Terrafugia Company has said that its flying car, named Transition, has successfully finished a 37- second test flight.

    On March 5th, 2009, at Plattsburgh International Airport in New York. The company's chief pilot, Phil Meteer, piloted the flying car.

    Transition is a two-seat airplane that can take off and land at airports as well as drive on roads.

    The company said that the flying car can travel at speeds up to 115 mph in the air, drive at highway speeds on the ground, and fold up (折叠）to fit in a garage (车库) 81 inches wide and 80 inches high.

Hospitals could use it to transport patients so as to avoid road traffic. It may start running on wheels, and when it gets to traffic lights it can fly overhead the lights and keep its way forward. So it's good news to avoid traffic problems and the traffic accidents.

But some people say this is a going airplane rather than a flying car, at least on the appearance. Anyway, we are happy for scientific-technical progress, what a fantastical world in the near future!

    Smartphone apps certainly make our lives easily. However, sometimes they can also cause problems.

    Recently, the Ministry of Education(教育部) announced that teacher should not use Wechat or QQ to give homework or ask parents to grade kids's homework.

    Many teachers in China depend heavily on apps to give homework. The kids have to do their homework, stare at a phone screen. For example, Liu Yanming, a sixth-grade student in Shanghai, usually has to use his mother mobile phone to do his homework. Liu Yong, his father is afraid that apps could distract kids by encourage them to watch something unrelated(无关) to homework. "He is just 12 years old, and I do not want to buy him a cellphone," Liu told China Daily. "I also worry that my son's eyesight will be hurt because of staring at the phone for too long."

    However, Bai Yueping, president of Shanghai Tangzhen Middle School, defended (辩护) using apps for homework. Parents can understand their kids' learning situation and supervise (监督) them to finish the homework, Bai told China Daily.

    Zhang Siqi is a student from Renmin University of China.       "The use of WeChat or QQ to give homework is convenient," Zhang told China Daily. "We're living in an Internet era （时代）. It's unwise to refuse to take advantage of technology."

    Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, believed that it is impossible to stop the use of electronic devices(设备) in the Internet era. However, students should use them when it's necessary, such as when they do listening exercises. "We don't want to stop outline education models, but they must be used carefully. Modern technologies are good... but they should not steal the show(喧宾夺主) ," he told China Daily.

    The biggest influence that technology has on family time is the change of it. People used to spend more time with their family members before. Nowadays, with children (and the parents, too) spending more time texting, watching movies and television, playing video games, and listening to music, when will the family find time to bond (培养感情) and create lasting memories together?

    Far too often we don't pay more attention to making time for members of our own family. By the end of a long day at work or school, members of the family want to relax. And now that technology use is widespread across the country, normally our "relaxing" is also known as spending time on smart phones.

    Not only is the amount of family time affected (影响) by technology, but also the quality. Technology can affect the quality in different ways. For example, family members can be distracted (使分心) by their phones while trying to play a board game together, which wouldn't  have happened if the phone didn't exist in the first place.

    If "family time" means everyone sitting in the same room while playing online, what value is there? Personal interaction is key to time well spent with loved ones. Families don't even need to have something to do while together. If they simply ask each other how their day is and play a simple game together, family bonds will get better.

    When technology becomes a focus, quality(有质量的) time for families goes down, which in turn affects everyone's life. Lack of family interaction causes the family's unity to weaken, and each of the family will be influenced in different ways. Children are more likely to develop unhealthy habits when they fail to interact with their parents. Meanwhile, parents who put work before family or pay less attention to their children's growth are more likely to face bad parent-child relationship. 67 percent of American teens say they want to spend more time with their parents, which is rather sad. Therefore, this passage is meant to show how technology has negatively influenced families.

    DNA is the whole" map" of the human body. It is something that all humans have, and it tells the body what to do. DNA is the reason that we look like our parents, because we get some of their DNA to make our own.

    People have been trying to understand the human body for a long time. In 1860, Mr. Mendel discovered why we look the same as other people in our family. It is because of small things called "genes" (基因)in our body. In 1953, two scientists, Watson and Crick, found out that genes are really messages. They're written in the DNA with a special language.

    In 1961, another two scientists found the first" word" that they could understand in that language. It shows how DNA tells the cell(细胞)to build its parts. So far, scientists have found all the words in the DNA map, but we still don't understand what they all do. By understanding what just one" word" means, we can help to save people from several illnesses. So the more we understand, the more doctors will be able to do.

    Most people hope that this can help to make better medicine to help sick people. Other people worry that when we learn more" word" and find out more information, we will use it in the wrong way. Just to make people more attractive, or stop sick people getting jobs.

    The weather has always been much talked about in our daily life. But bad weather is sometimes hard to stop, no matter who he is-rich or poor, young or old-in every part of the world. Maybe that is why there are so many expressions about the weather, especially about rain

    Sometimes, when you need rain, you do not get any. Other times, you get rain when you don't want it. Take a football game for example. A sudden heavy rain can stop a wonderful game, making the players and the 20, 000 persons watching the game run for cover. If the game can't go on, people who have bought the tickets are given "rain checks". These are special tickets that will let them watch a later game for free.

    "Rain checks" now means a second chance at something. Often, a rain check has nothing to do with rain.

    Shops may give you a "rain check" when they sell something all out-a TV set, for example at a special low price. After all the TV sets are gone, the shop gives rain checks to those who wanted to buy one. The rain check lets a person have another chance to buy the TV set later, at the same low price, after the shop receives some more from the factory

    "Rain check" is also used in our daily life. It's a way of accepting invitation, but for a later time. You may ask for a "rain check if you are asked to a friend, s house for dinner, but can't be there. You say, "T would love to join you for dinner, but I'm busy. Could I have a rain check?" You are asking, in other words, if you could join your friend for dinner at another time.

    The coffee shop Starbucks will give people a discount if they bring their own cups. It wants to cut down on the number of paper cups that are put in the rubbish bins. It is part of a two-month experiment in cafes in England. Starbucks wants to reduce waste and recycle more, The president of Starbucks in the UK said, "We are very happy to increase recycling rates(比率)，and reusable cups are a key part of our waste reduction plan." Bosses will decide later if they will continue the discounts. People who bring their own cups will not get a discount on the cafe's cheaper filter coffee.

    The problem of paper cups has been in the news a lot. Around seven million cups are thrown away every day. Reporters say that some cafes lie about how many paper cups they recycle. The reporters say the cafes do not recycle as many cups as they say. Customers wrongly believe that a coffee shop is environmentally friendly. Less than one in 400 paper cups at coffee shops are recycled. A coffee drinker said she would bring her own cup. She said, "I am so sad that cafes recycle so little. I thought they were more responsible."