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    You've got plenty of emails from your mom, and maybe even a few from dear old grandma. But have you ever received a message from a river?

    Now, Ireland's River Lee is sending out much information, thanks to wireless(无线的) technology. In a program called the DEPLOY project, scientists have put some sensors(传感器) in rivers that can find pollution levels.

    Instead of asking scientists to collect water samples several times a day, the government can now examine pollution levels in the water, and find out if there is anything polluted entering the river. This makes it much easier for scientists to protect the environment, since problems can be discovered before a serious pollution accident really happens.

    People in the area can also receive free reports from the river, so that they can find out whether the water is safe for swimming or boating on a certain day. And people can also know if the water is clear enough for them to drink and use.

    The DEPLOY project has not only started in Ireland, also the same programs have started in thousands of places around the U.S. Now you live in a world in which you could receive information with your mobile phone about environment. The technology should help to make us know more about the pollution that surrounds us—which just might get us all a little more involved with trying to clean up our world.

E

    Saving the Earth shouldn't be so difficult，if we can do the following．

    First，we should take our time ． There is no need to hurry．We can walk or ride a bike to work．

    Second，we should smell the Each．Open the windows．Turn off the air-conditioner, and at the same time，save the energy．

    Third，we should enjoy cooking at home and having meals on our dinner table．So we can use our own bowls and chopsticks，not the plastic ones．

    Fourth，we should spend our weekends and holidays in the park playing games and just riding a bike around.

    Fifth，we should learn how to use old things well in the house，in the garden，or in the kitchen．

    Lastly, no one really has a mountain and a sea．Don't throw rubbish here and there．

    Since the beginning of history, man has been fascinated by the idea of living forever, of winning the fight against death and disease. So far, this has only remained a dream, though a very powerful one. Many people have wondered whether it would be possible to find a way to preserve human bodies, and what would be the best way to preserve human bodies.

    It has long been known that meat or fruit can be kept fresh for long periods by freezing; in ancient China, for example, food was stored with ice to keep it fresh. This method could also be useful for preserving humans, and in fact many people have explored this possibility.

    However, most living beings that exist under warm conditions die when frozen. This is because of the harmful effects of freezing ice crystals, which are not only larger than the volume of the water originally in the cells, but also form sharp cutting shapes that harm the cells.

    In the 1940s Dr B. J. Luyet and a group of scientists in England were working on the problem of freezing cells without damaging them. Since the harm caused by ice crystals was the main cause of the damage, Luyet suggested removing some or all of the water from the cells before freezing them.

    Using living cells from chicken, Luyet and his assistants discovered that they could partly dry the chicken cells, using a mixture of the white part of an egg and glycerin, a clear thick liquid made chiefly from fats and oils. Some success was obtained. The chicken cells were dried, frozen for a period of time, and then carefully unfrozen.

    Almost all the cells recovered when they reached normal temperature. Since then, the cooling of whole animals to a temperature very much below freezing point for later unfreezing has become more of a possibility, and the glycerin method would probably be used to accomplish this. When this can be done completely and successfully, science will have moved much closer to its aim of freezing and storing incurable patients until the day they can be cured.

    "Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell."

    This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown person who lived in Rome in AD 53 wrote it.

    We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives.

    But have all these developments really improved the quality of our lives?

    Picture this: You're rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, and the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night to get it done. How calm and happy do you feel?

    Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have no telephones, no cars, not even any electricity(电) often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they lead simple lives.

    Our family in the UK went "back in time" to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today. The grandparents, with their daughter, and grandsons Benjamin, 10 and Thomas, 7, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.

    The grandmother, Lyn, said, "It was hard physically, but not mentally." She believed life was less materialistic(物质的). "The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes," she said. The boys said they fought less. Probably, they said, because there was less to fight over, such as their computer. Also Lyn changed from being a "fashionable, beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things."

    Here are some simple ways to beat the stress often caused by our inventions!

    Don't be available all the time. Turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day.

    Don't check your emails every day.

    Don't reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets boring.

    Make sure you spend some time talking to your family. Set aside one evening a week when you don't turn on the television. Play cards and chat instead.

    Get a low technology hobby. Every day, do something in the old way, such as walking to have a face-to-face meeting instead of using the email or telephone.

    Don't worry too much about life—laugh more.

    Every day there is less and less space on Earth for rubbish. Yet every day we make more and more rubbish. What can we do? We can recycle some of our rubbish. Recycling means that the rubbish will be made into something that can be used again.

    Recycling helps Earth. And it saves space in rubbish dumps(垃圾场). Half of everything that we put into landfills could be recycled instead. In fact, most things made of paper, metal, glass and plastic can be recycled.

    Paper  can  be  broken  into  small  pieces  and  made  into  new  paper. Steel and aluminum cans(金属罐) can be melted down(熔化) and made into new cans. The same is true of glass bottles. This can be done over and over again. Recycling doesn't take as much energy as making these things the first time. So we can use less of Earth's fuel resources.

    Plastic can be melted down, too. Then it can be formed into park benches(长椅), playgrounds and so on. Some people call plastic the "wood" of the future. Things made of plastic will last about 400 years—even if they stay outside in the weather. No wood can do that!