going around these stars might be similar to Earth.”

In the past, it was hard to look for signs of intelligent life in the universe. But now, powerful telescopes (高倍望远镜) allow scientists to discover smaller planets. These planets might have intelligent life.

Have beings from space already visited Earth? “Probably not,” says Shostak. However, intelligent beings may contact us in other way, such as radio signals (信号). In fact, they may be trying to communicate with us now, but we don’t have the right tools to receive their messages. However, this is changing. By 2025, we could make contact with other life forms in our universe and we might help each other.