Mr. And Mrs. Smith had always spent their summer holidays in New Jersey in the past, staying in a small inn at the foot of a hill. One year, however, Mr. Smith made a lot of money in his business, so they decided to go to London and stay at a really good hotel while they went touring around that famous city.
They flew to London and arrived at their hotel late one evening. They expected that they would have to go to bed hungry, because in that small inn in New Jersey no meals were served after seven. They were therefore surprised when the man who received them in the hall asked whether they would ask dinner there that night.
"Are you still serving dinner" asked Mr. Smith.
"Yes, certainly, sir," answered the man. "We serve it until half past nine."
"What are the times of meals then" asked Mr. Smith.
"Well, Sir," answered the man, "We serve breakfast from seven to half past eleven in the morning, lunch from twelve to three in the afternoon, tea from four to five and dinner, from six to half past nine."
"But that hardly leaves any time for us to see the sights of London." Said Mrs. Smith.

People need to be active to be healthy. Our modem lifestyle and all the conveniences we’ve become used to have made us sitting much of the time - and that’s dangerous for our health. Sitting around in front of the TV or the computer, riding in the car for even a short trip to the store and using elevators instead of stairs, all contribute to our inactivity. Physical inactivity is as dangerous to our health as smoking!
Add up your activities during the day in periods of at least 10 minutes each. Start slowly ... and build up. If you’re already doing some light activities move up to more moderate ones. A little is good, but more is better if you want to achieve health benefits.
Scientists say add up 60 minutes of physical activity every day to stay healthy or improve your health. Time needed depends on effort - as you progress to moderate activities, you can cut down to thirty minutes, four days a week.
Physical activity doesn’t have to be very hard to improve your health. This goal can be reached by building physical activities into your daily routine. Just add up in periods of at least ten minutes each throughout the day. After three months of regular physical activity, you will notice a difference - people often say getting started is the hardest part.
(From Handbook for Canada’s Physical Activity Guide to Healthy Active Living p. 4. Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, Ottawa, Ontario, 1998)

At the first sight the planet Mars does not appear very welcome to any kind of life. It has very little oxygen and water, the temperature at night is below -50~Cand winds of 100 miles per hour cause severe dust storms. However, the surface of the planet seems to show that water flowed across it some time in the past, and it is believed that there is enough ice at the poles to cover the planet with water if it melts. Although there is no life on the Mars now, some scientists think that there may have been some form of life long time ago. At that time, the planet had active volcanoes; the atmosphere was thicker and warmer; and there was water. In fact, in some ways the Mars may have been similar to the Earth, where life exists.
Some people believe that the Mars could support life in the future if the right conditions were produced. The first step would be to warm the planet using certain gases which trap the Sun’s heat in the planet’s atmosphere. With warmth, water and carbon dioxide (二氧化碳), simple plants could begin to grow. These plants could slowly make the Mars more suitable for living. It is estimated that the whole process might take between 100,000 and 200,000 years. In the meantime, people could begin to live on the planet in special closed environments. They would provide a lot of useful information about conditions on the Mars and the problems connected with living there.

Many of the problems we face today are not so new as we think they are. And some of our modern solutions are not so new, either. The problem of energy shortages and the solution of using solar energy go back at least to early Greek cultures. The climate in the coastal areas of Greece 2,500 years ago was characterized by cool winters, much as it is today. At that time, the Greeks heated their homes with small, charcoal-burning heaters. In other words, wood (which is used to make charcoal) was their primary source of energy. However, by the fifth century B C fuel shortages had become common be- cause, in many parts of Greece, the firewood in the forests had been depleted. Once the supply of fire- wood from the local forests ran out, people began to use the wood from olive groves as fuel. But this solution had its own problem. It reduced the olive crop, a valuable resource to the Greeks. By the fourth century B C, the city of Athens banned the use of olive wood for fuel. Wood had to be imported from farther and farther away, making it more difficult to obtain and more expensive to use. About this time the Greeks began to build their houses facing south, so that the low sun in winter could penetrate and help heat the interiors. Excavations of ancient Greek cities suggest that large areas were planned so that individual homes could take maximum advantage of passive solar energy.

Milk was one of the main foods for people long before history was written. Maybe (21) will remain an important food as long as there are (22) that give milk. The old word "milk" (23) Sanskrit(梵文), one of the oldest (24) known to man. A very old picture of milking, (25) was drawn five thousand years ago, has been found.
In the years long ago, people got their milk (26) their own animals. But (27) modern times new inventions made the milk industry(产业) a big business. (28) 1851 Gall Borden found a way to (29) some of the water out from milk. This made milk keep longer. Four years later, Louis Pasteur (30) a way to kill the bacteria(细菌) in milk. Then a special milk bottle was made. This was followed (31) the invention of machines that could fill bottles with milk. The discoveries had a great effect(影响) on the milk industry. They meant that milk could be kept longer.
Some people believe that milk drinking will become less popular (32) it has been. But remember how long milk has been an important food (33) think of the many ways (34) it is useful. It seems (35) to say that the milk industry will always be important.

