Taking away a city’s rubbish is a big job. Every day trucks come into a city to collect it. Most rubbish is made up of things we can’t eat or use. If we kept these things, we would soon have a mountain of rubbish.

In some cities, the rubbish is collected and taken outside of the city to a dump(垃圾场). Often the city dump is placed where the ground is low or there is a big hole. The kitchen rubbish is broken into small pieces and sent into the sewage system. The sewage system takes away the used water from toilets, bathtubs(浴缸) and other places.

To keep mice and flies away, some earth is used to cover the newly dumped rubbish. Later, grass may be planted on the rubbish-filled land. Finally, a house or a school may be built there, and then you’d never know that this had once been an old rubbish dump.

In other cities the rubbish is burnt in special places. The fire burns everything but the metal. Sometimes the metal can be used again in factories where things are made of metal. The food parts of rubbish are put in special piles where they slowly change into something called humus(腐殖质), which looks like black earth. It is rich with some kinds of things that feed plants and help them grow.

It’s reported there are as many as 550,000 sudden cardiac (心脏的) deaths in China every year. First aid (急救) is the first and immediate help given to someone who suddenly falls ill or gets hurt before doctors arrive. It’s believed that the 10 minutes after an accident can make a difference between life and death. So let’s learn some common sense about first aid.

Burns

If it’s not very serious, cool the burned area quickly with cool but not cold running water.

Don’t put ice on burns. If burns are on the face, ask the person to sit up. If burns are on arms or legs, keep them higher than the heart.

Nosebleed

Let the person lean (倾斜) forward a little bit and ask him to pinch (捏) the soft part of the nose with his fingers. Don’t move the head backwards, as the blood may run into the mouth or lungs.

Heart attack

If you come across someone probably stopping breathing, call 120 immediately. Let the patient lie down and loosen (解开) his tight clothing while communicating with him. If the patient doesn’t respond (反应), perform CPR. Give chest compressions (胸部按压) at a speed of 100-120 compressions per minute. After 30 compressions, begin rescue breathing (人工呼吸).

In this world, there are accidents happening every second. Everyone should master some knowledge about first aid, so that we can help ourselves as well as others in time.

Earthquake rescue (救援) robots experienced their final tests in Beijing. The inventors of this robot said with this robot, rescuers would be able to buy more time to save lives during an earthquake.

This kind of robot is able to fly. It’s about three meters long, and it took about four years to develop the model. Its main function is to collect information from the air and send goods of up to 30 kilos to people trapped (困住) by an earthquake. It has an excellent camera which can provide very clear pictures. It can work day and night, and is also able to send the latest pictures from the quake area.

Dr. Qi Juntong, a researcher from Tsinghua University, said, “The most important character of this flying robot is that it doesn’t need a control from faraway places. We just set in it the information of the places where it should go, and then it takes off, and lands by itself. It flies as high as 3000 meters, and as fast as 100 kilometers per hour.”

This robot has a different function — it can change as the environment changes. Its main job is to search for any signs of life in places where human rescuers are unable to go. The camera, also acting as a detector (探测器) that finds trapped people and detects harmful gases, is placed in the robot, which can work in the dark. With its 10-meter-long pipe in the robot, people who are trapped in the fallen buildings will be able to get supplies including oxygen (氧气) and water.

Experts have said that the robots would enter production and serve as part of the national earthquake rescue team as soon as possible.