2 . One day, you might be ordering your favorite pizza from a robot.Researchers at a university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are working on creating a pizza-making robot.

“Robots are basically preprogrammed to repeat the same actions over and over,” says David Held, a robot expert from Carnegie Mellon University, and one of the members of a pizza-making team．But making pizza has challenges.For instance, the flour (面粉) will become squishy when meeting water, with a shape that can change in many ways.Also, pizza-making requires many steps—such as rolling and cutting—and several tools, including a rolling, a knife and so on.In what order should the steps be done? Which tools should be picked, and when? “If you need to do a cooking task, there are several levels that you have to reason about,” Held says.Once people get the hang of it, “We don’t even need to think about exactly how we’re doing it- it sort of just happens.But robots can’t really “understand what to do on their own”.

To start, the team used a computer to consider how a robot could lift, fatten, gather, move and cut dough (生面团).The method has two levels of robotic reasoning: one that thinks how it should approach the overall task, and the other that thinks how it should move its “hands” to perform each action．The result was better than with the usual programming techniques.“We got a little bit closer to the right shape than the former methods,” Held says．“‘But there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”

For now, people will continue to make pizza the old-fashioned way: with their own hands.Sill, a pizza-making robot is a good goal.And if a robot could deal with dough, it could also work with other objects that can change shapes.“You can imagine robots helping in hospitals, or robots that clean up toys in day cares,” Held says.“The general goal is to eventually have robots that can help with whatever the task may be.”

3 . The week my eldest son finished pre-school education, I decided to clear out the playroom filled with his toys. Toys had kept him company whenever his mother and I were busy with other duties, and over the years we had collected a really large number of them. Here are some of what I found: 13 puzzles, 4 games for practising maths, and a speaker box that could play Mozart to develop musical ability.

Our masses of playthings may have been extreme, but it was by no means unusual. American families spend, on average, around 600 dollars every year on toys; a 10-year-old child in the UK may have owned 238 toys, totaling about 6,500 pounds.

During the past two centuries, educators, toy companies and parents like us have acted as if the purpose of play is to prepare children for adulthood. The more book learning we could pack up as play, and then give to our children, the better. Then, in the second half of the 20th century, toys were increasingly bought for the purpose of building better brains in order to build more competitive and successful grownups. By 2020, the different kinds of educational toys had made nearly $65 billion worldwide. Toys that teach — from the Speak & Spell to the See & Say — are now a part of many young lives.

“This generation of parents is asking toys to provide an end product, and that end product is success,” Richard Gottlieb, an influential toy industry advisor, commented. “They want toys to get their children into Harvard.”

“The model has been, ‘If I get toys that do schoolish things, then that’s good,’” Alison Gopnik, a leading developmental psychologist, said. “But that really goes against what the developmental science is telling us. For a long time, we’ve been getting our children, and their toys, all wrong.”

4 . It was the first run of a family ski weekend in Colorado.The perfect spring morning greeted us with clear skies and a warm temperature.We planned the course on the mountain map and set off.Then, three minutes into the run, my left ski came off; then my right ski turned over and took my leg with it, and then I heard the sharp sound.I lay on the snow, screaming.My brother and husband stopped and took me down the mountain to the hospital．

After an operation, the doctor told me that I wouldn’t walk for three months.It seemed like a blow.“How can we get everything done?” I turned to Adam, my husband.Who would get the kids to the bus at 7:15 a.m. , since my husband was in his office by 6 a.m. each day? Who would deal with the two dogs? Who would prepare dinner? Who would drive to tennis practices? “We’ll work it out,” Adam said.I nodded, because we didn’t have the other choice．

But something unexpected happened: friends both near and far were searching for ways they could help.Parents at our school bus stop offered to drop my kids off each afternoon.My kids ran up the steps each day to check on me.My husband, the man who, in the past, had to be told what to do and when to do it, pulled our family back up.

Finally, I returned to the shopping and the bus pickups. I made dinners again.I organized everyone and sent them out the door.But something had changed in our family, in me.Now I am quicker to ask for help if I am the one needing.

5 . We’ve collected some of the greatest royal (皇家的) palaces and castles to visit in Britain. Here are our picks.

Windsor Castle, Berkshire

Windsor Castle is the oldest castle in the world. It used to be an official accommodation for Her Majesty the Queen and was the place where the wedding of Prince Hary and Meghan Markle was held. The site of Windsor Castle was chosen and built by William in around 1070 to guard the western ways to London from a possible attack.

Open all year round to the public.

Buckingham Palace, Westminster

The official accommodation of the King and Queen and one of Britain’s most recognized historic sites, Buckingham Palace is often used for national celebrations and events. It was bought in 1761 by George II for his wife Queen Charlotte.

Buckingham Palace is open to the public during the summer months and for a limited number of tours in December, January and at Easter each year.

Kew Palace, Richmond-Upon-Thames

Sitting on the banks of the River Thames in London, Kew Palace might be the smallest of the royal palaces. With the big Kew Gardens around, the palace was built in 1631 for the London silk businessman, Samuel Fortreas.

Kew Palace is open for the summer season.

Hampton Court Palace, Surrey

Set on the edge of the River Thames, Hampton Court Palace in Surrey was a Tudor palace created by Cardinal Wlosey in the early 16th century and was once home to Henry VII over the years. There are beautiful gardens nearby and the palace was opened to the public in 1838 by Queen Victoria.

