Zhang Shiyuan, 13, from Shanghai

   I think robots will replace(代替) accountants(会计). Most accountants deal with numbers at big companies(公司). They must work very carefully. Even a small mistake can cause a big problem. Sometimes, people may get tired and make mistakes. But robots won’t. Using robots means there will be fewer problems.

Luo Xiaoqi, 13, from Beijing

   Someday, robots will replace shopping assistants(售货员). Robots use computers and they’re good at arithmetic(算术). The robots assistants calculate(计算) more accurately and more quickly than human assistants. The robot assistants have no feelings. Whatever the people buy, they will always behave(表现) well. The robot assistants can make shopping more enjoyable.

Zhang Yifei, 14, from Guangzhou

Every year about 640,000 kilograms of pumpkins are grown in the US. Not all of the pumpkins are eaten. Many are used to celebrate Halloween, the night of October 31st. Halloween is a big celebration in America. One tradition that many people enjoy is to carve faces in pumpkins, put a light inside and put the pumpkins around their houses. After Halloween they throw all the pumpkins away.

But in Oakland, a city in California, people have found a way to use all those pumpkins, as well as lots of other food waste. They use them to generate electricity. Food waste is taken from supermarkets and restaurants and put into large tanks. Inside these tanks, bacteria break down the food waste. This release methane gas. Then the gas is burned to generate electricity-enough electricity to power 13,000 homes.

Recycling the food waste provides a cheap source of fuel for generating electricity. But there are other good reasons to recycle the food waste too. Methane gas in the atmosphere is one of the causes of global warming. When food waste is buried in the ground, it can take 40 to 100 years to break down, and over that time it is slowly released all the methane gas into the atmosphere. But when food waste is kept inside the tanks, it breaks down in about three mouth. Instead of going into the atmosphere, most of the methane gas is kept and used.

Other cities around the world are now following Oakland’s example and using food waste to generate electricity. Maybe the next time you turn on the lights in your house, they’ll be powered

by pumpkins! 

It’s true that many dads in the wild aren’t interested in parenting but there are some that work pretty hard to give their little ones a good start. Maybe one of these dads will make you remember your own dad!

The male giant water bug(雄性负子蝽) doesn’t seem to mind a heavy lad(负荷物) on his back for his kids. The female puts about 100 to 150 eggs on the back of the male, and then she leaves. Once the female is gone, the male has to look after the eggs. It usually takes one to two weeks for the eggs to hatch(孵化). The father giant water bug jumps around to make sure the growing eggs get enough air and water. All this time he can’t fly because of the weight of the eggs growing rapidly on his back.

Now let’s turn to the male stickleback fish. When the mother leaves after laying her eggs, the father tends his young. If the young fish go too far away, their father helps with their safe return by carrying them back in his mouth. The male stickleback looks after all his young- as many as 100-until they can live on their own.

A similar example can be found in emperor penguins(帝企鹅) living in cold areas. The male emperor penguin goes without food while looking after his egg until it hatches. For about 62 to 67 days, the egg stays on top of the father’s feet, in very cold temperatures that drop down to -39℃.As a result, the father may lose nearly 50 percent of his body weight while waiting for his baby penguin to be born!

 Nowadays more and more people care about the exploration (开采) of the natural resources , such as oil. Though there are many kinds of resources, with the fast increase of population and appearance of many more factories, the more we use, the fewer there will be left for the future. Oil is getting less and less year after year. It’s said that oil can last for only 50 years. Natural gas perhaps will last about 38 years.

      Oil can be used in many ways and it’s difficult to imagine what the modern world will be like without oil. But oil isn’t easy to find and get out of the earth. Men must study the rocks. When they think the rocks in a certain place may have oil, a metal tower is built. A machine in the tower cuts a hole down into the ground. At the same time, a steel pipe is pushed down to stop the sides from falling in and to keep out water. At last if the men are right, usually the oil rushes up the sides with great force(力量) by the pressure（压力）of the gas in the top of the rock, and it rushes high into the air. If the oil catches a light, there will be a terrible fire. So a kind of cover is fixed on the top of the pipe, and the oil can run out through taps（活塞）.

      If we make a well near the middle of the oil field, we can also get gas. Such gas is sent through pipes to towns far away and used in houses and factories like coal gas.

      Today oil is under pressure as never before. The price of the oil keeps rising all the time. In many countries, the governments encourage people to save oil as much as possible.

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Squirrels(松鼠),asanimals loved by many people, are getting ready for winter. They are looking for nuts(坚果), digging(挖) holes in the ground or finding holes in trees. They keep the food they will need during the coming months there, when the weather is cold and sometimes snowy.

Squirrels spend a lot of time in trees which are like restaurants for them. Among their favorite things to eat are nuts and other parts of trees. Squirrels may also eat other animals. And anyone who has a bird knows squirrels love bird food!

Squirrels stay active all winter, so they need plenty of food to help keep their energy. Squirrelstend to bury(埋) food underground, piece by piece. Some squirrels may collect food together and bury underground.

When they need the food in the winter, squirrels use their memories and sense of smell to help them find what they buried. Sometimes, you’ll even see them digging through the snow just to find food.

Squirrels build home in trees. Some squirrels spend much of the winter in underground holes which are warmer.

When spring comes, squirrels change their eating habits to new plant growth. Sometimes they forget to dig up all their buried nuts. That’s why you’ll sometimes find a little tree growing in a place you know, but neither you nor your family planted it. It must have been the squirrels.

We all know that recycling rubbish is very important. But sometimes it is not so convenient when we can’t find a recycling bin anywhere.

Now a team of middle school students from the US has solved that problem by designing their Recycling Bin app (应用程序).

This app encourages people to recycle. It provides users with a map of local recycling centers. And it allows them to save places as favorites onit. This app also reminds users to recycle.

The group of nine sixth-graders is from STEM Center Middle School. They came up with the idea as part of a school project for the Verizon Innovative App Challenge. Their school provided professional app training. It gave 10 teams Samsung tablets (平板) as prizes.

The challenge wanted to develop students’ interest in science, technology and engineering. In this contest, students showed an app design that could solve a problem in their school or city. The nine students came up with the idea for Recycling Bin when they saw a need for more recycling.

“We thought that this would really help a lot of people,” Jaden Hilkemann, 12, told Time For Kids.

They kept their design easy so that anyone could use it. Now the free Recycling Bin app has been put into use in the Google Play app store for Android phones or tablets.

“I was so excited when it went up at the app store,” Seralyn Blake, 12, said. “A lot of my family members downloaded (下载) the app. It was pretty cool.”