Have you ever dreamed about sending a letter to yourself or your friends in the future? While express mail(快递) is a fast way to send your letters, there is another type of mail appearing in China as a new business—future mail.

     “The letter should be sent next Mother's Day and not a day earlier!” Lin Xiaofan, acollege student in Shanghai, tells one of the companies offering the service.

Lin Xiao fan wrote the letter to her mother nearly a year earlier to express her love to hermother for next Mother's Day.

“Offering thisservice makes people slow down and lets them understand the meaning of ‘time'in another way,” said Zheng Zhimin, manager at a “future mail” company. Zheng thinks “future mail” letters help remind us of care, friendship and love.

      While “futuremail” is becoming more and more popular, some people are wondering what will happen if the postal address changes or if the company goes broken before theletters arrive.

     Zheng said customers are glad to sign a contract(签订合同) to make sure that they canbe compensated if their letters are lost or damaged.

    Most of the customers are college students and young white-collar(白领) workers. Psychologists (心理学家) said that young Chinese might have a new way to express their feelings through this service. Most peopleput their hopes and wishes in the letter so that they can experience the connection(联系) between the past and the present when they receive theletter.

    Pollution inside homes and other buildings kills more than 4 million people each year．Many people die as a result of breathing smoke or from cooking over wood﹣powered of coal﹣powered stoves．

    One way to reduce the number of deaths is through cooking equipment powered by the sun．Crosby Menzies，a solar power expert in a South African company，described his latest solar cooker called the“Sol.4”，”It is four square meters of mirrors，six to eight meters in length．It is quite a large cooler．”

    The“Sol.4”works by reflecting （反射）light from the sun off large mirrors．The mirrors direct （把…对准）the light at a cooking pan．Then the light heats the pan with solar energy．Within two minutes，the pan is hot enough to cook sausages and onions．In just four minutes，water can be boiled．That is as fast as cooking with natural gas or electricity．

    The cooker is also much“friendlier”than other models because people do not have to stand in the sun to use it．And people can prepare meals without having to collect firewood or spend money on coal．Suchindividualswould be less likely to have breathing illnesses from harmful smoke．

    At present，the cooker only works when the sun is shining．But engineers are working on a way to make it work without sunlight．

    Each cooker costs about $2000，which is a large amount of money for most Africans．To solve that problem，Crosby Menzies has crated a non﹣governmental organization called solar Cookers for Africa．It plans to raise money through donations to provide poor people with solar cooking equipment．

    Can plants eat people? Probably not, but there are many plants that eat meat. Some of them are big. And they can eat small animals. One famous meat-eating plant is the Venus flytrap(蝇草).

    The Venus flytrap is a very strange plant. It grows in dry parts of the United States. Its leaves are like the pages of a book. They can open and close very quickly. Inside the leaves, there are three small hairs. If a fly (苍蝇) touches one of the hairs, the leaf closes quickly. The fly cannot get out. In about half an hour, the leaf presses the fly until it is dead. Then, the plant covers the fly. Slowly, the plant eats the fly.

    Why do plants do it? Most plants get what they need from the sun, the air, and the ground. In some places, the ground is very poor. It doesn't have all these important things, especially nitrogen(氮).Animal meat has a lot of nitrogen, so some plants eat meat to get what they need. Let's hope that some of the bigger plants don't get the same idea! 

    A dog can't speak any words, but it can "talk". It has feelings just as you do.

    Sometime it may feel angry or afraid. Watch a dog closely, and you can find out how it feels. You can see what it is trying to tell you. When you are afraid, you may look down. When a dog is afraid, it may run away. When you are angry with other people, you stare at them. An angry dog also stares. Sometimes the hair along its back stands up.

    Do you feel guilty(有罪) when you do something you shouldn't do? Dogs can feel guilty, too. Sometimes when l come home, my dog gives me a guilty look. Then I know he did something wrong. Dogs need love and care. Some dogs are very unhappy when they are alone for a long time. Some dogs even snap(撕咬）if they don't get enough care.

    You may have a dog or you may know a dog. Take care of it well if you want to have fun with it. Take it for a walk. Don't make it do too many things. Try not to punish it again and again for doing the same thing. Always remember, a dog has needs and feelings just as you do. Talk to a dog, and it will talk to you.

    This is a street crossing. There are red and green lights at each corner. Drivers must watch the lights carefully.

    When there is a green light, the cars may go on. When there is a red light, the cars must stop.

    They must wait until the red light changes (变成)to green. Then they can go on. Sometimes the cars want to make a right turn or a left turn. They can make a right turn when the light is green or red. But they must wait until the green light is shining (闪亮) if they want to turn left. Some people are color-blind (色盲的). They can't see the difference (不同点) between red and green. These people mustn't drive, or there may be an accident (事故) .We must keep our street safe (安全的).