How Was the Ballpoint Pen Invented?

Who: John Loud, an American tanner

When: in 1888

Advantages: help write faster, make life easier

Disadvantages: need refilling

Where to be used: many fields

Price: low

Changes: become smaller and lighter

— Of course I can.

— Oh, sorry. I _________________ it.

    Have you ever seen the movie Big Hero 6? Baymax (大白) is a main character in the movie. He's a friendly big robot that looks after people's health. If there is a robot like Baymax in our real life, people will get more benefits. The robot will be especially helpful in caring for the old. The health of old people needs greater monitoring and care.

    Scientists in America are now working to make Bay- max a reality(现实). Actually, they have already produced some health care robots. These robots provide brain video games to improve people's memory. The games can help the old remember things for longer. Besides, these robots provide special apps(应用程序) to help the old manage their health at home. The apps can check the old people's heart rate(心率) and tell them to take their medicine on time. The apps can also record their daily activities. Such collected information helps doctors discover the cause of an illness faster and more correctly. But the health care robots aren't as clever as Baymax yet.

    Nowadays, scientists are working on improving the health care robots. They hope the robots can produce electricity by walking across the floor. If they succeed, batteries will not be needed. They also hope the robots can communicate with humans in the daily life so as to make people happier and healthier.

    Scientists are trying to realise these dreams. Like Baymax, these health care robots may save people's lives in the future. We are looking forward to them.

The Chinese first made paper about 2, 000 years ago. China still has pieces of paper which were made as long ago as that. But Chinese paper was not made from the wood of trees. It was made from the hair一 -like parts of certain plants.

    Paper was not made in southern Europe until about the year 1100. Scandinavia(斯堪的纳维亚半岛), which now makes a great deal of the world's paper, did not begin to make it until 1500. It was a German named Schaeffer who found out that one could make the best paper from trees. After that, the forest countries of Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the United States became the largest paper producers. Today in Finland, which makes the best paper in the world, the paper industry is the biggest on land. New paper-making machines are very big, and they make paper very fast. The biggest machines can make a piece of paper 300 metres long and 6 metres wide in one minute.

    When we think of paper, we think of newspapers, books, letters, envelopes and writing paper. But there are many other uses. Only half of the paper that is made is used for books and newspapers, etc.