The Hotel Whale

  The Hotel Whale is built (A) 在水下. It is in the shape of a whale. This hotel has 50 bedrooms, a cafe and a shopping centre.

Mrs Peng: “When we were staying at the hotel recently, my children watched the fish outside their bedroom window. (B) They were never bored.”

Forever Green Houses

These houses are both “green” and “smart”. There is glass outside the houses. Heat is held under the glass and is then used as energy for (C) each house. In the bathroom, your medicine cupboard is connected to your doctor's computer. In the kitchen, your smart fridge tells the supermarket's computer when you (D) need more food.

Mr Yu: “When we were living in our old house, we were using more energy. I would certainly recommend Forever Green Houses to my friends. (E) They will satisfy everyone.”

It's March, 2050.

   Frank and Mary Smith wake up in their comfortable house in the morning and switch on the bedroom computer to get the latest news. They used to read the Times, but changed to electronic newspapers many years ago.
   There is the usual news about space: another space flight has returned from Mars and scientists have discovered a new planet. Then they turn to business news: the US dollar has risen greatly in Shanghai, one of the world's leading business centres. Mary tells the computer to buy 5,000 dollars, and there is a quick response that it has been done.
   As they watch the screen, Mary orders one of the household robots to make coffee for them.

   Frank disappears into the study to join a video conference with his partners around the world. He is a computer engineer, working for several companies. This is his third job: he used to be in marketing and then television.
   Mary has a quick look at the shopping channels - the usual selection of electric cars, household robots and cheap travel offers - before picking up the video phone to talk to her assistant. She also has a job and she is doing medical research. Both she and Frank used to have an office desk in London, but in 2014 they decided to move to the seaside and work from home.
   Frank and Mary have one daughter, Louise, who also has her own workstation at home. She goes to school only one day a week, mainly to play with other students. Classrooms disappeared in 2030 because there was no longer any need for them: communications systems have made it much easier to learn at home.
   Louise, now thirteen, is studying Chinese at present, which has become a world language as important as English. Louise has many Chinese friends. They communicate by computer.
   According to the family doctor, Louise will live to at least 130. Her wish is to work for a few decades (十年) and then spend her time on music and painting.

    The first cartoons appeared in newspapers. They told stories using pictures. The first cartoon film appeared in 1906. It was about humorous faces. In the film, an artist drew pictures of two faces on a blackboard. The faces came to life. They smiled and a small dog jumped through a ring. There were a lot of animals in early cartoons. One famous early cartoon character was Felix the Cat.

    Walt Disney started to make films in the 1920s. Some of his earliest films were about a famous story, Alice in Wonderland, but in Disney's films it was called Alice in Cartoon Land. Walt Disney's most famous cartoon character was Mickey Mouse, first in a black-and-white film without sound, then very soon after that in a talking film and later in colour. A Mickey Mouse film was the first cartoon film with sound to become really popular.

    Today, the popularity of cartoons has risen around the world. People of all ages still show great interest in cartoons.

    Hello, I'm Martin. My birthday is coming. And I⑴_______ (have) a party at my house this Sunday. I really want some of my friends to come to my birthday party, but it's not easy to find my house. I write something to them and tell them how⑵______ (find) my house.

    Go along Guangming Street and don't turn left or right. Just walk straight for about ten minutes and you can see a bus stop on your right. ⑶You can take the No.5 bus and get off at the third stop. Then you are on Happy Street. Walk along the street and you'll see a bank at the corner of the street. ⑷ 我家就在银行旁边。

Ma Yun is in his words

    There are always many young people who want to learn something from me. In fact, I'm not as lucky as most of you. I tried 3 times for colleges but all failed. For the fourth time, I tried for the teachers' college and they accepted me. I applied(申请) for jobs for 30 times. You can guess the results. It was so difficult at that time. I was down but I didn't give up and fought on. So you can see a new Ma Yun now.

    You are lucky enough. You are at the best time of this century. The best wealth you have is that you are young.

    Among all the challenges, I think the biggest one is education. Something we teach our kids is too old. So we have to research what is the best way and what are the best things to teach our kids.

    The future you face is not a competition for knowledge but a competition for creativity and imagination.

    When people have problems, the chance will come. If you can solve them, then the chance will belong to you.