Is your TV connected to the Internet? What about your chair,or your fridge? Probably they are not. But in the future, most things in your home may be connected, thanks to the so-called “Internet of things”.

The Internet of things may be coming sooner than you think. Earlier this year, A Samsung CEO spent a lot of time talking about the Internet things. He said that five years from now,every Samsung product will be part of the Internet of things,no matter whether it's a remote control or a washing machine.

So, how do household(家用的) objects that are part of the Internet of things work? Well,think of a common chair. When connected to the Internet, the chair warms up when it knows the user has just walked into the room and is feeling cold.

An Internet-connected camera could help people feel safer in their homes. It can know people's faces and has an infrared sensor(红外传感器),so even if it's dark it can see when someone passes by and send you a message on your smartphone to let you know who's there. If the person is someone you don't know,it can tell you that ,too.

But according to MIT Technology Roview, whether companies are connecting dog food bowls or security systems to the Internet, there may be some problems. For example, many early connected-home objects don't have much built-in security, which means they could be hacked(被黑客攻击). Morever, it could be difficult to get these new machines to work together especially when they are made by different companies. To fight this ,many companies have joined the Open Interconnect Consortium, which had 45 menbers by late 2014.

So, picture this: you enter your home.The temperature changes to make you feel comfortable. Your favorite music starts playing for you. Do you think that this would be a good thing? It may happen sooner than you think.

    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.

Have you ever been to England? Do you know something about London? London, the capital of the United Kingdom, has a long history and is one of the biggest cities in the world. So many travelers all over the world come here every year to see places of interest.

Visitors to London often eat in restaurants. The owners and workers in them are all from other countries. The visitors say in these restaurants they don't feel they are in England. Most English people eat at home as much as they can. Sometimes they themselves will think they are in another country when they are in restaurants. When an Englishman goes out of a restaurant, he may find he doesn't understand why everything is written in French and Italian.

Most English people think it is better to eat at home, because it is cheaper. They don't want to spend much money on food and they like cooking at home. They like fast food. But for Christmas, they will spend two or three weeks to get ready for it, because they want to have good food.

The oil-paper umbrella has a history of over 100 years in China. It used to be a tool for daily use. 

There are different {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (story) about the origin of the umbrella in China. The most popular one is related to Lu Ban. It is said that once he and his younger sister visited the West Lake. It started raining suddenly. The sister said, "Let's have a competition. Before sunrise tomorrow, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} one who comes up with a way for people to visit the West Lake on rainy days will be the {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (win)." Lu Ban thought it was easy. He collected tools and materials and spent the whole night {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (build) pavilions (凉亭) around the lake. He was quite confident about his efforts. 

The next morning, when Lu Ban was talking proudly about his achievements, his sister held something {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (usual) in her hand. Lu Ban was surprised. He found that the object {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (make) of silk and bamboo could be opened and closed {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (easy). It was light, beautiful and easy to carry. Lu Ban said "You win. Your 'pavilion' can protect us {#blank#}8{#/blank#} rain." And the umbrella was invented. 

Later, when paper was invented, people used much {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (cheap) paper to replace silk, cutting the cost of umbrellas. To make the umbrella waterproof, people brushed tung oil (桐油) across the surface. That was {#blank#}10{#/blank#} the oil-paper umbrella was invented. 

 What is my favorite festival? It is the Spring Festival. It is in 1 or February. For the festival, we do many things and buy many things, so we are always 2 . The color of the Spring Festival is 3 . We wear red 4 and put up(张贴) red paper-cuts(窗花). And we put lucky money in red packets (红包).5 are always happy during those days because they can get lucky 6 from their parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. What do we usually 7 at the Spring Festival day? Damplings. It's my favorite food. In the evening, the family will 8 togother, but children don't like watching TV for a 9 time. It's really boring(无聊的) for from. They always play 10 with their friends.

 What about you? What festival do you like best?