Today we can use the Internet for many things: shopping, business, writing letters, talking to people, getting information and so on. In recent years, a new kind of English has grown on the Internet. There's no real word for it yet, so we call it e-talk.
    People don't like typing too much. To save time, they turn phrases into a few letters， acronyms(首字母缩略词). Acronyms are often used in chat rooms. Some are as follows:
    BRB (be right back), BTW (by the way), LOL (laughing out loud), IMO (in my opinion)
    People also use many abbreviations. They are shortened forms of words. Some common abbreviations include info (information), pic (picture), puter (computer), sec (second), etc.
    We usually don't see people when we communicate on the Net, so people have new ways to show feelings. Most people use their keyboards to draw "feelings", such as:
:-)  (happy)     ;-)  (joking)       :-(  (sad)        :-O  (surprised)
These days, many public discussions have picture feelings, for example:
    
(happy)           (sad)            (angry)           ( (cool)
    There are even whole new words, like "newbies"(someone who is new on a chat board or forum). When you write something bad about someone else, it's called "burning" the person.
    It takes time for people to get used to e-talk. Also, different groups on the Net have their own special ways of communicating. Newbies sometimes have to ask other people what they mean. As the Internet grows, e-talk will continue to grow and change.

     About twenty years ago，Gao Xiaosong wrote the lyrics(歌词)of the classic folk song My old Classmate that touched millions of hearts．Now，as the producer of the new youth film of the same title，he is trying to do it again．

Starring Zhou Dongyu，22，and Lin Gengxin，26，My Old Classmate follows the pair's life and love from middle school，when they are tablemates(同桌)，through high school， college and beyond their graduation．

    In the first half hour，audiences(观众)constantly see the symbolic items(标志性物品)of the early 1990s,including pencil boxes and comic books．

The film also mentions important events that took place during the period from 1993 to 2013，including China's entry into the World'Frade Organization，the terrorist attacks against the US on Sept.11，2001，and the 2002 SARS outbreak in China．This attention to detail brings back many memories, especially among those who were born in the 1980s．

Then there's the main focus：the first love between Zhou's and Lin's characters．The film doesn't have a fairy tale(童话)ending，but director Guo Fan's way of storytelling is quite impressive．If audiences can see a little bit of themselves in the film，it has fulfilled its goal．And those who are experiencing their sweet first love need not worry too much，because no matter how it ends，the precious memories of it will always stay．

    Dragons are not real animals, but look like a combination(结合体) of many animals such as snakes, fish and deer. They have two horns(角) and a long moustache(胡子). With fantastic powers, they fly in the sky or swim in the sea. They can make rain, too. The Chinese dragon is a symbol of strength and good luck. The emperors of ancient China loved dragons. Their clothes were covered with pictures of dragons.

    We are proud to call ourselves the “descendants(传人)of the dragon”. In Chinese, “excellent” people are often called “dragons”. A number of Chinese sayings talk about dragons, for example, “Hoping one's child will become a dragon”, which means hoping he or she will be successful.

    It is said that people born in the year of the dragon have certain characteristics(特征). They are creative, confident, brave and quick-tempered（性急的）. They are some famous “dragons” who have done excellent things, for example, the great man Deng Xiaoping, the famous businessman Li Jiacheng and the movie star Zhao Wei. They are all very successful.

    There are also some traditional festivals about dragons in China, such as Dragon Head-Raising Day and Dragon Boat Festival. We have different kinds of activities to celebrate them. These two festivals come every year, but the Year of the Dragon comes every twelve years.

    The dragon is very important in Chinese culture. As the “descendants of the dragon”, it is necessary for us to know the opinions on dragons in our culture. It can help us understand why our parents always want us to be “dragons”.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案。

    "Cool" is a word with many meanings. Its old meaning is used to express a temperature that is a little cold. When the word is changing, the word has different meanings.

    "Cool" can be used to express feelings of interest in almost anything.

When you see a famous car in the street, maybe you will say, "It's cool." You may think "He's so cool" when you see your favorite footballer.

    We all maximize(扩大)the meaning of "cool". You can use it instead of many words such as "new" or "surprising". Here's an interesting story we can use to show the way the word is used. A teacher asked her students to write about the waterfall they visited last week. On one student's paper was just the one sentence, "It's cool." Maybe he thought it was the best way to show what he saw and felt.

    But the story also shows a scarcity(缺乏) of words. Without "cool", some people have no words to show the same meaning. So it is quite important to keep some credibility(可信性).Can you think of many other words that make your life as colorful as the word "cool" can? And I think they are also very cool.

Is there intelligent (有智力的) life on other planets? For years, scientists said "no" or "we don't know". But today this is changing. Seth Shostak and Alex Barnett are astronomers (天文学家). They believe intelligent life lives somewhere in the universe. They also think we will soon contact(联系) it.

Why do Shostak and Barnett think intelligent life lives on other planets? The first reason is time. Scientists believe the universe is about 12 billion years old. "This is long enough for other planets to have intelligent life," say Shostak and Barnett. The second reason is size — the universe is huge. "Tools like the Hubble Telescopes(哈勃望远镜) have shown that there are at least 100 billion galaxies," says Shostak. "And our galaxy, the Milky Way, has at least 100 billion stars. Some planets going around these stars might be similar to the earth."

In the past, it was hard to look for signs of intelligent life in the universe. But now, powerful telescopes (高倍望远镜) allow scientists to find smaller planets — the size of Mars or the earth — in other solar systems. These planets might have intelligent life.

Has intelligent life from space already visited the earth? "Probably not," says Shostak. "It's a long way away. However, intelligent life may contact us in other ways, such as radio. In fact, they may be trying to communicate with us now, but we don't have the right tools to receive their messages. However, this is changing. By 2025, we could make contact with other life forms in our universe and we might help each other."