It is 40 meters long and 6 meters wide. This must be the biggest bus you have ever seen. It can carry 1,200 to 1,400 people.

It is China's new Super Bus. It is going for a test run in Beijing at the end of this year. Some other cities are also interested in running the Super Bus. They hope it can solve traffic problems.

    The Super Bus runs along fixed tracks (固定轨道). The bus sits on top of two 2.2-meter-tall legs. The legs have wheels at one end. Small cars can drive under the bus, so the Super Bus does not take up road space.

The bus runs on electricity and solar power. It can travel up to 60 km every hour. Its creator, Song Youzhou, says it can reduce a lot of traffic jams (堵塞).

    The Super Bus can do the work of 40 buses. In that way, it can save 860 tons of fuel (燃料) every year, according to Song.

    "To build a Super Bus and its track costs less than building subways. Subways are nearly ten times more expensive to build." Song said.

    Some people worry that the Super Bus may not be safe. However, Song says there's no need for concern. The Super Bus has laser scanners (激光扫描仪) between its legs. The scanners make sure the cars keep a safe distance.

    We use the Internet for many things: business, shopping, writing letters, talking to people, finding information and so on. In recent years, a new kind of English has grown on the Internet. There's no real word for it yet, so we'll call it e-talk.

    People don't like typing too much. To save time, they turn phrases into a few letters (called acronyms). Acronyms are often used in chat rooms(聊天室). Some of them are:

    BTW (by the way)                 BRB (be right back)

    LOL (laughing out loud)            IMO (in my opinion)

    People also use many abbreviations. They are shortened forms of words. Some common abbreviations are:

    info (information)                  puter (computer)

    pic (picture)                       sec (second)

    We usually don't see people when we communicate(交流) on the Net, so people have new ways to show feelings. Most people use their keyboards to draw "feelings", such as:

:-) (happy)    ;-)  (joking)   :-(  (sad)       :-O  (surprised)

    These days, many forums (论坛) have picture feelings. For example:

    There are even whole new words, like "newbies"(someone who is new on a chat board or forum). When you write something bad about someone else, it's called "flaming" the person.

    It takes time for people to get used to(适应) e-talk. Also, different groups on the Net have their own special ways of communicating. Newbies sometimes have to ask other people what they mean. As the Internet grows, e-talk will continue to grow and change.

Choose the best answer:

    If you travel by air across the center of Africa or South America, you fly over forests for thousands of kilometres．These great forests are the seas of trees．They are full of thousands and thousands of different kinds of plants and animals．However, the world's forests are getting smaller all the time．We are cutting down the trees because we need wood, and we need more farmland as well．Some people say that there will not be any forests like these left in 20 to 30 years．What will happen if they disappear? If we cut down our forests, a lot of plants and animals will disappear from the world, in a lot of places the new farmland will soon look like the old deserts, for example, crops will not grow there．What's worse, it will not rain very often, and the weather will get very hot．Perhaps the climate of the world will change, which will be dangerous for everyone in the world．That is why we must take care of our forests．

    Humans are going to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo Mission( 飞行任务) in 1972, 45 years ago.

    SpaceX, a US space technology company, will send two people on a private trip around the moon. And they plan to make it happen in 2018, reported CBS News.

    The company didn't name the two people, how much they were paying or even their gender(性别). But they did say that the mission would use SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket and Dragon 2 spacecraft. Both of them are still in development(研发).

    The founder of the company Elon Musk mentioned that the trip would last about a week. "The plan is crazy." Mark Shelhamer, a former scientist from NASA said. "It's impossible to complete the mission. Getting to the moon is a lot more difficult than getting to the International Space Station." However, Musk believes that the trip will be a great success. The spacecraft will run on autopilot(自动驾驶) and the two space tourists will get hard training.

    "There is some risk there," Musk said. "But we'll do everything we can to minimize(将…减到最少) that risk."

    Have you ever dreamed about a trip to the space? Seeds (种子) of some vegetables and crops are a lot luckier than you, as they have travelled to space and back.

    China is among the three countries in the world that carry out agricultural research (农业研究) in space. The others are Russia and the US.

    Since 1987, China has sent about 1, 000 species of seeds into space.

    These include green peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers (黄瓜), carrots, lettuce and wheat. Even on China's first manned spacecraft Shenzhou—V, there were some seeds from Taiwan.

    "Conditions in outer space such as radiation (辐射) and low gravity can cause big changes in the seeds," said Chinese researcher Jin Xing.

    But not all seeds are better after going to space. After returning to the Earth, the best seeds are selected. These seeds produce (生产) much more and also grow faster than normal (正常的) seeds