There are many stereotypes about the character of people in various parts of the United States. In the Northeast and Midwest, people are said to be closed and private. In the South and West, however, they are often thought of as being more open and hospitable. Ask someone from St. Louis where the nearest sandwich shop is, and he or she will politely give you directions. A New Yorker might eye you at first and after deciding it is safe to talk to you, might give you a rather unexpected explanation. A person from Georgia might be very kind about directing you and even suggest some different places to eat. A Texan just might take you to the place and treat you to lunch.
American stereotypes are abundant. New Englanders are often thought of as being friendly and helpful. Southerners are known for their hospitality and warmth. People from the western part of the United States are often considered very outgoing. These differences in character can be traced to different factors such as climate, living conditions, and historical development.
When travelling from place to place, Americans themselves are often surprised at the differing degrees of friendliness in the United States.

A child of five is friendly, competent and obedient, although he may be bossy with other children and is sometimes sufficiently independent to call his mother names. He is still dependent on adult approval and praise, and so orientated (对……感兴趣) to the grown-up that he tells tales without seeing the other child’s point of view. There is no real discussion yet fives talking together indulge in a "collective monologue (独白)"; quarrelling with words often begins towards the end of the year. Group play is often disrupted because everyone wants to be the mother or the bride or the captain of the fire brigade. Each child has an urgent need for constantly recurring (反复的) contact with an adult in spite of all his efforts to be independent. In his unsureness he may make statements about his own cleverness and beauty, hoping that the adult will praise him: this is not conceit but a cry for reassurance. He loves to say "Watch what I can do." Reality and fantasy are still intermingled and this confusion may lead him to elaborate on facts.

The year 2000 will bring big changes in communication. Cell phones will be small enough to carry in your pocket. Videophones will let you see the person you are talking to on the phone. Tiny hand size computers will know your favorite subjects. The Internet and email will be everywhere.
Technologists believe 2000 will be the year of video messaging. You will be able to see whom you’re talking to.
Also in the near future small wireless boxes will pick up information from satellites. In 5 years, computers won’t need to be connected through wires.
All of this will be good for rural areas and countries that don’t have cable or telephone now.
In 20 years you may only need to think about something and the computer will do it.
Constance Hale is the author of Sin and Syntax, "I believe that email has been an incredible boon to communication. People are writing today where they would have been telephoning yesterday. So people are engaging with words more than they have for the last couple generations."
If people use email and the Internet more, it could make people better readers and writers. Some people think the most important part of communication is to make people understand each other better. Will technology make that easier
The translator also comes in handy in medical emergencies. Tam Dinh says, "Where people are injured it’s always important to get as much information as quickly as possible."
Bob Parks is an Associate Editor of Wired Magazine, Bob’s morning begins at about 6:45 am. and Bob is kind of mad, because Bob usually gets up at around 7:15 and likes to cut it close with his morning commute, but I look at my radio and it says that there’s a traffic jam on 101 South and I’m gonna need an extra 1/2 hour. And so my radio has got a net connection, wireless net connection as well as a good old power cord to the wall and it has received notice that there’s a traffic jam and it has calculated an extra 1/2 hour commute time."
Some day everything may be connected to the Internet. Your refrigerator will add milk to your Internet grocery list when the date on the carton has passed. Light bulbs will be ordered before they burn out.
It’s fun to try to guess the future. Usually the predictions are wrong. The one thing we know for sure is that we can’t imagine how technology will change.

Mr. And Mrs. Smith had always spent their summer holidays in New Jersey in the past, staying in a small inn at the foot of a hill. One year, however, Mr. Smith made a lot of money in his business, so they decided to go to London and stay at a really good hotel while they went touring around that famous city.
They flew to London and arrived at their hotel late one evening. They expected that they would have to go to bed hungry, because in that small inn in New Jersey no meals were served after seven. They were therefore surprised when the man who received them in the hall asked whether they would ask dinner there that night.
"Are you still serving dinner" asked Mr. Smith.
"Yes, certainly, sir," answered the man. "We serve it until half past nine."
"What are the times of meals then" asked Mr. Smith.
"Well, Sir," answered the man, "We serve breakfast from seven to half past eleven in the morning, lunch from twelve to three in the afternoon, tea from four to five and dinner, from six to half past nine."
"But that hardly leaves any time for us to see the sights of London." Said Mrs. Smith.