Beep… beep…There went the bell! Robbie opened his eyes. He had been sitting in the room for a whole day, and now it was time for him to do something.

Robbie looked out of the window. It was still snowing heavily and there was ice on the window. It was another cold day. Robbie was told to turn the heat on before the family got home. And he did it.

Then Robbie was told to do some cleaning work at once. It was an easy job for him, but a tough one for his master, Helen. He kept on working until every room was clean and tidy.

For now, he had to cook supper for the family.

The first thing Robbie did was to get the big pot in the kitchen. Then he put some water in the pot and put it on the stove. He used one of his hands to cut up a chicken and added the pieces to the water to make a good soup. Then he got some tomatoes, cabbages and carrots to make a vegetable salad.

At ten past eight he laid the table. Then he put some bread, the chicken soup and the salad on it. What a sweet smell! The moment he turned on the lights, the whole family came home.

“The soup smells great, Victor,” said Helen. “You really know how to tell Robbie what to do.” Robbie is one robot that really saves the family a lot of work.

When you are at home, you may often help your mum with housework like folding the clothes. But can you imagine folding your phone screen? Huawei’s newest phone, the Mate X, is foldable. You can fold it in half as if you are closing a book. But what makes the Mate X different is that it is folded from the outside.

The Mate X is both a phone and a tablet (平板电脑). When folded, it works as a phone. When unfolded, it is a tablet. The phone is very thin. When it is open, it is 5.4 mm thick, and when it is closed it is just 11 mm. 5G can also work on Mate X, which means users can get a whole movie in just a few seconds. But users can only take selfies (自拍) when the phone is folded. That’s because the phone doesn’t have a front camera (镜头).

Huawei, the Mate X maker, says they are going to sell Mate X recently, and the price is set at 2299 euros, which is much higher than people expected. Can you accept the price for changing a phone?

Recently in a class in Tokyo （东京）, a robot teacher called Saya called out the names of students, and smiled at them. Her funny face made the students laugh. However, the inventor（发明者）Hiroshi Kobayashi says she isn’t going to take the place of human teachers.

Unlike other robots without feelings, Saya has six feelings—surprise, fear, dislike, anger, happiness and sadness. She can also say simple phrases such as “Thank you” and “Sorry”.

“Robots that look like humans have an important influence on children and older people,” Kobayashi says. Saya was first invented as a receptionist （接待员） robot in 2004. Later, she was tested in a real Tokyo classroom with many fifth and sixth grade students. “Although she still can’t do much more than call out names and shout ‘Be quiet’, the children had great fun,” Kobayashi says. “They were very happy when Saya called out their names.”

Ronald C. Arkin, a scientist, says people should do more study on the interaction（互动）between humans and robots before people depend on robots too much.

Kobayashi says, “Saya is just meant to help people, and we should not have too high hope for her ability. She has no thought and no ability to learn. She is just a tool.”