Someday in the future we may not need to have money in our pockets. Is life easier when people don't need to carry any money at all? Is money heavy tocarry? Is it safe to carry money? Maybe in the future each of us will have onlyone small credit card(信用卡). We will use it instead of money to buy all the things. 

    Of course we may still have some of the same problems with cards we nowhave with money. For example, we lose money from time to time. Maybe we willlose the cards. Maybe someone will take the cards. Someone may even make a card that looks like our cards. Since we can't buy anything without our cards, the credit cards may be no better than money.

    Is there something easier to use than credit cards? Each of us has athumbprint(拇指指纹). No two thumbprints are the same. Maybe someday the government will keep people's thumbprints with a number. When you want to buy something, you will put your thumb on a machine or a computer. Each store or business will possesone. Everyone's thumbprints will be in the computer. It will be difficult to lose our thumbprints! It will be difficult for someone to steal it or to make one like it.

    Our life has become easier and more colorful because of mobile phones and the Internet. However, a number of worrying problems have come along with them.

Many car accidents are caused by mobile phones. Some drivers use mobile phones to get on the Internet while driving. Looking at their mobile phones and not at the road, these drivers have become a danger to us all.

Many of the dangers of the Internet are well known. Children who visit websites without their parents‘' permission sometimes talk to elder people they don't know and put themselves in great danger. People with blogs sometimes post information of people they don't know on their websites without permission. Some people even use the Internet to get personal information that we do not want them to have.

    Mobile phone and the Internet safety tips：

Use a ‘hands-free' phone if you need to use a mobile phone when you drive.

     In difficult driving situations such as in rain or snow, do not use your phone at all.

     Do not make very important phone calls while driving. They take your attention (注意力) off the road.

     Tell your children not to talk with anyone they do not know on the Internet.

     In an embarrassing situation (尴尬场合), be careful with people around you.

Don't give out any personal information on the Internet.

    Since ancient times, human beings have looked up at the night sky. Comets (彗星) and meteors (流星) flying through the blackness were seen as signs from the gods. They were used to tell the future of human lives.

    In 2013, a meteorite shower hit an area in Russia. It injured around 1,200 people. In ancient times, this would have been a strange and terrible experience. Today, thought, science offers simple explanations for the occurrence (事件).

    Meteorites are small pieces of debris (碎片) that float around in space. Sometimes, they come near a planet, such as Earth. When they enter our atmosphere, they often heat up and become very bright. This is why they are sometimes called “fireballs”. They are usually made of metals, such as iron (铁), and other minerals (矿物). The Russian meteorites were stony, with iron making up 10 percent of them.

    Meteorite showers, such as that in Russia, happen when a large meteor enters the Earth's atmosphere and, due to heat, breaks up into small parts. Most of these are very small — smaller than a grain of sand — and so don't even make it to the ground. But others can cause a lot of damage.

    The meteor in Russia weighed 10 tons when it entered our atmosphere, and broke up about 20-30 miles (30-50 km) above ground. The sky was filled with bright lights and loud noises. Many windows were broken. The damage cost Russia around 206 million yuan.

    Scientists in Britain and the United States have made a new kind of enzyme(酵素) that eats plastics(塑料). With its help, plastics can be turned into smaller parts and go away quickly.

    Scientists believe that, in the future, it could solve the problem of plastic pollution.

    The enzyme is able to break down PET, a form of plastic. PET was first made in the 1940s and is now widely used to make plastic bottles. It can remain in the environment for many years and pollute large areas of land and water. So it has always been a headache to deal with the waste from PET and other plastics.

    The researchers made the discovery(发 现) while examining the structure of a natural enzyme in Japan. They found that the natural enzyme was helping to break down PET plastics. So, they

decided to make small changes to the enzyme by adding some amino acids(氨基酸). It made the natural enzyme's plastic-eating abilities work faster and better.

    John McGeehan, one of the lead researchers, said, "We've made an improved enzyme. It's better than the naturl one. And we are trying to make more improvements to it." He went on."

    The enzyme is not harmful to humans or animals, and it is friendly to the environment. So we are considering putting it into wider use."

    The team is now trying to make the enzyme break down PET in large quantities(大量的). "We'll see that the plastic pollution may be stopped with this technology. However, there is still a long way to go," John McGeehan added.

    Uber (优步) announced that it plans to invest (投资)20 million in developing an aircraft in France over the next five years.

    It will open a new research and development center in Paris﹣its first technology hub outside of North America. "France is a perfect home for our next step forward with its strong history of research and development, world class engineers and a unique role in aviation (航空) worldwide," Uber said in a statement.

    Uber already has R & D offices in Pittsburgh, Toronto, and San Francisco. They focus mainly on Uber's self﹣driving technology, but have also been working on Uber's Elevate flying car program.

    The Advanced Technologies Center in Paris will open later this year and only focus on flying cars. It will conduct research into airspace management, real﹣time communication networks, energy storage, and charging systems.

    Uber's announcement, made at a tech meeting in Paris, has been supported by French President Emanuel Macron, whose ambitious economic reforms are to attract more foreign investment.

    The company also announced a five-year research partnership with Ecole Polytechnique, a leading French institute of technology.

    Uber has been working on its flying car program since 2016. NASA became a partner for the program a year later by developing air traffic management for a fleet of flying cars.

    Uber expects flight to become a daily part of our transportation lives. The company believes it can offer rides in flying cars for about the same price as an Uber X ride. This technology may completely change our transportation lives in the future.