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.

    Noise pollution is doing much harm to our health now. Noise，in fact，is unwanted sound and is a kind of invisible (无形的) killer. More and more students enjoy listening to music very much. When they listen to MP3 players, they like to turn up the volume (音量). Some people love listening to loud music. Furthermore, while watching TV, they keep the volume up. But they haven't realized that the noise is weakening their hearing. In fact, the noise not only influences each member in the family, but also makes a difference to the comfort of neighbors.

    Noise pollution is a source of increasing misery (痛苦) to people in our society. If people are often disturbed by it, they may feel uncomfortable or upset. What's worse, the noise can make people mad sometimes. If a worker works in a printing factory for too long, his/her hearing loss is much faster than a common person working in a quieter environment. So everybody must pay more attention to noise pollution. Generally speaking，the following four types of noise should be watched out for：

    Noise in the street

    Construction site (建筑工地) noise

    Noise at work

    Transportation noise

    I think the local department (部门) should take measures to control the noise levels, but it's everybody's duty to keep a quiet environment.

B

    Gardening is popular in many parts of the world. It brings us sweet smelling flowers, fresh fruit and vegetables. But you can get more from your garden.

    Gardening helps to keep healthy. Today's people sit indoors for too long and don't get much exercise. When you garden, you have to move around. It's a good chance for you to exercise your body by watering flowers or doing some digging. Besides, when you are in your garden, you can feel the warm sunshine. This means you are getting Vitamin D. It helps your bodies use calcium (钙), which is necessary to keep your bones (骨骼) strong.

    It gets them off computers, televisions and phones. Gardening can be a great teacher to teach children about nature and healthy eating. It can also help them to understand the meaning of “No pains, no gains.”

    Gardening is a great way to meet people and build relationships. When you are gardening, you are outdoors. So it is a perfect time to communicate with your neighbors. Most people love to talk about their hobbies, and so do gardeners. They usually enjoy showing people what they are growing. And most enjoy sharing advice and stories about their gardens.

    Which of your two hands do you use 1 ? Very few of us can use 2 of our hands equally(相等地) well. Most of us are 3. Only about five people out of 4 hundred are left-handed. New-born babies can take things 5 either of their hands, 6 in about two years most of them use their right hands. Scientists(科学家) don't know 7 this happens. Scientists 8 that monkeys like to use one of their hands more than the other, but it can be either hand. Most of people use their right hands better and this makes life 9 for those left-handed persons. We live in a 10 world.

    What can 3-D printers*make? They can make lots of things, such as toys and car parts. But what about a house? In the Netherland 3-D printed houses will soon come into life, according to The Guardian

The Netherlands is the first country to have this technology*.

    Scientists plan to build five houses with 3-D printers. The first house will be finished by the end of 2019. It will be a house with three bedrooms. For the first house, only the walls will be 3-D printed. A 3-D printer will print it with a special cement. The printer will print it layer upon layer to build the walls. After that, workers will make the wall stronger.

    By the time they start working on the fifth house, the scientists hope that most parts of the house will be made with 3-D printing. Even the windows can be made with a 3-D printer.

    The 3-D printed houses have many advantages. For example, they use less cement than traditional houses. It can help save a lot of money. Also, 3-D printing can make buildings in almost any shape*. Traditionally-built homes usually come in just a few shapes