A. Nobody has lived over 400 years

B. She is the one who sells the candy

C. It's the heat that kills it

D. Everything you told me went in one ear and out the other

E. This boy cried so terribly that he scared four other patients out of the office

    Teenagers today know about computers and are familiar with using them. We did a survey among 60 young people between 13 and 19 in order to find out what they use computers to do.

    All the young people questioned say that they regularly use computers to play games. Twenty-eight of them do some word processing(文字处理)at home, but not very much. Only ten of them say that they look for useful information for their studies online. And sixteen of them listen to music and watch movies on their computers. Only two of them say they use computers as calculators. And six of them use computers to learn programming(编程).

   Home computer use by teenagers

{#blank#}1{#/blank#}⑴Listen to music and watch movies on computers

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}⑵Use computers to learn programming

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}⑶Use computers as calculators

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}⑷Look for useful information for studies online

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}⑸Use computers to do some word processing

    Recently, a very simple question became widely spread online: What China should be proud of? {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Lanlan, whose real name is Negar Kordi, is from Canada. She came to China five years ago and is a student at Ningbo University. Now she has 120,000 fans on the Internet and the number is still growing.

    Lanlan loves China and Chinese. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}And that's why she is so well received among Chinese net friends. The following is China in her eyes.

    "It is the easiest country in which to find a job. If you are not too lazy, it is really very simple to find a job in China. I believe there're more job chances here than in any other country in the world. "

    "{#blank#}3{#/blank#}About 400 million Chinese are studying English. If they can speak good English in the future, China will have the greatest number of English speakers of any non-English speaking country. "

    "The speed of Chinese trains is fast. From Ningbo to Beijing, the train runs 1,365 kilometers for seven hours and the ticket fare is only 595 yuan. "

    "Its public security is great. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}I have travelled in many countries, and I think China really is very safe. "

    "There are much more things China should be proud of. Many Chinese people often criticize(批评)China. At first, I believed that they didn't like China or that they loved western countries. But later, I realized that they just set a very high standard for China. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} China must be much better than other countries. "

    Chinese are very generous when they begin to educate their children. No caring about money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad. They also want their children to take extra-course activities because they think their children may have a good start in life. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an education is, the better it is. So parents will spend a lot of money on education.

    However, what most parents fail to see is that the best education they can give their children is usually very cheap. Parents can see that their children are skilled in some areas while poor in others. What most parents fail to realize is that today's children are lack of(缺乏)self-respect and self-confidence.

    The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills they need to be confident, happy and clever.

    Parents can achieve this by teaching practical skills like cooking, sewing and doing other housework. These activities are teaching a child not only to read, but also to think. And that is more important.

    Researchers from two universities in Britain recently carried out a very interesting project. They aimed to find out what modern family needs from their home. The lucky family chosen to take part in the project was the Joneses parents Paul and Eve and their two sons, Jimmy(16) and Harry(13). They have just spent two months living in a specially designed hi- tech future house, where cameras recorded everything they did.

    TV while you bathe

    So what's in this modern house? It boasts(拥有) five bedrooms and five bathrooms. The sitting area has a huge TV and a digital picture frame- you can decide which photos you want to appear and change the picture as often as you like. The baths all have waterproof TV screens and DVD players. There is a remote control(遥控器) in every room which controls everything in the house from the lights to the cooker. The floors are all made of glass and all have under floor heating. The windows clean themselves and there is even a robot called "Iron Man" to do the ironing. Dirty washing goes into a lift which takes the clothes automatically to the washing machine. The "Iron Man" then does all the ironing.

    So how did it go?

    The Jones family were over the moon to be chosen to spend some time in the house. Here's what they said:

Paul: It was great. The house was so comfortable. One day our friends called round with their dog. The dog felt so warm and comfortable; he even slept on the floor! Oh, but there was one problem. One night we were all in bed and all the lights switched themselves on for no reason. It was a bit frightening!

Jimmy: I loved it, but I wish there had been a robot to help me with my homework.

Harry: Staying in was as much fun as going out!

Eve: I loved the TV in the bath but I never watched it before going to work in the morning. If I did, I don't think I'd ever get out!

    The Jones family are now back in their very ordinary home, but planning some hi-tech additions as soon as they can afford them!

The experts hope that results from their project will help developers meet the needs of a 21st-century family. One of the experts wrote a few sentences about his findings on this project: