"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.

    The Spring Festival is celebrated not only in China but also in other parts of the world. The traditional holiday is the most important to Chinese both home and abroad.

    John and Tina come from different countries. They are interested in Chinese food. They usually eat Chinese food in restaurants and often talk about it.

It's Saturday today and it's sunny. John asks Tina to have dinner at Ms. Brown's House. It's the first time that Tina goes there for dinner.

    "Hi, John. Are there different kinds of food at Ms. Brown's House?" Tina asks.

"Of course. There're all kinds of noodles  such as chicken and cabbage noodles, mutton and potato noodles, tomato and egg noodles and beef and carrot noodles," John says.

    "Sounds great! I like tomato and egg noodles very much," said Tina.

"Me, too. There are also delicious dumplings and specials. After dinner, we can have ice- cream and fruit. They are on sale."

    "Ice-cream? I know a new kind of ice-cream. It is delicious. And you can keep it for an hour."

    "Great! But there isn't any at Ms. Brown's House."

    "I know where to buy it. Let's go after dinner."

    "OK."

Technology (技术)for space travel made our life on Earth better in many ways.Let's look at things we wouldn't have without space travel.

·Camera phones

In the 1990s NASA (美国国家航空航天局)made cameras small enough to fit on spacecraft.The technology is now used in cell phone cameras so that we can take selfies.

Sports shoes

There wouldn't be Nike Air trainers if we didn't go to space.The shock-absorbing(减震的) materials of the shoes come from space suits.

·Water cleaning system

In the 1960s,NASA created a technology to clean astronauts' drinking water.It is now widely used to clean water in swimming pools.

·Wireless (无线的)headset

Astronauts could easily get tangled up in wires,so NASA made wireless,hands-free headsets.

Astronauts can then move while talking and listening.

·Dust busters (手持吸尘器)

Astronauts hoped to collect samples on the moon.A company created a tool to help them do that.

The company then used this technology to make the dust buster in 1979.

·Computer mouse

In the past,you needed to type in codes(代码)in your computer to make it work for you.In 1968, a NASA researcher tried to make computers on spaceships easier to use,and this led to the creation of the mouse.

Thousands of miles from the Earth, in outer space, is a small planet, Fliptune. It is dark and cold, far from the Sun, behind a much bigger planet. Little green aliens (外星人) live there. They use torches (手电筒) to see. 

One day, a young alien, Neila, put the wrong batteries (电池) in her torch. 

Suddenly (突然), there was bright light. It went up into the sky, around the Sun and reached the Earth. 

The light hit a boy called Billy and his dog. Neila quickly turned the torch off, but the pair were caught by the light. They flew through space and landed near Neila. 

"Hello, " said Billy. Neila smiled. 

"Wow!" said Billy, "Everything's made of ice cream!"

"The ice cream never melts, and nobody eats it. It's too cold here, " said Neila. 

Neila looked sad. "Can you help us?" she said, "We need sunshine to make things grow. "

"No problem, " said Billy, "Can you get us home? I have an idea. "

"Wait there!" said Neila. She got her torch, put the wrong batteries in again——ZOOM! Billy and his dog flew back to the Earth. 

Billy pointed his bedroom mirror (镜子) between the Sun and Fliptune. The sunlight bounced off(弹出) the mirror and up onto Neila's planet. 

Thanks to Billy, Fliptune is not cold any more. Billy moves the mirror every day to keep the sun shining there. Now Neila and her friends sit in the sun and enjoy all the free ice cream.