1 . Saying “thank you” when you receive an unexpected gift is all well and good, but how can you get a little creative with your appreciation? As it turns out, there are plenty of ways to express your gratitude to others while remaining gracious and sincere.     1    . We’ll show you how to say thank you in exciting and meaningful ways!

I appreciate this.     2    . A great “thank you” involves expressing appreciation for the gift and explaining why you’re grateful. For added value, you can even describe what you’ll do with their gifts if you have an idea.

You’ve made my day! Show them that their gifts turned your day around. Telling someone that they made your day will make the giver feel that their gifts are much more meaningful and worthwhile.     3     .

It’s like you read my mind! Thank you. Compliment (恭维) their gift-giving skills.     4     , it can be likely that they really know you and are anticipating your needs without having to ask you what you want! Show them how touched you are by letting them know that their gifts are exactly what you want.

    5    . Show them how surprised you are. If someone goes out of their way to give you an unexpected gift, make sure they know they succeeded in their mission to surprise and delight you. Say “thanks” and express your shock at the same time. For example, you should have seen me; my eyes almost popped out of my head! Thank you for the lovely surprise.

Hey, everyone! It’s Kai again. I’m back with another     1     (amaze) episode of NatGeo kids. And this week we’re talking all about robots. Okay so I bet you’re wondering     2     exactly is a robot. Good question.    3     (basic), a robot is a machine    4     (create) to perform a series of actions. These actions could be as simple as rolling around the house vacuuming out dirty floors. Other robots perform more complicated tasks such as traveling to and     5     (explore) different planets like NASA’s Mars exploration Rovers which were built    6     (study) the surface of Mars. And did you know that humans have been building robots for    7     (century)? In fact many believe the first robot was created over 2,000 years ago. A man called Artistas in ancient Greece     8     (build)a bird-like self-propelling machine that could fly up to a distance of 200 meters that’s like two football fields. Today robots come    9     all shapes and sizes. Some are small even microscopic while others are large in some cases as big as a car or even a truck.

There are flying robots, robots that can drive and robots that can swim, robots that can do a lot of things. Who knows, maybe one day robots will be able to do just about everything    10     humans can do.

3 . Communication Tips

Here are some suggestions about making your talk with your parents turn out for the best.

Be honest.

If you’re always honest, your parents will be likely to believe what you say. If you sometimes hide the truth, parents will have a harder time to believe what you tell them.    1    

Be brave and start talking.

It’s easy to say “Hi, Mum” or “Dad, can you pass the potatoes?”     2       Let’s face it. You will feel embarrassed (尴尬的)when talking about something personal, but your parents know you quite well. They were your age once, too! So don’t let a little embarrassment stop you. It’s OK to go ahead and share what’s on your mind.

    3    

If you have a disagreement, can you consider things from your parents’ points of view? If you can, telling your parents you understand their views and feelings helps them be willing to understand yours, too.

Try not to argue.

Using a friendly and respectful tone makes your parents more likely to listen to you and take what you say seriously.     4    

What if it doesn’t work? If you still can’t talk to your parents, seek other adults’ help.    5     Then follow all the tips above to make you communicate with that person well.

7 . A team of researchers has found how to use math to study paintings to learn more about how the art developed in the western world. In their paper published in Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes how they scanned thousands of paintings and then used mathematical algorithms (算法) to find commonalities between them over time.

Beauty, as the saying goes, is in the eye of the beholder — and so it is also with art. Two people looking at the same painting can walk away with vastly different impressions. The study of art history can serve as a channel — casting light on societal trends over time. The re-searchers further note that to date, most studies of art history have been qualitatively (定性地) based, which has led to the results with prejudice, To overcome it, the researchers with this new effort look to math to see if it might be useful in uncovering features of paintings that have been overlooked by human scholars.

The work involved digitally scanning 14, 912 paintings — all of which ( except for two ) were painted by Western artists. The data for each of the paintings was then sent through a mathematical algorithm that drew partitions on the digital images based on contrasting colors. The researchers ran the algorithm on each painting multiple times, each time creating more sections to study. For example, the first run of the algorithm might have simply created two sections on a painting — everything on land and everything in the sky. The second might have split the land into buildings in one section and farmland in another.

The researchers then ran other algorithms designed to look for patterns between the paintings. Doing so allowed them to see trends like painting styles that predominated during certain eras and long-term trends, such as the placement of the horizon (地平线). The researchers found that over the past several hundred years, painters have been placing it increasingly higher. In the 17th century, the separation between Earth and sky dominated landscapes — those done in more modern times, in sharp contrast, have the horizon very near the top of the painting.

8 . High schools used to teach shop classes, in which students learned skills like woodworking. Nowadays, most schools have traded in shop class in favor of academic subjects. However, the National Science Foundation STEM Guitar Project thinks that academic subjects and carpentry (木匠活) can be combined. This organization aims to get students excited about science, math, and arts all at once, by teaching students how to make a guitar.

Experis forecast that technical skills like this one could be in great demand in the future. Unfortunately, many high schools don’t offer students access to mechanical design skills, due to the fact that they are not on the list of standardized subjects and the schools can’t scientifically assess students’ performance. But, is STEM really needed in order to build a guitar? Actually, it’s impossible to make a guitar without knowing science and math.

Joshua Cruz, a design teacher, said that building a guitar also teaches troubleshooting and problemsolving skills. He thinks the STEM Guitar Project provides opportunities to challenge students to apply their own creativity to STEM problems. “I’m still figuring out how we can apply it,” Cruz explained. “I think we’re going to use a lot of the same theories behind how strings and stringed instruments work and try and get them to make stringed instruments of their own, and thus improve their academic performance.”

Because of its effectiveness and creativity, the guitar initiative was offered the Gerhard Salinger award, which recognizes outstanding STEM school programs. “Through this project, we have become part of this community of businessmen, engineers and artisans,” said Mark French, one of the six people who received the award for his work with STEM guitar. “It’s a great group and I’m pleased to be part of it. I get to combine something I love doing with an activity that really makes the world a little bit better place. It really does help people.”

Thanks to people like Mark French, and to the STEM Guitar Project, the world is a little bit of a better, more educated, and more musical place.

Mark Levine, originally from the US, has lived in China for 17 years and     1     (make)a close bond with the country.

Before coming to China, Levine heard that China is a country with 56 ethnic groups.     2     like many Americans, he didn’t quite get what it’s like. “In the United States often people don’t understand     3     concept of China as a multi-ethnic country, “Levine said.

Yet,    4    (work) as a teacher at Minzu University of China gives him a better insight than other Americans. He sees     5     (student) from many different ethnic groups in his class, such as Han, Tibetan, Uygur, Miao, Tujia, Bouyei, Zhuang and so on. They not only study together, but also play, eat and shop together after class. It’s different     6    what he sees in Western media. “What I see is a commonality (共通性)and common interests, ＂the 74-year-old said.

    7     (learn) more about ethnic groups in China, Levine volunteered at the university’s Museum of Ethnic Cultures for many years, studying     8    (it) exhibits. In daily life, he also invites his students to introduce their unique cultures and traditions to him.

As he has learned more about China, he has built a     9     (deep) connection to the country. In his free time as a     10     (music), Levine has written nearly 80 songs about China. The most recent song he wrote is called My China Surprise(《中国让我没想到》). In the song, he says, “My China surprise, you can see it in my eyes. It’s the light that shines in them wherever I go. ”