Open all year round, except 24-26 December.

Wildlife protection is     1     global issue, as illegal hunting and habitat loss continue to threaten the balance of ecosystems (生态系统). The decrease in species has caused concerns among individuals and organizations all over the world.     2     (recognize) the serious need for actions, people are making efforts to raise awareness to fight     3     these harmful practices.

To deal with the threats faced by wildlife, building reserves and habitats plays an important role. These areas provide a safe place for various species to survive, allowing     4     (they) to live and grow without the effect of human activities. By     5     (create) these protected spaces, we can ensure the     6     (preserve) of their natural habitats and protect their populations for future generations to enjoy. However, the challenge     7     (lie) in keeping the balance between conservation and economic development. Practical practices, such as responsible tourism and the promotion of environment-friendly industries, can create income without doing harm to the well-being of wildlife and their habitats. By carrying out these practical practices, we can develop a     8     (harmony) relationship between human activities and the natural world.

    9     (true), wildlife protection is a necessary issue     10     requires efforts from governments, organizations, and individuals. By rising awareness and applying stricter management, we can reduce the threats faced by endangered species.

7 . Tricks to Achieve Personal Development

Stoicism is a school of Greek philosophy (哲学), founded in the 3^rd century B.C., and popular throughout the Roman and Greek world until the 3^rd century A.D. In modern days, it’s often used by people to help with their personal development.    1    .

Recognize what you can change and be meaningful in your actions

Stoicism encourages you to let go of what you cannot control.    2    . When you recognize the things you can change and are strategic in how you do it, it’s more likely that you’ll feel satisfied and less stressed overall.

    3    

One of the most common things kids say is “that’s not fair!” So you need to find out why it’s not fair. If the reasons are out of your control, you shouldn’t waste much energy trying to fight what’s unfair. Once you accept the things you can’t control, life will be less disappointing.

Be critical (批判的) of your own thoughts

Stoicism asks you to consider whether your thinking is actually real. In fact, you often tell yourselves a lot of things during a day, many of which aren’t true or helpful. This can sound like “I’ll never meet someone” or “I did a terrible job at my meeting and now my team hate me.”    4    .

Write it down and act on it

    5    . Getting into the habit of writing anything down that feels meaningful, inspiring, or helpful will push you to realize these thoughts.” In addition, the act of writing things down can help you realize what you really want in life, which may promote inner happiness.

9 . The Iron Lady of Pakistan

Everybody has different life stories, some inspiring and some tragic. Muniba Mazari, a(n) ________ Pakistani woman proved that something positive can come out of sorrow.

In 2007, she was ________ in car crash. Many people came to the rescue, tried to ________ her out of the car and rushed her to hospital as she was ________ injured.

The terrible accident ________ her serious injury including the major one on her backbone. Doctors were able to perform a successful ________ on Muniba but she was unable to walk again. “Doctors have put a lot of titanium (钛钢) in my body to ________ the major damages. That’s why people call me the Iron Lady.” She once said.

She spent nearly two years in the hospital where she ________ multiple surgeries. But with ________ in her heart, she managed to smile back at what life had planned for her. She ________ sat in a wheelchair and chose to rise rather than cry. She planned to write down all of her ________ and face them one by one, like facing people and the look of sympathy in their eyes.

Later on, Muniba emerged in various fields, including performing and motivational speaking. She refused to ________ her disability and made the best out of her talent. She not only motivated herself to work but ________ the rest of the world.

Muniba’s perfectly ________ life shaped who she is today, showing that even a serious accident cannot break you if you have the ________.

10 . When using the Internet to fill-in gaps in one’s own knowledge — people believe they’re smarter and have a better memory than others, and incorrectly predict that they’ll perform better on future knowledge tests they take without Internet access, according to the new research.

“When we’re constantly connected to knowledge, we mistake the Internet’s knowledge for our own,” says Adrian Ward of the University of Texas. “Besides, the Google search process is also much like searching your own memory, which might cause people to confuse information found online with information in their own heads.”

To investigate that, Ward, in the first experiment, got participants to answer ten general knowledge questions either on their own or using online search. Then, they reported how confident they were in the ability to find information by using external sources, and in their own ability to remember information. Participants who used Google answered more questions correctly and were also more confident in their own memory.

In a second experiment, participants were made to answer the same ten general knowledge questions either on their own or using the online searching engine. Then, Ward told them they’d take second knowledge test without using any outside sources. Those who completed the first knowledge test with Google thought they’d know significantly more when forced to rely on their own memory in the future — suggesting they attributed their initial performance to their own knowledge, not to the fact they were using Google.

In a final experiment, participants were made to answer knowledge questions on their own, using Google, or with a version of Google that delayed search results by 25 seconds. Unlike those who used standard Google, participants who used “slow Google” weren’t more confident in their internal knowledge and didn’t predict higher performance on future tests. This suggests that in a world in which searching online is often faster than using our memory, we may know less but think we know more.

Ward says that the research has major implications for education, as students might devote less time and energy to gaining knowledge if they already feel knowledgeable. “Maybe we can use our limited cognitive resources in a more effective and efficient way,” Ward says.