A smart home is a home with a communication network. This network connects devices(装置), such as lights and TV sets, and allows them to be controlled from far away through electrical wiring, mobile phone communication or WiFi over the internet.

    More and more people may start to consider owning a smart home, because it makes life much more convenient. It can help keep your room at a certain temperature. It can record what happens inside the home and send the video to your phone. When you are on vacation abroad, you can use a smart home controller to switch on or off the electricity when necessary. Some smart homes can receive a visitor, allowing him to come in and offering him a drink. They can even feed the cat and water the plants.

    Besides, smart homes are easy to fix. Most smart home technology and devices are wireless and can be set up with a minimum of tools,using only the guiding information. When a problem appears,you can deal with it yourself without paying a professional.

    However, for home-users,the smart home technology is far from perfect.It can be rather expensive to own the technology and the devices. Also, because the smart home system(系统) allow its owner to get home information from anywhere, it leaves the home easy to be attacked by hackers(黑客), who may secretly use or change the information in the system.

Now,many scientists are excited at the future of smart home technology. Imagine being able to get fashion advice from your mirror, or receive food shopping suggestions from your refrigerator. While there are others who worry that those smart devices will make people lazier and lonelier. Whatever it is, one thing is for sure—smart home technology will change the way we live and work.

    Some primary schoolchildren have been raised in homes with more green space around. They are likely to come with larger volumes of white and grey matter in certain areas of the brain. These differences are associated(关联) with beneficial effects on cognitive function (认知功能). This is the main conclusion of a study led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.

    The study was performed among 253 schoolchildren in Spain .Lifelong exposure(接触) to green space in the living places was recorded—using the information on the children's addresses from birth up through to the time of the study. Brain structure was studied using 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Working memory and inattentiveness(注意力不集中)were graded with computers.

    “This is the first study that shows the association between long-term exposure to green space and brain structure.” Says Dr. Payam Dadvand, the leading researcher of the study, “Our findings suggest that exposure to green space early in life could result in beneficial structural changes in the brain.”

    The findings show that long-term exposure to greenness is positively associated with white and grey matter volumes in several parts of the brain. Some of them are related to higher scores on cognitive tests. Moreover, larger volumes of white and grey matter in those parts might lead to better working memory and less inattentiveness.

    Exposure to nature has been thought to be necessary for brain development in children. Another study of 2,593 children shows that children in school with more green space have a greater increase in working memory and a greater decrease in inattentiveness.

    Humans are believed to be tied to nature.  Playing in greener areas offers children opportunities to search and learn. Accordingly, green space is thought to prompt important exercises in discovery, creativity and risk taking. These exercises in turn positively influence brain development.

    Dr. Dadvand's study suggests how such structural changes could bring about the beneficial effects of green spaces on cognitive development, it also adds to the proof that suggests the lasting effects of early life exposure to greenness on our health and the benefits of increasing greenness in cities.

    Further studies are needed to prove the findings in other populations, settings and climates. And researchers need to examine differences according to the nature and quality of green space.

    Many of us enjoy watching animals in the world. But do you know they can teach us?

    Geese(雁), for example, teach a very good lesson about 1. In the fall, Canada geese fly to the warm south to 2 Canada's cold winter. They lift off in no order. Yet 3 they form a V shape, with one bird leading the group.

    This V shape allows geese to 4 energy. When the front bird moves its wings up and down, the resulting force of the air lifts the next one. This continues down the line. The bird 5 has the hardest job. When it gets6 , it moves behind, and another bird moves into the lead. By sharing the role, the group can travel great distances. Geese flying in a V shape can fly 70 per cent farther without 7 than birds flying alone. During the long flying journey, geese communicate with one another. They honk(鸣叫) to 8 the birds up front to keep up the speed. They also cheer each other up 9 working toward a common goal.

    What have we learned from the lovely geese's experience and skills?

    10 together! Whether it is our personal lives or our jobs, we need other people. We need the spirit of teamwork!

    The weather has always been much talked about in our daily life. But bad weather is sometimes hard to stop, no matter who he is-rich or poor, young or old-in every part of the world. Maybe that is why there are so many expressions about the weather, especially about rain

    Sometimes, when you need rain, you do not get any. Other times, you get rain when you don't want it. Take a football game for example. A sudden heavy rain can stop a wonderful game, making the players and the 20, 000 persons watching the game run for cover. If the game can't go on, people who have bought the tickets are given "rain checks". These are special tickets that will let them watch a later game for free.

    "Rain checks" now means a second chance at something. Often, a rain check has nothing to do with rain.

    Shops may give you a "rain check" when they sell something all out-a TV set, for example at a special low price. After all the TV sets are gone, the shop gives rain checks to those who wanted to buy one. The rain check lets a person have another chance to buy the TV set later, at the same low price, after the shop receives some more from the factory

    "Rain check" is also used in our daily life. It's a way of accepting invitation, but for a later time. You may ask for a "rain check if you are asked to a friend, s house for dinner, but can't be there. You say, "T would love to join you for dinner, but I'm busy. Could I have a rain check?" You are asking, in other words, if you could join your friend for dinner at another time.

    Which is the tallest mountain on the earth? The answer must come fast—MT Everest, at a height of 29,000 feet.

    But that is only on land. For, if you were to measure (测量) from the bottom (底部) of the ocean. The tallest mountain in the world will probably be Mauna Kea in Hawaii. It is more than 15,748 feet under the sea and another 13.779 feet above it.

    As US scientist Cindy Lee Dover points out that the seafloor is the largest and least known place on the earth. We know more about Mars (火星) and Venus (金星) and the back side of the moon than we know about the seafloor.

    Some people have travelled to the deep water of the ocean to try to find all kinds of unknown animals and plants living in the deep water. Even scientists know very little about them. Many of them perhaps do not even have names. Some of the names given by scientists to newly discovered (被发现) animals are really funny. Among them are the spaghetti worms (意大利面蠕虫), named as such it is found in a tangle (缠结), it is often difficult to make out where one ends and another begins! Just like spaghetti.