Teens For Planet Earth

    This is a social networking site for teenagers who want to get involved in protecting our planet. They can connect with other green-minded teens, choose a project or create their own. Teens For Planet Earth encourages young folks to get busy in their own communities. They offer guidance on local projects with categories such as habitats, animals, water and education. Awards are given to active members.

Meez

    At Meez, teens can create their own avatars(头像), rooms and virtual pets. It is a social community of creative people that combines avatars, virtual worlds and games. Meez offers contests and chat as well as homework help, a fashion central and a writers' corner. A chat area for younger teens is available. Other areas are music, geek（极客）central, art and sports.

Cyberteens

    Cyberteens is another cool site that celebrates the teen years. Here teenagers can find community, games, and news. There is a link called “creativity” where teens can share their poems, stories, photos and artwork. The “cool links” section offers a huge variety of options to the curious teens. This site also has surveys and helps with jobs and school work.

Student.com

    Student.com is a resource site for teens and high school students. Its social network has over 900,000 members. Members earn points to win prizes just by browsing and they offer several multi-player games. Points are used to buy items at auction(拍卖会). Student.com is filled with useful information and articles.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内.

    With the approval of the Singapore government, a company called nuTonomy has become the first-ever to test self-driving cars with the public. Interested people could sign up for a free trial run at no cost. When they received an invitation from the company, they could book a ride on the driverless taxi service from their smartphones.Not surprisingly,the rides proved very popular,with dozens of customers eagerly trying out the cars each day.

    Driverless cars are a great option for those who do not know how to drive and for those who do not enjoy driving.Some researchers even believe that such cars can make road travel safer by reducing human errors.But since driving requires many of our senses to be on alert（高度警觉）, replacing that by machines is easier said than done.

    The environment in which cars operate is constantly changing—from roads and pedestrians to co-travelers. A driverless car needs special equipment to analyze its surroundings. Then, it must translate that information into a practical route and safe travel. To be truly autonomous, a car has to do this independently without human input. Today, some cars have a certain degree of autonomous functions. But even the completely automated vehicles still require a driver to take back control under uncertain conditions.

    The island city-state is well known for excellent roads and drivers who obey the rules. This has made it ideal for real-world testing and feedback. The government has encouraged research in autonomous vehicles, since it can improve safety and potentially reduce the traffic burden as well.

    Since his students began using Quizlet, English teacher Tristan Thorne has noticed an improvement in their ability to learn and use new words. Quizlet is a learning App, a computer program you use on your mobile phone. It can help users build and test their knowledge of English words. Quizlet has word sets for millions of subjects. And, it is quickly becoming a useful mobile tool for language learners.

    Thorne teachers at Columbia University in New York City. Thanks to learning Apps, Jeff Strack, another English teacher, has also notice improvement in his students' ability to remember information. He teaches at Hostos Community College, also in New York. He and Thorne are part of a growing number of language educators adding mobile Apps to their classes.

    Strack and Thorne seem to agree that the days when teachers would not permit the use of mobile phones are gone. When they use Apps, language learners communicate more differently than in a traditional classroom. Users act on or respond to something, instead of just listening to new information.

    Thorne believes that Apps can help learners become more active in learning. For example, each week, his students are required to add vocabulary words into Quizlet for others to use. He says some Apps also make it easy for students to know their language strengths and weaknesses.

    The biggest improvement Strack has seen in his students is that they are much more active in whole-class or small-group discussions. “Apps let all students take part in the activity, whether it's a game, quiz or practice activity.” he says.

    Many existing learning Apps are designed for students of all ages and levels. Some are designed for group activities. some support independent learning. Still some are good for homework. Thorne says he especially likes Quizlet and three other Apps: QR Codes, Socrative and Evernote.

    Many people believe that language belongs to human beings. However, cats have developed a language not for each other, but for the human beings who have them as pets.

    When communicating with each other, cats “talk” with a system of signals. Their tails, rather than any kind of “speech”, act as an important way to express themselves. They also touch each other to express s their feelings. With other cats, they will use their voices only to express pain. Unbelievable, all of that changes when a human walks into the room. Cats use many different kinds of vocal (声音的) expressions when they communicate with a person. Since these vocal expressions are not used to communicate with other cats, it seems that cats developed this “language” to communicate with their human owners.

    This fact is shown more clearly when watching rooms that have only one cat and those with several cats. An only cat is usually very vocal, since the only creature(动物)around with whom the cat can communicate is its owner. Cats with other cats, though, are much quieter. If they want to have a conversation, they only need go to other cats and communicate in their natural way.

    Since cats learned to meow(喵喵叫)for the only purpose of communicating with human owners should take the time to learn what their different meows mean. If an owner knows, to name just a few examples, which meow means the cat is hungry, which means the cat wants to be petted, and which means the cat wants to have a little “conversation”, the relationship between cat and owner will be closer.

    Dear friend, do you know the boy in the picture? He is Wang Yuan, a member of the Chinese boy band, TFBOYS. Do you want to know more about him? Follow me, please.

    Wang Yuan was born on November 8^th , 2000 in Chongqing. His English name is Ray, he is senior high school student now, he is good at singing, dancing and playing the piano. He can also write song alone. He and another two boys formed the boy band TFBOYS in 2013. They are very popular with the young girls and boys in China now.

    On February 10^th,2017,Wang Yuan made a short speech on good quality education(优质教育）in English at the United Nations in front of 500 people from around the world. It's great. As for middle school students, we should learn from Wang Yuan, and put our hearts into what we are doing to make a difference in our daily lives.

    Opened in September 2005, Hong Kong Disneyland is the second Disney Park in Asia. It experienced a difficult time upon its opening. The Park, as well as two themed hotels, was built on Lantau Island.

    The Park opened to strong competition in the form of Ocean Park. Hong Kong Disneyland is one of only two parks in Hong Kong, which has become one of the world's leading cities in recent years. It kept Chinese cultural traditions in mind when they built the Park to avoid a cultural backlash (抵制). Designers added to the custom of Feng Shui.

    Disney and Hong Kong announced the Park in 1999, and construction (建设) began in 2003. The Park had one of the shortest construction periods in Disney history. Disney actually announced that the opening of the Park would be brought forward, from 2006 to September 2005.

    The Park attracted 5.2 million visitors in its first year, below the expected 5.6 million. There was a lack of attractions, with Fantasyland opening with just one dark ride. Summer Passes were announced to increase the number of tourists. Autopia, Stitch Encounter and it's a Small World opened between 2006 and 2008 to offer more attractions at the Park.

    The number of tourists dropped in 2007 to just over 4 million, so Disney planned a big expansion (扩大) project to attract more tourists and bring the Park back to its normal level. In July 2009, the Legislative Council of Hong Kong passed a three-land expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland, and in 2010, Toy Story Land opened.

    These new attractions have certainly paid off, with the Park earning record profit (盈利) in 2013. In that year, over 7 million guests entered the Park.

    With enough room for a second Park and the promise of more attractions to come, it seems that there is indeed a great beautiful tomorrow for Hong Kong Disneyland.