Emojis (表情包) are a kind of art. They are shown in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. 【小题1】 About 3,000,000,000 people use the Internet. Almost all of them use emojis! So people say emojis are a new language.

When we talk, we use words and body language. 【小题2】 It lets people know our feelings.

Emojis help with this. For example, you send a text. 【小题3】 Then you add an emoji. Emojis are like your body language. They help you show your emotion (情绪).

【小题4】 One rule says an emoji must look like the thing it stands for. A smiling face means happiness. A heart means love. Can you make an emoji for “memory”? No. 【小题5】 Not every idea can be shown with a picture. Emojis cannot express everything.

Delegates (代表) from around China get together in Beijing every five years for the National Congress of the Communist Party of China (中国共产党全国代表大会).

This year, a total of 2,296 delegates were elected to attend the 20th National Congress of the CPC, which was held from Oct. 16 to Oct. 22. The Congress will review the work of the CPC over the past five years, chart the course for the future, and elect a new central leadership. The delegates from 38 electoral units (选举单位) across the country will reflect the opinions and demands of Party members and the public, discuss and decide on the Party’s major issues, and elect new central leadership and a new top anti-graft watchdog (反贪监察机构).

When we were kids, learning polite expressions was important. Our parents taught us to say “thank you” when we received help, and to say “please” when we needed a favor from others. But would you say “thank you” and “please” to a digital (数码的) assistant?

Recently, Amazon announced it had added new features (特点) to its smart assistant Alexa. One of the developments—a politeness feature—draws some parents’ attention. Their children keep forgetting their manners because they have become used to shouting orders at their Echo, a smart speaker similar to Alexa.

When kids ask Alexa to solve a math problem using the word “please” as in “Alexa, please tell me what 5 plus 7 is” —Alexa will not only give the correct answer, but also give the following response “Thanks for asking so nicely”.

However, some people believe kids shouldn’t have to thank a machine, as children can tell the difference between machines and humans. But then again, we don’t usually talk aloud to a fridge or an ATM, either.

“I ask Siri to turn on the lights or set an alarm in the same natural language that I use in day-to-day life,” commentator (评论员) Chaim Gartenberg wrote on the website. “It doesn’t matter that an Echo can’t hear or understand it—it matters that you say it.”

With the increasing use of AI (artificial intelligence), forming the habit of being polite in everyday life is becoming even more important, as the British research company ChildWise found. In January, it published a report warning that people who become used to cutting courtesies (礼貌话) and giving orders to digital assistants might become rude when dealing with others.

Traditionally, we can tell how nice people are by watching how they interact with a waiter. In a similar way, even if the AI or digital assistant doesn’t care about it, other people around us are going to experience how we interact with it.