CHICAGO- Have you ever worked on your laptop computer with it sitting on your lap, heating up your legs? If so, you might want to rethink that habit from now on. Doing it a lot can lead to “toasted skin syndrome (症状)”, an unusual-looking spotted skin condition caused by long-term heat exposure (暴露), according to medical reports.

       In one recent case, a 12-year-old boy from California developed a skin discoloration on his left lap after playing computer games a few hours every day for several months. “He recognized that the laptop got hot on the left side; however, he did not change its position,” Swiss researches reported in an article published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

      Another similar case is a Virginia law student who needed treatment for the spotted darkening on her leg. Dr. Kimberley Salkey, who treated the young woman, learned the student spent about six hours a day working with her computer placed on her lap. As Dr. Salkey later learnt, the temperature under the laptop could reach 51 degrees. That case, from 2007, is one of 10 laptop-related cases reported in medical journals in the past six years.

The condition can also be caused by overuse of heating pads (垫子) and other heat sources that usually aren't hot enough to cause burns. It's generally harmless but can also cause such permanent (永久的) skin darkening. In very rare cases, it can cause damage leading to skin cancers, said the Swiss researchers, Drs. Andreas Arnold and Peter Itin from University Hospital Basel. They do not mention any skin cancer cases linked to laptop use, but suggest, to be safe, placing a carrying case under the laptop if you have to hold it on your lap.

      Dr. Kimberley Salkey said that under the microscope, the affected skin is similar to skin damaged by long-term sun exposure.

      Major producers including Apple and Dell warn against placing laptops on laps or exposed skin for long periods of time because of the risks for burns. In the past, “toasted skin syndrome” has happened to workers whose jobs require being close to a heat source, including bakers and glass blowers, and in people who gathered near hot stoves to stay warm.

Dr. Anthony J. Mancini, chief at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said that it's unlikely that computer use would lead to cancer since it's so easy to avoid close skin contact (接触) with laptops.

    Height is just one of the thousands of features your genes decide. In fact, because you have two parents, your genes provide you a height that usually lands somewhere between the height of each parent. If both your parents are tall, then most probably you will be tall, too, but if you have questions about how tall you're going to be, ask your doctor if he or she can help you find it out.

    But genes don't decide everything. For example, eating an unhealthy diet can keep you from growing to your full potential(潜力). Getting plenty of sleep and enough exercise will help you grow to the expected height.

    No doubt you're wondering how fast you should grow. It depends. There's no perfect or right answer. Generally speaking, kids grow about 2 inches (6 centimeters) a year between age 3 and the time when they start puberty (when your body starts changing and becoming more grown up).

    Your doctor will know how your growth has been going over the years. Two centimeters here and 2 inches there are not nearly as important as the height you're at now, how you've been growing up to this point, and what other changes your body may be going through.

    Don't be scared if you seem to have grown a lot in a very short time. Everyone has a growth spurt（高峰）during____The age for starting puberty is about 10 for girls and about 11 for boys. But it can be earlier or later —between 7 and 13 for girls and 9 and 15 for boys.

    You'll usually begin to notice that you're growing faster about a year or so after your body starts to show the first changes of puberty.

    Life in the future will be different from life today.

    The population(人口) is growing fast. There will be more people in the world and most of them will live longer.

    Computer will be much smaller and more useful, and there will be at least one in each home. And computer science will be one of the most important subjects in school then. 

    People will work fewer hours than they do now, and they will have more free time for sports, watching TV and travel.

    Our food will be different, too. More land(土地) will be used for building new towns and houses for people. So there will be less land for cows and sheep, and meat will be more expensive. Maybe no one will eat it one day. They will eat more fruits and vegetables. 

    Work in the future will also be different. Robots will do dangerous and hard work. Because of this, many people will have no jobs to do. This will be a big problem in the future.  

根据短文内容，回答下列问题。

    The Smallest Life Around Us

    Tiny plants and animals live all around us．We cannot see them because they are so small，but they are everywhere. They live in the soil，in the air，and in rivers and oceans．They grow on mountains and in caves．Some live in the ice at the north and south poles; some live where it is very hot．They are found throughout cities and in the country. They grow on other plants and animals．Some are even living on you，on your skin，hair，and inside your body，in your mouth，nose，and all through your body．

    These tiny plants and animals are called microbes．The word microbe is made from two other words：micro，meaning small，and bios，meaning life．So，microbe means small life．

    Microbes have been on earth for a very long time．They may have been the first forms of life to be alive．Today there are more microbes in the world than all other living things．

    People did not know microbes had existed（存在） long．They were too small for them to see．But people did see many changes in their world﹣important changes．And they did not know what caused them．They saw food that they kept too long change color and begin to smell bad．They saw cuts and wounds grow red and painful and become worse. They saw old plants and leaves and trees crumble apart on the forest floor and disappear into the soil．Such changes were a natural part of the world，but people did not understand them．They did not know these changes were evidence(证据) of tiny plants and animals growing all around them.

    We live on Earth. It's our home. But how much do you know about it? Let me tell you something about our Earth.

    The Earth is like a huge ball. Like the other seven planets, the Earth is running around the sun. It's the third nearest one to the sun. It takes the Earth about 365 days to run around the sun. At the same time, the Earth is going around itself. If you are in space, you can see lots of white clouds over the surface of the Earth. Through the clouds, you can see the blue colour of the oceans, and the brown colour of the land. About 70% of the Earth is covered(覆盖)with water.

    Why do we have day and night? When the half of the Earth is facing the sun, it's daytime. As the Earth turns, and this half is away from the sun, night is coming. And it's daytime(白天) for the other half.

    Some people wonder why countries spend millions of dollars on space projects. They want to know how space research helps people on Earth. Actually, space technology helps people on Earth every day. This is called "spinoff technology". Spinoff technology is space technology that is now used on Earth.

    In early space programs, such as the Apollo missions(任务) of the 1960s and 1970s, and in the space shuttle missions today, scientists developed objects for the astronauts to use on the moon and in space. We now use some of these objects every day. For example, we have Quartz clocks and watches with an accuracy of one minute a year. We purify the water we drink with a water filter(过滤器) designed for the astronauts' use in space. The cordless, hand-held tools we use in our homes, such as cleaners, flashlights, drills, and irons came from the technology of these early space programs.

    On cold winter days, we can stay warm with battery - operated shoes and socks, and insulated(绝缘的) coats and jackets. All of these clothes are similar to the spacesuit designs that keep astronauts comfortable in the temperatures of the moon, and are spinoffs from space technology.

    These products are only a few examples of the many ways space technology helps us in our everyday life. No one knows how new spinoff technology from the International Space Station will help us in the future.