Spring is here, and it is time to enjoy West Lake Longjing tea. Usually, we think of workers picking tea leaves by hand. But now, some Longjing tea is being picked by smart tea-picking robots!

In a Hangzhou tea garden, a smart tea-picking robot developed by Zhejiang SciTech University begin to work for the first time. “We took thousands of pictures of new tea buds (芽) and put them into the robot for it to learn. The robot uses an AI model to recognize (识别) the buds it needs to pick,”said Professor Chen Jianneng, Party branch secretary (党支部书记) of the research team. This lets the robot find the right tea buds about 90% of the time.

The robot’s arm pulls and sucks (吸) up the tea buds. These buds are quickly moved into a special box. After the robot collects all the buds from the area it’s working at, it moves the buds from the box to a main box.

The robot was made because there are not enough people to pick tea leaves. In Zhejiang, about 400,000 more pickers are needed now. “Picking is the biggest challenge for the development of the tea industry,” said Professor Wu Chuanyu, who leads the research team.

“Tea-picking robots are a trend (趋势) of the future,” said Wu. About five years from now, the robots will do the job of picking West Lake Longjing tea instead of people, Wu added.

You might see a fat wolf on the side of the road in the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve in Qinghai province. It wags (摇晃) its tail in front of the passing cars. It hopes to get a meal.

However, the wolf was skin and bone a few months ago. It’s said that the old hungry wolf was forced to leave the wolf group because it was not good at hunting. But that changed after a passing driver gave it two pies and posted a video of it online. The video made the wolf very popular, and a lot of people came to the area to provide it with food.

Since then, the wolf has given up its hunting instinct (本能) and turned to passers-by for snacks. The snacks are high in oil, sugar and salt. Later, more wolves have joined this behavior. The wolf’s change makes it look like a pet dog. But the change means that it is losing its ability to live in nature, and that may cause the wild animal to die. In fact, it is common for wild animals like wolves and bears to be fed near the roads in the province. People care about wild animals, but their feeding sometimes can cause harm to both animals and themselves. If a wild animal needs help, people are suggested to report it to the government for professional handling (专业处理).

A slow train in Southwest China with its own study room has drawn much attention. The train No. 5609/5610 runs between Chongqing and Xiushan county.

It is a public-welfare (公益的) “slow train”. In some carriages (车厢), some desks and chairs next to the windows take the place of seats in order to turn the carriage into a “study carriage” for passengers in need.

The train No. 5609/5610 is not the only one of this kind. Other “slow trains” have become “study carriages”, too, including No. 5619/5620 and 5633/5634. They run along the Chengdu-Kunming Railway. Students from nearby schools often take the trains between school and home. The trains are their “school buses” and they often use their travel time to finish homework. Many passengers also use their travel time to complete work.

On the train No. Z150, running between Guiyang and Beijing, a “book bar” carriage has been popular with college students. There are nearly 400 universities and colleges in the cities along the line, making the train the top choice for most students from those schools. Since 2015, the train’s dining car has been open for free at night. It provides students with a lending library, free tea and other services. It’s a relaxing place for the students to continue their studies.

Many scientists find that colors can change people’s feelings. It’s very interesting. Some colors can make people feel relaxed, and some colors can make people feel nervous.

Now, this kind of knowledge (知识) is being used in many places. For example, school walls are always painted green because green makes students feel relaxed. It is also good for the students’ eyes. Some books are also green or light blue for the same reason. Restaurant owners not only have to know how to make food, but also have to know how to make money. Here are some things they’ve learned from scientific (科学的) studies. The colour red makes people hungry. Many fast food restaurants have red furniture or walls. Soft colors like pink and light blue make people feel relaxed, so they spend more time eating. Loud music may be nice at first, but it soon makes people want to leave. Hard seats also make customers want to eat quickly and leave. Many restaurants, especially fast food restaurants, use this knowledge to make customers eat faster.

The British Museum is the biggest one in the world. It was built nearly 300 years ago by a doctor, Sir Hans Sloane. The man liked to collect things such as books, drawings, clothes and so on. He also hoped that his children and grandchildren kept his things well and so people would visit them after his death. His wish came true, and the museum opened in 1759, six years after Sir Hans Sloane died. Later, more antiques (古董) arrived at the museum and more people wanted to visit it.

The museum had a famous round Reading Room. There was something unusual in the room. Cool air came up through small holes in the tables. Hot air flowing under the floor kept readers’ feet warm. Since its opening, many famous people wrote and studied there.

It is open every day of the year, except two holidays (New Year’s Day and Christmas). Entrance (入场) is free. There are lots of special exhibitions and every day there are different films and talks, some of them for children. Small machines tell you about the museum as you walk around it.

So if you are one of the British Museum’s two million tourists this year, don’t try to see it all too quickly. There is a lifetime of looking in the British Museum.

10 . You might feel tired after solving a difficult math problem or studying for a whole day. Are our brains (大脑) really “burning” when we spend a lot of time thinking? In fact, our brains never stop burning calories (卡路里), even if we aren’t thinking about anything.

Our brain gets energy (能量) from a kind of sugar that can be found in rice and noodles. Since our brain never really rests, it is burning energy in the form of sugar all the time. Even when we sleep, our brain needs energy to keep our body working. These include breathing, digesting (消化) and keeping the body warm.

The brain uses up 20 to 25 percent of the body’s total (全部的) energy. That’s 350 calories per (每一) day for a woman and 450 for a man. When you are five or six years old, your brain uses up to 60 percent of the body’s energy, according to Live Science.

When we are thinking hard, the brain burns more calories. In one study, researchers found that people who worked on a hard task on a computer ate around 200 more calories than those who were resting. That explains why you feel hungry and eat more after taking exams or studying for a long time.